Picks and Plectrums

Mellish

@bertie - sounds like an Aladdin's Cave mate.

I'd be tempted up in the loft. There might be a Martin D-45  

bertie

Mellish said:

@bertie - sounds like an Aladdin's Cave mate.

I'd be tempted up in the loft. There might be a Martin D-45  

ah did that last year when we had the rooves done  -  found about 20 packs of strings,  some pedals and various leads and bits

PAL

I have them all expensive ones jazz picks, mandolin picks, metal picks then I got some Fender heavy shell picks and haven't
 looked back. The other thing I do is not use the point I use the side of the pick. The Fender picks are not expensive and
 more importantly easy to get !

guitarjack66

I bought a pack of those rubber grips with medium fender picks in them and those grips are very good as you can interchange picks with them. The problem I have is that like @PAL I prefer to use the rounded edge of the pick and they are no good for that. When I use the standard pick edge that leading edge on upstrokes the pick tends to dig into strings 1 and 2 and it sounds horrible. With the rounded edge I play much smoother upstrokes.

ICBM

I accidentally made a surprising discovery at the last band practice… pick colour matters.

Really.

I use 3mm Big Stubby picks for bass - not only genuine Dunlops, I got a bulk pack of cheap ones in various colours - purple, blue, red, green and clear. After a 2-hour practice there’s noticeable wear on the tip, and they wear out completely in about half a dozen. I almost always use a coloured one because they look nice, the clear ones are a bit unloved and until now I hadn’t actually used one - but for some reason I did this time.

It went through a whole practice with no visible wear on it. It appears that the clear plastic is harder than the coloured - amazingly, if you tap them on a hard surface you can hear a difference, the clear one makes a higher pitch. I’m not sure if it affects the sound that comes out of the amp - bear in mind it’s bass - but I wouldn’t be surprised on a guitar.

roberty

I thought I'd give some other picks a go. It's good to check every now and then. The Gator Grip 1.14 felt good to play at home so I took one to rehearsal. I lasted about 2 minutes and went back to my 1mm D'addario tortex. I'm never changing again

Mellish

Brought this back out to mention a possible solution for @bertie.

When Roger McGuinn was in The Byrds he couldn't keep switching from plectrum to thumb/fingerpick cos the schedule was too tight.

So what he did was learn to do both with the same equipment: plectrum as normal and then, where the fingerpicks would otherwise go, he shifts it over one, so they go on middle and ring.

 

bertie

@Mellish ;

do you mean hold pleccy as normal and use ring and middle for "finger picking"  -  hybrid stylee ?  

or hold the pick between ring & middle finger ?

Mellish

Plectrum between thumb and pointer, pick on middle and ring

In other words, you got it first time  

bertie

ah so just normal  "hybrid"  but with fingerpicks on, rather than just nails ?  

its pretty much how I play when I do use a pleccy for leccy     but I dont think I could do proper "rag" type stuff like that TBH

Mellish

Oh it isn't easy, feels like your hand is more closed.

Or check out the thumb and picks @Gandalph is offering in Classifieds (Acoustics "Various thumb and fingerpicks")  

bertie

Mellish said:

 

Or check out the thumb and picks @Gandalph is offering in Classifieds (Acoustics "Various thumb and fingerpicks")  

ta -   Ive pretty much got all those metal ones, somewhere  - tried em, didnt get on.  and I dont like those bumble bee hybrid thingys

Ive found a couple of coloured EBs lying around Ive shaped and "heat fitted"    -  that should keep me going for a while.   

I keep meaning try some different materials,   but life gets in the way 

Mellish

Should be OK for now then mate.

I'm off to walk the dangerous beast. He's a Yorke but in his head...  

Gandalph

bertie said:

Mellish said:

 

Or check out the thumb and picks @Gandalph is offering in Classifieds (Acoustics "Various thumb and fingerpicks")  

ta -   Ive pretty much got all those metal ones, somewhere  - tried em, didnt get on.  and I dont like those bumble bee hybrid thingys

Ive found a couple of coloured EBs lying around Ive shaped and "heat fitted"    -  that should keep me going for a while.   

I keep meaning try some different materials,   but life gets in the way 

Quick update here....apart from trying almost everything out there going with finger picks I think the biggest personal victory I've had is transitioning form 3 to 2 fingers. Bloody frustrating trying to retrain my fingers but finally feel like the hours have paid off. 

I can't  speak for all styles of play but it works for blues and ragtime and that scratchy sound I always heard with metal picks has finally gone.

I've wanted to master metal picks for a long time and I think I'm finally there with the Dunlop brass one's. The National brass picks are pretty good too. 

For some reason I've found brass sounds nicer than nickel and they are a lot easier on the fingers imo.

bertie

Gandalph said:

  I think the biggest personal victory I've had is transitioning form 3 to 2 fingers.

Im pretty relaxed in my picking style (sloppy ?  )   and go from 2 to 3 to 2 or even 1 sometimes (and that can be any combination of index/middle/ring) without really thinking about it................. a benefit (if it can be called that) is it kind of changes the dynamic of a choon,  sometimes for the good..........sometimes just "different"  

Gandalph

@bertie, if only I was as dexterous! Haha 

I have found having picks on 2 fingers rather than 3 has helped eradicate that 3rd finger from the equation though. 

guitarjack66

Gandalph said:

@bertie, if only I was as dexterous! Haha 

I have found having picks on 2 fingers rather than 3 has helped eradicate that 3rd finger from the equation though. 

Sounds a good idea this as it would eliminate some of the confusion from the picking. Fewer options equal less confusion. This is the problem with buying guitars in general!