Picks.....
- Thread starter lafromla1
- Start date
I wouldn't want to get somewhere to play without at least four or five different ones. I do like firm ones, but playing angle, the tone of the room, how limber the ol' wrist is that moment.... Sometimes I like a pointy one, but I also like a rounded one that feels just like the pointy one, AKA "SANDPAPER." You don't HAVE to decide, it's not a wife.
TonyFlyingSquirrel
Master Member
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For the Electric gtr, I use:
Dunlop Jazz Graphite 1.14mm, Black with the Gold type on it.
Been using them for over 20 years. A bag of 1000 literally lasted me for about 5 years, recording and gigging constantly.
For Acoustic, I use COOL med/light picks. I forget the guage, they're great for strumming and have great articulation.
Occassionally for recording, I'll do a duplicate stereo track with a Jellifish.
Dunlop Jazz Graphite 1.14mm, Black with the Gold type on it.
Been using them for over 20 years. A bag of 1000 literally lasted me for about 5 years, recording and gigging constantly.
For Acoustic, I use COOL med/light picks. I forget the guage, they're great for strumming and have great articulation.
Occassionally for recording, I'll do a duplicate stereo track with a Jellifish.
erogenousjones17
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I've been curious about the Jellifish ever since I saw an ad in Guitar World back in the day, but I've never seen one in real life. What are they like?
I want to try those:
http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?CategoryID=22
because they have brought out the best in harmonics, vibration transfer and tone in guitars and stringed instruments worldwide.
Seriously..
I don't really care, as long as they are not too thick and I like a textured grip
I had a bunch of real cool wooden ones, with a rubber grip.. but picks are like socks and tremolo arms, when they're gone, they are gone forever! off to another dimension..
http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?CategoryID=22
because they have brought out the best in harmonics, vibration transfer and tone in guitars and stringed instruments worldwide.
Seriously..
I don't really care, as long as they are not too thick and I like a textured grip
I had a bunch of real cool wooden ones, with a rubber grip.. but picks are like socks and tremolo arms, when they're gone, they are gone forever! off to another dimension..
Strat Avenger
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Over the last 27 years, I've gone through only about 4 different picks before finding number 5 to be "it".
For electric guitar, I use the Dunlop "Gator Grip" 1.5mm.
For acoustic, I use Fender "Heavy".
For electric guitar, I use the Dunlop "Gator Grip" 1.5mm.
For acoustic, I use Fender "Heavy".
anorakDan
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I've tried lots of picks, but the perfect one for me is the boring old Jim Dunlop, gray, .6 mm nylon picks. Somehow I never seem to lose them and they do not break. I just sand them smooth when they get a little roughed up.
I'm afraid they haven't made much money from my pick purchases. I still have 11 of the first and only dozen I bought oh so many years ago. I'm only down one because I gave one away shortly after buying them.
I'm afraid they haven't made much money from my pick purchases. I still have 11 of the first and only dozen I bought oh so many years ago. I'm only down one because I gave one away shortly after buying them.
Patrick from Davis
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I use the tortex yellows, 0.73's. I started with the nylon 0.6 and they tended to get a curve to them after playing them for a while. I grabbed them hard or something. The tortex ones edges didn't get as messed up by my playing, and the 0.73 was about as thick as I could go before my style started sounding off. To each their own.
Patrick
Patrick
The Tusq picks are a proprietary hardened delrin, like a Tortex. I got kinda fanatic about plastics when I was searching for/making the perfect large, light steel guitar bars, and ended up learning more than will ever do me further good.... The original Dunlop red Jazz I, II and III are made out of a high-grade hard nylon. Then to make them even harder for the black ones Dunlop adds powdered silica, AKA glass AKA sand. Dunlop's wunderbar "Tortex" material is a delrin analog hardened with silica, as is Clayton's "acetal" though that's much softer than Tortex. Clayton & Dunlop make their own picks, Fenders are of course sourced Asian these days but I don't know where. Everything "Planet Waves" are just re-branded Dunlops, there are some who claim Dunlop is making a slightly softer "Tortex" plastic for Planet Waves, though I don't hear it. Different gauges, for those convinced that a .94mm pick is different enough from a 1.0mm or .0.9mm to matter (I am.)
Clayton and Dunlop are both making fine new picks out of a "space-age" plastic called Ultem, it doesn't notch, chip and wears very slowly, they have to make them transparent because if you don't lose them you'll never need to buy more. The ultra-expensive Blue Chip picks, Red Bear casein picks and that sort simply have nothing in tone or feel over ultem, IMO. Except that tried, trusted and ludicrous formulaic con game, "If YOU can't hear the difference YOU don't DESERVE one..." And then there's the old celluloid, which is still perhaps the "best" sounding if you play with enough treble and gain to elicit pick click no matter what else you do about shape, technique etc. And it chips, dents and wears. Everyone should seek out a D'Andrea 1.5mm "PLEC" celluloid at some point in their life.
Attaching handles of various sorts is popular, either gluing other pieces of picks or casting epoxy (skateboard grip tape! Rubber sheets! Cork is a golden oldie...) Attaching any sort of stiffening handle & fiddling with differing shapes and extensions of the handles and the tip shapes allows you to vary the flex, "release" and tonal characteristics to a deeply obsessive degree. And a pocket full of different picks will give you a far greater amount of tonal variation than a shoebox full of every different brand of "P.A.F." pickup ever made. Did I ever mention I was cheeep? :laughing3:
Clayton and Dunlop are both making fine new picks out of a "space-age" plastic called Ultem, it doesn't notch, chip and wears very slowly, they have to make them transparent because if you don't lose them you'll never need to buy more. The ultra-expensive Blue Chip picks, Red Bear casein picks and that sort simply have nothing in tone or feel over ultem, IMO. Except that tried, trusted and ludicrous formulaic con game, "If YOU can't hear the difference YOU don't DESERVE one..." And then there's the old celluloid, which is still perhaps the "best" sounding if you play with enough treble and gain to elicit pick click no matter what else you do about shape, technique etc. And it chips, dents and wears. Everyone should seek out a D'Andrea 1.5mm "PLEC" celluloid at some point in their life.
Attaching handles of various sorts is popular, either gluing other pieces of picks or casting epoxy (skateboard grip tape! Rubber sheets! Cork is a golden oldie...) Attaching any sort of stiffening handle & fiddling with differing shapes and extensions of the handles and the tip shapes allows you to vary the flex, "release" and tonal characteristics to a deeply obsessive degree. And a pocket full of different picks will give you a far greater amount of tonal variation than a shoebox full of every different brand of "P.A.F." pickup ever made. Did I ever mention I was cheeep? :laughing3:
thebutcher85
Senior Member
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I only use satanically-infused-power picks :evil4:
probably about 10. my brother used those nylon grey things. I hated them. I tried some thick hard plasric ones and they were ok. tried some woden, bone and horn ones. the wooden ones sound nice on an acoustic. either ebony or rosewood. little different sound but each had a good sound. bone and horn were no different from most plastic. then I read an article about the jazz 3. well I got some and fell in love with the red ones. its soft so it still does the blues tones pretty good abs just glides on the strings. the black ones are ok but when I want it to be brighter the ultex version is way better. I also tried different plastics in that shape but nothing compares the original, other than the ultex if the situation is right. tried that shape in metals. basically stainless, and nickel disnt offer much tonally. brass is too heavy in the 1mm thickness which I like just for the feel(not the stifness, the actual thickness just feels right) but sounds great. the aluminum sounds amazing but as soft as it is creates some drag on the strings and my personal favorite was titanium. not heavy, good tone, different from aluminum, not as bright but just as pleasant, and great feel. so that's it. I know what I like. there are 3 picks I use and all are jazz 3 shaped and the same thicness. the red jazz 3, the ultex jazz 3 and a titanium pick I found in japan that looks like a jazz 3. I also like the fender picks, sometimes a traditional pick with a rounded tip is good for a bluesy sound and the fender ones are the only ones I've liked. but I gotta take stubheads advice and look into the plec picks. though as little as I use a traditional pick I may as well use the fenders, theyre available everywhere.
erogenousjones17
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I must admit that I never really payed much attention to the sound of the different picks I was using before discovering The One. Silly noob. But, with the weekend coming up, I may have to dig out the pick stash and try some stuff out. I do, however, find that with the control you get with a nice stiff pick that feels right to your fingers, you can vary the attack a great deal to acheive a variety of sounds.
TonyFlyingSquirrel
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John St. Jelly said:
I wouldn't use it all the time, just selectively for recording. It's like what a rattle does to a snare drum sound, adding more brilliance, good for brightening up a darker sounding jumbo like a Gibbo Hummingbird or J200, but only on one track panned hard to one side against a track with your normal pick selection panned yonder to other side.
