Hufschmid Guitars/Picks

[LushTone]

Does anyone here have experience on this company?

I know that it's pretty much a one man show, and must be very expensive. The prices aren't even listed online. After taking a look at the store section, I saw that the handmade picks start at about $20 a pick, and top at about $80.

Anyway, I'm just curious what people can say about Hufschmid. I see facebook posts from him, but am not impressed with his personality. He comes across very arrogant. When I said that rosewood is my favorite for being warmer on his post about pau ferro being his favorite fretboard wood, he said bright and warm are terms that can't be placed on fretboard woods. Which is ridiculous, as it is widely accepted information.

 

[stankybudz]

I dont think the actual fretboard would make a huge difference but the wood of the neck itself seems to be the tone retainer

 

[Cagey]

There exists a certain amount of dogma regarding electric guitars that is "widely accepted" but has little bearing in reality. A great deal of it has its roots in the acoustic world and is pertinent there, but doesn't carry over well. The effect of finish on tone is a prime example. Other "facts" are just misguided opinions that have been repeated enough to sound true, and historical inertia that gains credence though longevity.

 

[LushTone]

There exists a certain amount of dogma regarding electric guitars that is "widely accepted" but has little bearing in reality. A great deal of it has its roots in the acoustic world and is pertinent there, but doesn't carry over well. The effect of finish on tone is a prime example. Other "facts" are just misguided opinions that have been repeated enough to sound true, and historical inertia that gains credence though longevity.

To my ears, fretboards definitely make a difference. It's simple, compare a fender strat with a maple board to a fender strat with a rosewood board (same model, body wood, etc.). And pickups are irrelevant, as I'm talking about the tone acoustically.

 

[LushTone]

I guess no one here has experience with Hufschmid... :dontknow:

 

[Updown]

I guess no one here has experience with Hufschmid... :dontknow:

Is that a type of, Swiss Cheese  :icon_biggrin:

Sounds like a, German Sausage, to me  :laughing7:

BTW ... I've never heard of them / him.   

 

[Great Ape]

Well, with a name like that, his guitars had better be damn MEATY, 'cause CHEESY just won't cut it!! :sad:
Has he got a buffet table or a web  site to check out? :laughing8:

 

[rorycosgrove]

Well I know nothing about Hufschmid but no one should ever pay nor ask for $80 for a pick. That's just absurd. Red Bear picks are the absolute best in my experience, and at $20-25 they won't set you back as much as some other inferior, overly priced picks. They last a really long time too

-Rory

 

[Doughboy]

If you're paying anything more than a couple of bucks for a pick, you are craaazzzyyyyyy!!!

I get these beauties for $3 for 6 & they're the best picks I've ever uses, including wegen, v pick etc.

After all, it's just a damn pick!!!!

 

[alterbridgefan]

YES.

Jazz III are great, those and le big stubbie's.

 

[rorycosgrove]

If you're paying anything more than a couple of bucks for a pick, you are craaazzzyyyyyy!!!

I used to think the same. Have you tried Red Bears? Once you get used to a Red Bear, it's very hard to use anything else. And they last so long that you could very well go through a whole pack of dunlops in the life of one RB. I mean Guthrie Govan uses them what more proof do you need?

-Rory

 

[Cagey]

I'm a big fan of the Ultex and Tortex picks, too. Been using them for a long time. Last new pick I tried was Graphtech's recent offerings, which are nice enough but a bit too brittle. You can snap a chunk off one fairly easily, which is NFG. The Ultex/Tortex parts are practically indestructible.

 

[stubhead]

He seems to make very good guitars within the "simplicity is perfection" model. They rank high on the gearlust list of a lot of the metal guys at the seven string forum. As far as the picks go, I used to make stuff like that - 1/4" thick lexan and hard hardwoods. I don't like them much, because they carry so much mass they click like crazy. Which is a useful noise for certain kinds of chuggy metal, but not much else. I've made a c ouple of steel guitar bars out of UHMWPE and it's soft - a pick would notch up like crazy, unless he's got some kind of variant that's silica-filled or "MDF", molybdenum-fliied like some nylon you can get. (Silica is what changes delrin into "Tortex" and makes the black Jazz III's harder than the red ones - it's powdered glass, or sand, same thing). But if it's hardened, it'll click. Anything over 1.5mm makes it extremely hard to EQ out the click, for amplified electric instruments. They work well for bluegrass guitars. Yes I know Jerry Garcia began using the Adamas 2mm graphite picks when they came out - and he started clicking too!

Here's a dandy review, WITH SOUND CLIPS:
http://www.pureguitarmagazine.com/gear/2012/12/03/about-those-expensive-picks/

To me it's easy to hear the click on the thick casein picks - Red Bear makes their picks this way. The guy ends up concluding:

Anyway, I now plan to keep a mixed bag of picks on hand at home, in my gig gadget box, and at sessions, and just choose whatever feels best in context. Until I lose them all, that is.

Which has been advocated by Jim Hall, Bill Frisell, and several hundred others.... I must have 50 kinds of picks, why not? Yet again, there is no BEST... which is your favorite nostril? If you could only eat one thing the rest of your life, what's THE BEST food?*

This guy is pretty fun, overall: http://tonefiend.com/

As far as pricing goes, the fact that a few Les Pauls are "worth" $400,000 and $750,000 has not been kind to us consumers of cables, picks, stompboxes etc.

*(stay outta them nostrils, fella)

 

[ThePhilosopher]

I have 3 of his picks and find them quite comfortable to play with.

 

[LushTone]

Stubhead - I agree with the clicky sound from harder and heavier picks. Sometimes these picks have a nice tone though, especially when playing softer.

Cagey - I also love Dunlop picks. Tortex and Ultex are great. My all around favorite pick at the moment is the .60mm Tortex with the Jazz III tip.

In my curiosity about the EXTRA thick Hufschmid picks, I just ordered a set of dunlop primetone picks that are 5mm and similar in shape. I think these might be the source of his 'original'.

 

[ThePhilosopher]

Sometimes I like the clickiness, but you don't hear it much with what I play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PPKGb5jPFM

 

[LushTone]

Sometimes I like the clickiness, but you don't hear it much with what I play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PPKGb5jPFM

Yea, it's definitely not a bad thing there.

 

[stubhead]

I still reshape picks and quite often put a handle on them with Milliput epoxy, but: I can't find any better materials than the Ultex, acetal/delrin/tortex, and hardened nylon to make the blades out of.



Of course Mr. Hufschmid can find more rare, and more exotic and expensive plastics, but that doesn't make them best for picks. Delrin is what they put in $50,000 artificial knees and hips. Ultem is a little more fragile but a lot more heat resistant, so that tends to go into your $50,000,000 fighter jets. Does "extreme heat-resistance" realistically belong in the characteristics you need from a pick? One characteristic that IS critically important for some is "wildly overpriced so as to stroke my foo-foo gene" but according to Charles Darwin 99% of all such mutations die off harmlessly.

 

[Cagey]

Mmmm... foo-foo genes...

Gary Moore pinching off a foo-foo gene...

Robin Trower lamenting the loss of his foo-foo gene...

Jimi squirting foo-foo genes in his trem cavity...

I didn't know there was a foo-foo gene until I read about it on UnofficialWarmoth.com...​

 

[rorycosgrove]

I can't find any better materials than the Ultex, acetal/delrin/tortex, and hardened nylon

I don't mean to sound like a broken record here, but have any of you ever tried a Red Bear? All the materials I've heard mentioned here are plastic based, as are 95% of guitar picks on the market. Red Bear uses some kind of black magic fermented animal protein that's designed to be extremely similar to tortoise shell in feel and tone. I used to use Ultex picks myself, and I thought they sounded fantastic. Then I got my RB. I'm not gonna tell you it was love at first sight, but after I was used to my RB, I tried my old V-picks, Ultex, etc. - they all sounded horribly thin and plastic-y. And they all seemed much floppier than I had remembered too. RB are the only picks I've ever tried that sounded warm and full, a note so natural that I never realized it could sound

-Rory