what picks do you use?

[morty]

what picks do you use? and why is it more easy to play with your thumb, or is it because I'm used to plying with my thumb and not a pick

[S t e v e]

what picks do you use? and why is it more easy to play with your thumb' date=' or is it because I'm used to plying with my thumb and not a pick[/quote']

 

i think you nailed it with your last sentence, as for picks i use dunlop ultex sharp 1.0

[Silenced Fred]

what picks do you use? and why is it more easy to play with your thumb' date=' or is it because I'm used to plying with my thumb and not a pick[/quote']

 

I started out by playing with my thumb, different sound and I still do on occasion.

 

For picks, I use Dunlops. Either Ultex or Tortex. I like the Tortex Jazz.

[morty]

yeah, need to practise more with a pick then, i use tortex

[ShredAstaire]

I'm a Dunlop Jazz III man myself...got some extra grippy ones last week and i love them....

[AXE®]

AXE® picks. .08 Delrin.

[RichCI]

Fender medium.

[dbreslauer]

Dunlop Tortex Yellow, .73mm

[Silverbursted]

Almost on a dare, I purchased a package of Dava picks. So far I like them a lot, don't slip at all, and have a great action.

[LPguitarman]

I use BRAIN Bulldog picks. .53 Lime Green. I hold it sideways.

[AXE®]

I have a few Dava picks.

 

I like em.

[milod]

I use mostly bare thumb and fingers for what I do now. There again, I started on a classical guitar rather than steel string of any sort.

 

On the 12 and banjo, I've used mostly an old, old Dobro thumbpick and National steel fingerpicks. I found a new version of the thumbpick and bought some - but there's one set in the 12's case, one set in the banjo case.

 

There again, mostly I'm playing solo stuff. I tend to use bare thumb/fingers even in an ensemble situation except...

 

Working with bluegrass type stuff or with "old time fiddlers," I use a flatpick on a steel string AE guitar. Light strings - 10-46. Pretty much ditto with a mandolin.

 

I've got a batch of old picks that likely are older than half the folks on the forum, but they're used so seldom nowadays... Lots of Fender mediums; some old Herco nylon jobbies - at least I think that's the brand. I'm not handy to 'em. I could feature using a flatpick if I were doing "rhythm" for rock or country, or if I were trying for a style "cover" of one or the other. E.g., Link Wray's "Rumble" almost requires a pick or at minimum a fingernail downstroke.

 

Thing is, a lot has to do with playing style as well as sound.

 

A lotta the old blues guys just played with the thumb and/or bare fingers. It's not as immediate a feeling of attack on a note and it's somehow "gentler," even with trebles turned way up.

 

If you're only using the thumb, you're missing on a lot of technical opportunities available by either adding fingers or some kind of a pick. I've noticed that Chet Atkins used a rounded edge thumbpick and would use that as a flatpick for single-string runs. The flatpick with variations of cross-picking offers a lotta speed and different sounds compared just to the thumb, even if you use a thumbnail. E.g., I watched Glen Campbell play "classical gas" with a flatpick.

 

You may wanna start messing with a pick and thinking of it as an extension of the thumb at first, then getting more into upstrokes as well as downstrokes when you've found a comfortable angle.

 

m

[craigh]

Herco flex 75. I finally found them again in Sam Ash.

 

Craig

[jimmiJAMM]

Mostly make my own out of old credit cards and such. Just the right thickness and flexibility for me.

[SHO]

Dunlop Tortex, er... the greens ones.

 

I wouldn't say it is more easy to play with your thumb. It depends on what you are playing and how you want it to sound. Some things aren't possible to pick, so you need to go fingerstyle. Other things are perhaps not impossible to do fingerstyle or with your thumb, but surely it'd be a hell of a lot easier to just use a pick.

[lespaulj45]

I like the gibson picks I get for free from the Gibson rep

[swleary]

I use dava picks....they cost more but I find they don't wear down that fast

[GIANTRobOT420]

Tortex Jazz IIIs