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New Pick Day!

Chuckles

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Stopped by the local music shop and picked up a few different picks to try on electric since I’ve been surviving on my .73mm max grips that I use for acoustic for waaaaay too long.


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So far the Jazz III max grip is the leader, just felt so good when I played. The 206 is intriguing, not entirely sure how I feel about it. The Jazz III XL is fine. The .88’s play about how I expected, partially got them because I can also try the on the acoustic and see about bumping up when I get my next pack of picks.

Anyway, do any of ya’ll have a particular pick you like?

Oh, and that’s not your run of the mill Altoids tin. Charlie Brown peppermints tin FTW.

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I got these thick wood picks, and of course there is the trustworthy jazz 3. I never used the wooden ones but now I have to compete a little for volume (accoustic band) and I am giving them a try.
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I was tempted to get some wood ones just for the heck of it, but I decided to keep the trip under $5. Will probably get one at some point, if nothing else to complement the metal pick I have (which I genuinely have no idea how I got).

The 206 has grown on me quite a bit, gave it a good 45 minutes to an hour test drive this evening. Definitely a race between that and the smaller Jazz 3 right now.

current prediction: I’ll end up liking the feel and tone of both and get a pack of each. 😂
 
I'm a pick fanatic. I collect them, and use quite a few different ones depending on the guitar I'm playing or my mood. Lately my favorite pick company - at least for electrics - is a company in North Carolina called Honey-Picks. they have picks of many different materials; from relatively cheap ones out of Delrin, to acrylic, to Casein, to high performance thermoplastics like Torlon and PEEK (which are used in space program applications, and are so tough and temperature tolerant bearings are made from some of them). These high performance plastics are extremely expensive, and so are the picks - up to $40 per pick. The upside is they never wear out. Honey picks are generally thicker than "regular" picks. None of their picks are molded, but are laser cut - except the high performance plastics, which the laser won't cut so they're cut out with a mini CNC machine; and all their picks are hand beveled. I use 3mm thickness picks for electrics, as a rule. But for acoustics I am more conventional, with picks under 1mm.

Here are some of my picks

Electric rotation (from upper left clockwise): Kirinite (a hardened acrylic); a material they keep secret and just call "Beekeeper's Stash"; Torlon; Kirinte; PEEK plastic; and in the center - Casein. I favor their multiple hole grip, but am trying out the honeycomb grip at a top.
electric rotation.jpg

This is my most recent pick purchase: made of PEI, another high performance thermoplastic
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I keep my electric picks in this "secret box" my wife gave me for a birthday:
secret box with picks.jpg

My acoustic pick rotation (clockwise from bottom): nitrocellulose; delrin; PEEK plastic and the logo picks are probably delrin.
acoustic rotation.jpg

I keep my acoustic picks in this little Altoids tin
altoids tin.jpg

I became obsessed with, guitar pics when I was doing some photography, video and advertising work for the owner of Gravity picks (I still use some Gravity picks - they're my second favorite company).
 
Looks like I have a new source for picks. Someone on The Gear Page was talking up Apollo Picks, so I ordered some. Apollo is a one man shop (Nik Monnin) that does a lot of custom work, and mostly Casein as the material, although he does have two types of high performance thermoplastics (like Blue Chip and Gravity Golds).

I've been transitioning from thick to thinner picks (less pick noise, more definition, etc.) and so I am replacing a lot of my 2.5 and 3mm picks with picks about 1mm (for acoustics) to 2mm for (electrics)l and most of these are from Apollo.

These first two are made from what Nik calls his "white plastic" and "black plastic materials. They are some kind of expensive thermoplastics, and Nik won't say what the exact material is.

White plastic, .96mm, RH bevel (as on all the picks), for acoustic
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Black plastic, 1.5mm, for electric
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Casein, 1.75mm, for electric
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The previous picks were all from Nik's "Ready Made" selections. This next pick is a full custom that he made to my specifications.
Casein, 1.3mm, for acoustic and electric
*apollo custom canyon-stone pick in hand.jpg
 
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Apollo pick number five: old stock "Canyon-Stone" Casein, Shape K, RH bevel, 2mm, 28mm H x 23mm W. Another great pick from Nik at Apollo. Another two are still on the way. Here is the new one; it's a very attractive pick as well as being great feeling and sounding:
*apolllo pick cyn stone in hand.jpg
 
I had to google tagua/vegetable ivory and found out I've seen those nuts before. I know they make buttons out of them, never heard of picks out of them though.

I used Dunlop Ultex for years, 1.14mm standard shape for most of the time, switched to 1.14mm "sharp", thinking I could use them longer until I noticed I really want that fine tip 😅

A few months ago I stumbled about Dunlop Flow picks, also made of Ultex but transparent red and with grip. I use them in "standard", 1.14mm.

In my personal experience, Ultex lasts longer than for example Tortex, but I still wore out a lot of picks over the last couple years and lost some that I didn't wore out... I'm kinda happy when they're not expensive 😅

I bought ONE Dunlop Primetone Jazz III XL that was kinda expensive for my usual preferences and it was nice, but... I was too scared to use it... :ROFLMAO:

Picks have already become more expensive in general, but I'll stay on the cheaper side for now.
 
Here are my latest Apollo Picks acquisitions - maybe my last for a while. I now have a pretty full selection of hand made Casein and high end thermoplastic picks to choose from: from about 1mm thick to a little over 2mm in Apollo picks. So I'm looking good for acoustic and electric guitars, since I decided to replace my thick pick rotation with thinner picks.

Both of these picks are Casein:
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*IMG_3414 500.jpg
 
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