The Great Pick Decision
Jul 12th, 2007 by admin
Stuck on which pick to use for guitar? Here is a great post on chosing a guitar pick submitted by Giles Dickerson. If you want to submit a post to The Guitar Resource please contact me.
I figured I’d cover picks (or the plectrum, which is so strange to me I still can’t say it and have it sound normal to me, it sounds more like a body part than a musical accessory) even though I didn’t spend a huge amount of time on thinking about this to be honest. Sometimes to me a little advice communicated in the right way is all I need to make a decision. There are a lot of picks out there. In fact, it’s a little ridiculous. Could each one offer something unique? There’s every shape, size, density, material, and cost out there. How did I pick the ones to start with? My buddy handed them to me at guitar center and said “Here use these”. My ignorant comment ofcourse was something like “Oh these are good?”. No they’re awful that’s why I picked them out for you. So there you have it.
Just starting with the guitar? A master of the instrument? I recommend the Dunlop .60mm Tortext Standard Number 418 medium orange pick. Not too thick, not too thin, and according to their website they offer some sort of fantastic “memory”.
Here’s what they say about them on the Jim Dunlop website:
“The pick used by top musicians worldwide. Tortex picks are carefully designed and manufactured to give the characteristic maximum memory and minimum wear that made original tortoise shell famous. Dunlop’s Tortex picks are available in a variety of shapes and gauges.”
I’m not sure what this all means to me a player of guitar for about 1 year but they seem pretty nice so far. I love the orange color. And strangely enough, my cats are completely disinterested by them and that’s a plus, otherwise they’d all be stored in some strange crack in my living room floor that only our cats know about.
I also, as I must admit, I find the little turtle irresistable.
I think it depends on what type of music you’re playing. Thin picks work well for a funk style of playing because there’s a bit more “give” and it adds a kind of a delay and a snap action on the string. Thick picks work well for a heavy style of playing (and the use of distortion covers a lot of the pick noise).
RockStarMachine,
I use dunlop Jazz III’s (really thick and small) and i play some Jazz, Rock, Funk, bit of everything. I just like the way they feel. And i can play much faster with them. I also think i have more control over my tone. With a thick pick the tone is all in the way you pick the note, thin picks have too much give and you lose some of that control…