Plectrums that don’t chirp

guitarjack66

I'm sorry to have to break it to you but you've bought a bird!

maharg101

The type and settings of amp or pedal overdrive/distortion used can make a big difference too.

skunkwerx

I found certain picks have a moulding line right around the pick which is a stupid thing and used to really annoy me. 

I filed off those mould lines, then switched to taylors abalone I think theyre thermex ultra. I like them but theyre kinda dark sounding. 

portobear_65

Hawk Picks work for me.

Offset

I have to be honest - in 45+ years of playing, I wouldn't know 'chirp' if it jumped up and shook my hand :-)

paulmapp8306

Recently watched a vid on this - with testing.  Pretty much EVERY Pick chirpfs to an extend.  Blue Chip is actually in the "highest chirp" group (though the lowest IN that group).

without going into off materials (felt plectrums were tested......) the best performer (lowest chirp) were the Dunlop nylon Picks (Not the Torlex, they are medium chiprers).   Nylon proved to be the best material for anti chirp - though its among the fastest wearing.

the best "weight to chirp" were the Nylon 1mm picks. 

for those that dont know what chirp is - or to listen to the options:

stratman3142

I ended up with red Jazz III's as a compromise. I previously used black and ultex Jazz III's, which I found were chirpier.  There's a video on this below:

stratman3142

Oops looks like we posted the same thing within 2 minutes of each other.

Lewy

Remember when everyone was buying Zendrives because they wanted the chirp? 

fretmeister

paulmapp8306 said:

Recently watched a vid on this - with testing.  Pretty much EVERY Pick chirpfs to an extend.  Blue Chip is actually in the "highest chirp" group (though the lowest IN that group).

without going into off materials (felt plectrums were tested......) the best performer (lowest chirp) were the Dunlop nylon Picks (Not the Torlex, they are medium chiprers).   Nylon proved to be the best material for anti chirp - though its among the fastest wearing.

the best "weight to chirp" were the Nylon 1mm picks. 

for those that dont know what chirp is - or to listen to the options:

I absolutely love that some nutter made a video on this.

digitalkettle

fretmeister said:

paulmapp8306 said:

Recently watched a vid on this - with testing.  Pretty much EVERY Pick chirpfs to an extend.  Blue Chip is actually in the "highest chirp" group (though the lowest IN that group).

without going into off materials (felt plectrums were tested......) the best performer (lowest chirp) were the Dunlop nylon Picks (Not the Torlex, they are medium chiprers).   Nylon proved to be the best material for anti chirp - though its among the fastest wearing.

the best "weight to chirp" were the Nylon 1mm picks. 

for those that dont know what chirp is - or to listen to the options:

I absolutely love that some nutter made a video on this.

It's fair to say that Troy is a details person

Fingers657

I would hate that.
https://youtu.be/Ay6CIDryEAQ?si=vJB2pLfrOuIOsJ2u

guitarmangler

It drove me crazy. I swapped to planet waves nylpro blue picks about 3 years ago ( after 30 years of jazz 3’s). They rough up better and reduce the chirp. Angling the pick to parallel to the string helps, too. 

Kurtis

guitarjack66 said:

I'm sorry to have to break it to you but you've bought a bird!

Trouble is, the picks that don't chirp (chirp) won't be cheap (cheap).

Ooh aah...

Jeremiah

The thing that bothers me is not specifically chirp, but general inconsistency of tone between the wound and unwound strings. I find the scratchy sound you can get on the wound strings particularly irritating.

It's not so bad with high gain as the distortion tends to smooth everything out, but playing clean, particularly arpeggios across all 6 strings, I really hate it when it goes "scratch, scratch, scratch, twang, twang twang."

Picks with a smooth/rounded-over edge tend to reduce scratchiness, but can lack note definition on the unwound strings, while picks with a sharper/thinner edge get the note definition but tend to exaggerate the scratch.

I've found the best compromise are thin (.60 to .73) nylon picks. The Dunlop Gels are also OK, but have a "pingy" sound that doesn't work for everything.

Technique makes a difference - playing with the pick more parallel to the strings reduces the scratchiness, but requires holding my wrist at an awkward angle.