Macquarrie Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 I am nowhere near ready to start using a pick but I had a question about the thickness. What is the deal with it? Since I am just beginning to learn, the fingers on my left hand hurt so friggin' bad it's not even funny - but I love it, I don't understand what the thickness of the pick actually does to the sound or tone. Anyone shed some light on this for me? Thanks, Mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midiman56 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Hey there, Mac! Well this oughta be good for a few days worth of discussion! Personally, I use a couple of different thicknesses with picks. I tend to use a very thin one 0.53) for rhythm work and switch to a medium one (0.60) for lead. Occasionally I'll use a very thick one (1.14), but its rare and only because I've found one I really like by a company called "Wedgie". The rule of thumb seems to be: the thicker the pick, the sharper the attack and the more precise the control. At least that's how it works for me. I try to use as thin a pick as is comfortable. Many guitarists will tell you the exact opposit, I'm sure. As with all things guitar related, it is a very personal choice. I seem to have an issue holding on to picks. I don't know if I just have a light touch or what, but they will often just slip (or shoot) out from between my fingers. For that reason, the first to picks I mentioned are from a company called "Snarling Dogs". They have this neat, bumpy kind of pistol grip design molded into them that makes them easier to grip. The Wedgies have a thumb-sized depression in them that does the same thing ... sorta. Have fun learning. I wish you the best of luck, and may your callouses form quickly! MIDI[/right] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macquarrie Posted January 5, 2009 Author Share Posted January 5, 2009 Thanks for the input MIDI. I saw an article about a wooden pick called surfpick and it came in different thicknesses. One has a rubber end for grip and it looks and sounds - from the description- pretty cool. I have some time still before I am ready for anything more than where my tattered fingers are "supposed" to be so until then I'll keep checking back and see what others have to say as well. Thanks again, Mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midiman56 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 You're welcome, buddy! Believe me, there are picks of all shapes, sizes and materials ... all claiming to be the answer to a guitarist's prayers. "Only our picks, crafted from genuine mastodon tusk will bring out the true sound of your musical visions!" ... geeze! My advise, go cheap and in small quantities until you find "your" pick. That goes for strings, straps and all the other periferral crap that they make to confuse us poor musicians! MIDI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordy01 Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 I use a .60 mm pick all the time. It is a medium pick and seems to work for everything, picking or rythym playing. A thin pick will make a noise like a cigarette pack in the spokes of a bike. A pick that's too thick won't flex enough and be hard to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hides-His-Eyes Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 thicker picks offer more control and sound better, but are harder to play. Or is that strings? Anyway, start thin and work thicker as you improve until you like the thinkness you have, then stay there. I settled on 1mm but i do a bit of tremolo playing, everyone's needs are different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyushPresley Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I've been always using the Jim Dunlop USA - Jazz III and I really don't know how thick it is but after I tried several picks this was what actually felt right to me and it sounds great.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canine Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Dunlop Tortex Standard [-X/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSDx Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 My advise' date=' go cheap and in small quantities until you find "your" pick. That goes for strings, straps and all the other periferral crap that they make to confuse us poor musicians! MIDI[/quote'] Good advice there, from MIDI ...... just buy a few of several different thicknesses (as well as different brands/types/substances) and Playt around with them all until you find what feels and sounds best to you. I've eventually settles on Dunlop Tortex picks, anywhere from 0.60 mm (I think....dark grey-ish ???) for just light strumming on my acoustic, through 0.73 mm (as far as I can tell...lettering wore off .... yellow ones) for all around stuff on acoustic and electric, to 0.88 mm (green) for electric. I can go up to 1 mm, but picks start to feel clumsy to me past that point. A friend of mine uses, what I believe he said is, a 3 mm pick - I tried it, and all I could do was drop it - it was hard plastic, no flex, felt like playing guitar with a piece of a toy, or something.....felt very foreign to me, but I guess if you use one, long enough, you'd get used to it. Fwiw, that pick of his felt much harder to use than a standard $0.25 usd coin But enough rambling, and back to MIDI's advice - cheap, small quantities, variety until you find what works for you personally. Have fun !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Years ago I used the orange Dunlop Tortex and always ended up bending them into a slight spoon shape. I'd choke up to where my fingers were just about at the tip so that I could generate pick harmonics at will. I've always used a three finger grip that allows me to rotate the pick from flat to a 45 degree angle for fast solos. In the past few years I've graduated to a 1.0 Dunlop Ultex pick that is the same shape, but very stiff. I find that it recovers faster during rapid picking. If I go back to the Orange Dunlop .46mm I'm not as precise because of what I refer to as pick flip (the pick is still recovering from a bend as you attack the next note). I like the brighter tone from the .46mm, but I always go back to the 1.0 for the preciseness. I think it's what you get used to. My fingers are more dry and calloused these days and I keep a can of "Gorilla Snot" in my gig bag and use it quite a bit, as well as some sandpaper pick appliques that I picked up in a guitar store. They are oval shaped sticky back sandpaper pieces that stick onto the upper part of the pick on both sides. Once that is applied there's no more slip and you don't lose the pick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry Mars Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 You're welcome' date=' buddy! Believe me, there are picks of all shapes, sizes and materials ... all claiming to be the answer to a guitarist's prayers. "Only our picks, crafted from genuine mastodon tusk will bring out the true sound of [i']your[/i] musical visions!" ... geeze! My advise, go cheap and in small quantities until you find "your" pick. That goes for strings, straps and all the other periferral crap that they make to confuse us poor musicians! MIDI Ra Denny makes Surf Picks and they are very good picks. I also manufacture hardwood guitar picks, (BTW they are excellent too). Wood picks will give you much better tone than you can get from any kind of plastic pick. For the beginner any pick around 1.5mm to 2mm in thickness will do. The reason is control. Thin plastic picks tend to make thin sound and sloppy technique. For a beginner it really doesn't matter what material is used even though I am partial to hardwoods ... they are expensive but worth it. Even if I didn't sell the things I would still make them for myself. The pick is often ignored but a very important contributor to the over all tone, especially on an acoustical instrument. I have done many demos in various places and people are amazed at the difference in tone from material to material. The advice I have is to explore and find what works for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insane Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 The style you're gonna be playin matters too. If you're just starting out you should pick up one of each kind in your local shop, so you can tell which one you like best. I personally like sharp 1.04s and regular Tortex 0.88s best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sexygibson Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I too use to use a thin pick for strumming and a medium pick for lead but now use medium picks only. Its all just a comfort thing. Find what works best for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stan 58 Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I use these big chickens, three picks for the price of one, easy to hang on to and they also work great for dip!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generation zero Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I'm inclined to ask why you wouldn't start out with a pick from the beginning... That would be like trying to learn the violin without a bow. Maybe for a few lessons or so to learn left hand placement only, but I would think that a pick would come pretty early in the training. As for me, I use 1.14 tortex picks almost exclusively. The purple ones from Dunlop, or I have custom ones printed by intuneGP.com with my band's logo on them, in black tortex with silver ink. Those get costly though, as you have to order by the gross. (144 picks, two sided printing... Somewhere around 70 bucks after shipping.). When I run out and I'm broke, I just grab a 12 pack of the purple dunlops. I keep a few stray thinner picks around for acoustic playing, but they don't see much use because I don't have an acoustic, LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron G Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I'm inclined to ask why you wouldn't start out with a pick from the beginning... That would be like trying to learn the violin without a bow. Maybe for a few lessons or so to learn left hand placement only' date=' but I would think that a pick would come pretty early in the training[/quote']Yeah, what you said. And also what everybody else said about how very important the right pick is. All that considered, can you imagine how much better Knopfler would be if he used a pick:-k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostindesert Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Yeah' date=' what you said. And also what everybody else said about how very important the right pick is. All that considered, can you imagine how much better Knopfler would be if he used a pick:-k [/quote'] Or Jeff Beck. Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 When I first started playing electric guitar, I used Dunlop Nylon .60s because I could bend them around my thumb to reduce slippage. I didnt like the tone and lack of dynamics, so I switched to Fender mediums. They wear out fast, are prone to cracking and are slippery little buggers, but they produce a great sound. I'm surprised that none of you mod & tone junkies use these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generation zero Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Yeah, and Brian May used a British coin, and Jimmy Page used a violin bow... Heck, let's send this guy down the Van Halen road and just give him a cordless drill. Who needs a pick? I was always taught that in regards to music, you should learn to follow the basic "rules" before deciding to break them for artistic reasons... Otherwise, it's not so much an expression as it is a limitation. I'm sure Knopfler and Beck CAN play with a pick, they just choose not to... This board needs a rolley-eyes smiley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron G Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I was always taught that in regards to music' date=' you should learn to follow the basic "rules" before deciding to break them for artistic reasons... Otherwise, it's not so much an expression as it is a limitation[/quote']The "rules' may be quite limiting, too. There are many wonderful examples of self-taught musicians whose music, unrestrained by rules, is unique. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generation zero Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 The "rules' may be quite limiting' date=' too. There are many wonderful examples of self-taught musicians whose music, unrestrained by rules, is unique.[/quote'] That is a fair point, but not at least knowing the very basic elements of the act of playing an instrument is far more often a hinderance. Not knowing scales or modes or keys is one thing... Even not knowing the names of notes on the fretboard can be fine, if you learn and write by ear. But not ever learning to hold and use a pick seems far more likely to be a hinderance than not, IMO. There is, to defend the argument against me, a bass player in a local cover band named Quentin Berry, who is by far the best player I have EVER seen. I would put him above guys like Victor Wooten and Les Claypool in a heartbeat. He has never had any musical training at all, and he plays with his bass high on his chest, and reaches up from underneath the body to play the strings, so that his thumb is closest to the bridge if that makes any sense. His neck points down towards the floor at almost a 45 degree angle. I asked him once where he came up with that unorthodox technique, and he said simply that it was how he picked it up the first time as a kid, and it just always felt right. So yeah, much can be said about unorthodox playing styles... But most of those cases are not the norm. "Orthodox" is just that for a reason... Most people who picked up a bass like Quentin would barely be able to play a note. Just my two cents, that's all. If you want to play with a quarter or a jigsaw, that's up to you as a musician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svet Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I'm solidly in the camp of the thicker heavier pick ilk. I feel it offers much more control and is most comfortable in my clutches. There is some excellent advice in the above section and it would certainly behoove you to try several different types on the cheap before deciding. I like the Fender 351 style in heavy and use them exclusively. They offer a very sharp attack which is easily nullified with a softer stroke. You can't get that sharpness out of lighter picks. If I really want a softer tone I'll drop the pick into my fourth and fifth digits and strum with just the thumb or alternate pick with the thumb, pointer and middle finger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GibsonExplorer14 Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Fender Mediums/Thins, or Dunlop Tortex Standards are the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yamatsuka Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Dunlop - Big Stubby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macquarrie Posted January 6, 2009 Author Share Posted January 6, 2009 Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions. I think I will pick up a wide variety of styles and thicknesses and see how they feel. Thanks again to everyone! Mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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