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Post by Admin on Jan 16, 2013 9:35:59 GMT -5
What is your preference?
Pick or No Pick
What material
What thickness
What style
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Post by dadfad on Jan 17, 2013 15:04:08 GMT -5
No picks. Probably over 90% of the time anyway.
For acoustic slide I might use a thumb and brass finger picks to get more sustain needed for slide.
(I gave up using thumb and fingerpicks for most regular acoustic when maybe ten years ago while picking a Blind Blake tune at a gig a fingerpick caught on a string and shot out and almost put a guy's eye out sitting at a front table! Put a big welt just under his eye!)
Most electric I also finger-pick since I tend to use a lot of chord-fragments and split double-stops as I play, but if I'm playing single-note type lead stuff I like a really heavy pick usually. I used to use a quarter (25-cent piece) which wasn't bad. (I had a big fossilized shark's tooth I used for a while, until it broke.)
I recently found what I think is a pretty good heavy pick, and free too. When you buy a plastic jar of powdered coffee-creamer they have a snap-open tab on them. When the jar is empty you can snap that little tab out of the lid.
It's made of pretty thick plastic. It has an embossed pattern on the bottom of it (so no slipping or need to use Gorilla-Snot or something). Also, it has a pretty blunt picking side, which for me is good because whenever I did ever use a store-bought "conventional" pick, I always turned it with the blunt/flat side out to use for picking anyway (instead of the more pointy tip.)
Works for me, and some of my guitar-playing friends that like heavy picks think they're great too.
So next time you pick up a jar of coffee-creamer examine the lid and you might find the perfect pick!
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Post by Admin on Jan 17, 2013 16:03:18 GMT -5
Personally, I gave up picks back in the 60s except for some fingerstyle songs where I use ernie ball thumbpicks (Mediums). But, when I was doing a lot of flatpicking I tended to use mediums to light fender picks.
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Post by saguitar on Jan 17, 2013 19:54:24 GMT -5
For many years, I always used a pick, occasionally changing the thickness and style. I got to where I was using a lot of Dunlop nylon picks, from about .83 to 1.00. I also liked their Tortex picks cause they stuck to my fingers better than most. In the last ten years, I have gone (like James) to using more extravagant materials, and really like picks made from ivory, or for more economical thrills I found some made from cow horns that are very good and reasonably priced. I also have 5 V-picks that I use now and then. Sometimes I really like those, and Vinny is great to deal with.
Then early last year, like Jeff Beck did, I got pissed one time when I dropped a pick and just didn't pick it up. So for about 6 months after that I changed my picking technique quite a bit and played almost exclusively without picks, just using my fingers. I've never been a great finger picker and I'm still not, but I can play what I gotta play without a dang plectrum. I never was a speed picker either so I didn't lose much in that area. And then, about 4 months ago, I started using picks again an now I'm using just the thicker, stiffer things like Dunlop's 1.0 mm, or an ivory or horn pick.
And sometimes I just palm the pick and use my fingers, often switching 3 or 4 times within a song, without hardly thinking about it. I do have to say, that on stage, in the midst of everything else going on, I can't hear the difference between the Dunlops and the more expensive picks, so I just use those at home now where I can enjoy their tones, and not have to worry about losing one.
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Post by slapjaw on Jan 18, 2013 6:32:55 GMT -5
I just recently started using my fingers, but still use the pick on some songs. So right now it 50/50.
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Post by steve on Jan 20, 2013 15:30:46 GMT -5
I am afraid that I rely quite heavily n a pick. I use just a bog standard Tortex 088mm job and use the old carpet trick to restore the edge when it gets a bit worn. I do like the tone of fingers better though but I can't seem to get the same attack on some of the stuff I have to play in my covers band.
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noname
Gold
Posts: 10
Musican: Guitarist
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Post by noname on Jan 26, 2013 12:00:14 GMT -5
I quit using a pick when I was playing acoustic and kept dropping it in the sound hole. I almost always play pickless. Ironically, the only time I use one is when I am performing acoustic and need the extra volume a pick provides.
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Post by jaked on Feb 8, 2013 12:46:24 GMT -5
I like the Fender tortoise guitar picks. Medium thickness or whatever. The ink wore off them long ago. Just what I'm used to. Some stuff I just use my fingers. Fingerstyle accoustic guitar. Honkey Tonk Woman, etc.
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