Official Luthiers Forum!

     I've been using a bronze/copper pick! They just CREAM the strings! After 2 hours the 3rd is stone dead. I like the grab, but of course it's galling the bronze windings.

     I've already succeeded a lot in this world, by working my way up from nothing to extreme poverty, but I still can't afford strings at that rate!
    
It got me thinking, I wonder, what kind of picks you guys on the OLF use and why!

(Sorry guys, no funny pictures of Serge, Hesh, or Bob this time)

Billy Dean

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

Funnily enough I bought a metallic pick the other day...they are REALLY hard to get used to.

The strings sounded overzingy and I was scared I might chop up the strings...

I use these Wegen Picks - The triangular ones in a heavy thickness. 1. Because I can hang on to them! 2. Because they sound great!

-MarkMark Tripp38978.6521990741

_________________
Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
OR
Find me on Facebook

billy I have the perfect solution. It is called Finger-style

I use the ones I can get for free from the cdn MEAC show, equivalent to NAMM but way smaller. Easy enough to grab about 2 years worth, including losing some and giving a couple away !!! Most are celluloid, I like them the best, med or heavy. Thumbpicks are Fred Kelly's, I bought two bags when I found them.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I use Dunlop's 0.60mm in the match book



I like the feel over the string, just right for aggressive strumming with out "twanging" the strings.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I use very flexible picks and the way i hold them, i make any instrument sound loud.

I prefer no pick at all, but I use Dunlop Nylon when I need one.

Al

I have a natural tortoise shell pick that I love.....they're the best.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=TonyKarol] I use the ones I can get for free from the cdn MEAC show, equivalent to NAMM but way smaller. Easy enough to grab about 2 years worth, including losing some and giving a couple away !!! Most are celluloid, I like them the best, med or heavy. Thumbpicks are Fred Kelly's, I bought two bags when I found them.[/QUOTE]

The Fred Kelly speed picks are my favorite and your right, ya need to get a bunch cause those suckers are alway finding their way out of your pocket whether wrapped around your key ring or stuck in your pocket knife.

_________________
Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Fender Mediums for me. I used the Dunlop .80 mms when I was playing bass...but I find them too aggressive for my acoustic.

_________________
Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Genuine Tortoise Shell only. I like a thick pick and the way it makes my guitars sound.

Billy,

Why do you like the metal picks? Extra stiffness; tone; rust?

I use Fender mediums in the big triangular shape. Only thing I can hold onto.

Ron

_________________
OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

[quote]billy I have the perfect solution. It is called Finger-style [/quote]

Never! You don't know where my fingers have been!

Thanks guys! I'm glad I asked. I didn't know some of these picks even existed.

      Sam: Yes, I got used to the zingy sound and started to like it! And it's a bloody, sickening, stringicide.

        Mark: Man! Those Wegens are thick! They seem like they would go thump! I like being able to get a grip on them. Do you use the Trimus or the TF's?

      Rod: Never really got into Nylon but those are also a lot thicker, I'll have to go there again.

      Charlton: I just liked the taste of the bronze residue on my left hand so much I wanted to get it on both hands!
      Yes, the stiffness and the tone. I made a 303 series stainless pick years ago. The dissimilar metals weren't so bad for the galling. I don't know where that one went. SS = No Rust!!

      Sergiolio: How do you hold these thin picks? With a 9mm? Extra sound port anybody?

Couple of votes for Tortoise, some Kelly, and
(*****Pun Warning*****)
Fender - which I already use in a..... pinch    
(I'm really really sorry about that!!).

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

Billy Dean Thomas
Billy T38979.1584953704

_________________
Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

I only use tortoise when I can't get any ivory billed woodpecker beak - they're the best!

Dennis

_________________
Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Ive used Fender Heavy's, the celluloid type for nearly 25 years. They use to be Hot pink and powder blue, these days I settle for tortis color

_________________
Support the OLF! Bookmark our STEWMAC link Today!
Lance@LuthiersForum.com

No t sure how many of you have ever tried, but play the guitar with a couple different picks .. you will certianly notice a change in tone, whether or not the pick has been tumbled to round the edge, or the material is different. I used to use a dunlop tortex heavy, like 1.0mm at least, then one day a friend says try this - gives me a med celluloid .... I couldnt fathom the change for the better in how the guitar sounded. More harmonic content, articulation. its not just how you play a guitar, but what you play it with.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Billy:

I use the TF's - 1.2mm. How about those gypsy jazz picks tho'? Must be like playing with a brick!

-Mark

_________________
Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
OR
Find me on Facebook

I like thick picks for both guitar and mandolin. I find thinner pick to be best for strumming, which I rarely do, so I don't use them; too much pick sound, not enough string sound, and not enough precision. I sometimes use a Dundlop Big Stubby, mainly for mandolin, or any ol' teardrop style pick that is around 1,2 mm or thereabouts that happens to be in my pocket. I sometimes turn them around and use the back side, the part where the radius is really big, depending on the sound I want. On the guitar (both eclectic and acoustic) I usually have some sort of combination between flat-picking and finger picking going, and sometimes I hold the pick between the knuckles of my index and middle finger while I fingerpick, but I can get the pick in position really fast when I need it. I also use a thumb pick a lot with the acoustic guitar. I do have a genuine tortoise pick that is very nice (checking, yes I still have it!) that I got from the Duke of Pearl. He recycles them from old combs, spoons and so on. I remember in the '80's we used to use some sort of rock picks; not rock as in rock 'n roll, but actually made from rock, shaped and polished as regular picks. They were too heavy even for me!

_________________
Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Billyoso T,

I hold them with epoxy!

[QUOTE=Billy T] Yes, the stiffness and the tone. [/QUOTE]
Hmmm...I was afraid of that. It's going to be pretty much impossible to exactly match those qualities in a non-metal pick. Real stone picks would probably come the closest, but I think they're thicker than you'd like, if I read you correctly.

You might try this: Square the edge of a medium plastic pick (I like Tor-Tex), which should give you some of the "ping" you get from metal, and rough up the area around the edge with sandpaper to give some pre-pluck grab.

Or, you could give up playing and become a hermit.

Greg Boyd in Montana has a wonderful selection of picks. That's where I get my Wegens from.

-Mark

_________________
Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
OR
Find me on Facebook

Billy, I wonder if this would be better for your strings...

Here's the link: Core Wire Pick

_________________
Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Tried one of those wire picks - couldn't get away with it - too grabby in a coarse sort of way.

Sometimes use copper on my electric zooks, but mostly use a Wegen that came with a Stochello Rosenberg book or Dunlop 207s and 208s.

Tried a thick rubbery pick for a while - fun for a change.

Steve