Interesting. I've gone the complete opposite over the last 20 years or so - used to use super light picks, then went through a looooong period of using .8mm Tortex, now I absolutely swear by the 2mm Stubby Jazz.

Feels so odd if I pick up a normal sized pick now though - they feel enormous.

To me as well the thick picks seem to make you lose the feel of the string. There's literally no give.

It used to be the conventional wisdom that for speed picking everyone used a thick rigid pick. Then i saw shred master Paul Gilbert and he was using those orange Dunlop tortex's i mentioned 0.60mm. That is thin compared to what a lot of guys were using for that type of music. Eddie Van Halen uses thinner picks as well 0.60mm again i think.

Honestly they seem to help your technique, you lighten up a bit on the attacking the string and the fact the pick seems to give a bit feels better to me. Heavy picks when you speed pick really seem to jump around because there's no give in them.

I could see using a heavier pick if you use monster string guages.

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

Yup, and with less grip on the pick, fatigue is minimized. I switched back to a heavy pick and my forearm got tired quicker.

Also, the neck can be straighter and action lowered because there's less fret buzz with the lighter picks.

Thick picks throw the string out farther too, and the millisecond of extra string swing makes a difference in speed and accuracy.

I haven't pulled out the detuned fat strung monsters lately. I'm gonna see what flies with fat strings and thin picks tomorrow.

bluesky636, thank you for bring this issue up -- you just made my life a whole lot easier and my playing is improving with the thin picks.

I'm not having a problem with treble strings, however. ...I put a Callaham bridge on my Hwy one and the thing just sings across the board now with the emphasis on the treble and mids, like a good strat should!

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"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst." J. Edgar Hoover

I started with fender cellulose mediums and started to experiment with different gauges. Now I use Dunlop gator grip .96mm for the electric and Fender medium "California" for the acoustic. The California ones can be a bit weak if you bang on the strings, I broke two in half so far. The cellulose mediums wear pretty fast if you do a lot of strumming but feel good for single note picking. The dunlops are my favorite right now. They're stiff enough to bang those power chords hard but with just enough give. And they're grippy and don't wear out too fast.

But now I want to experiment with those .60's thanks to this thread.

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"Music is what feelings sound like"

Fender picks used to last a long, long time...wut happened???

I'm diggin' on the Dunlop Tortex .73 yellows all the way around. Anything lighter and I'm finding the pick ends up like this between my fingers for some reason or another, probably too light a grip, pick slip:



Here's the picks I'm fiddling with right now, I've got a bunch more brands and sizes too:



That's Gorilla Snot all over the place if you're wondering...I'm not a slob -- my Gorilla Snot spot, don't touch it.

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"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst." J. Edgar Hoover

After years of experimenting I thought that I had finally settled on the Fender 351 Heavy as being the pick for me. Then along comes this thread and this one http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75758 and I find myself revisiting an issue I thought to be resolved long ago.

Turns out to be a good thing because I've discovered something that many of you have known for years: Dava Picks! I don't know if it's the novelty or the cool look, but I'm really diggin' the Dava Nylon Grip Tip (yellow) and intend to try out the rest of the line.

Cheers and thanks!
BM

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

You have a gorilla?

The California ones don't wear down at all! Here's a cellulose one after about a week of banging chords on the acoustic.


Here's one of the broken California ones.

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"Music is what feelings sound like"

That reminds me so much of that old edition of Guitar Player back in the day with the "Players picks poster" where loads of famous players picks that they played were all shown on a poster!

Al Di Meola is another picking monster and on electric he uses just a medium guage pick. I couldn't believe that when i heard it! i thought with the fury of his picking he'd have been using a real super heavy pick. Not on electric he doesn't. I think he uses a heavier pick on acoustic because of the increased meatiness of the strings he uses on it.

Here's a link to a video RCB of Paul Gilbert talking about going from typical thick pick mentality to switching over to the 0.60mm he uses now.

14.05 on the video to fast forward to the relevant bit if you don't want to watch it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFE2YKMjs2U

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Luck won't do it and ignorance can't

George Van Eps.

A couple of years ago there were comments all over the net raving about these V-Picks. Me being the pig I am for some newfangled contraption I immediately searched them out on the net and learned all I could. I never gave them a second look after I discovered that they only had one pick in the whole line-up that had any flex whatsoever and they called it an "ultra-lite" at 0.75 mm. I laughed out loud at the ultra-lite designation. For a while they were all you ever heard about but I haven't heard anybody mention them for well over a year.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

so we're posting the contents of our pick boxes/cups now?

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

V-Picks Still use em...Rather expensive, but I finally wore one of mine out after 2 years. I use a variety of picks, depending on the type of music. Different materials and thicknesses affect my style and tone. On electric I tend to use thicker picks for lead work and use lighter tortex for rhythm work. I find that a lighter grip on thicker picks can give me the bounce back I'm looking for in rhythm work and choking down on lighter gauge picks can give me the bite I'm looking for with lead work. For hybrid picking I prefer the medium gauge tortex material just because it's easier to manuver the pick between the fingers. Surely someone will be along shortly to proclaim the virtues of fingertips and thumb as the ultimate tool for producing the greatest variety of tone from guitar strings.

Just for kicks Buxom try putting 2 light gauge picks together with a small spacer between them glue together and play them...you might like it...kind of a manual millisecond delay...

noooo. We're discussing the pro's and con's of the pro's and con's.

...where'd you come up with picks, boxes, and cups?



Hey Buxom -- how ya doin'???

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"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst." J. Edgar Hoover

I prefer thicker picks for a stronger attack on non-strumming applications. If its a song with a lot of cord strumming etc I like a light pick for smooth mellow sound.

One this is for sure, I cannot stand the "normal size" picks any more. It feels like I am holding a huge sheet of plastic between my fingers. Give me small jazz size every time.

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I remember when we were free!

I just saw picks scattered about and assumed they were just poured from a cup. Anyways, I keep several picks, earplugs, truss rod adjustment tool (Norma), and a mini slide in my box.

I could say pretty awesome. Drummer's coming over today because no one else is going to be home. How bout yourself?

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

I keep bags of picks in my South Park back-pack front pouch when their new, off to the side pouch when they're done, in the trash when they're really done... ...ear plugs to the left of me, truss rod tool to the further left of me, ...I don't know where my slide is.

Nobody's home, drummer coming over, sounds like fun to me.

I'll be doing a bunch. I'm finishing up fine tuning the Callaham on my Hwy 1, ...practicing w/ the Hwy 1 and a couple o' Brawley's, and...I'm ummm...finishing up a letter to President Obama! I'll betcha a buck he reads this one!

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"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst." J. Edgar Hoover