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  #31  
Old 12-16-2017, 11:57 AM
H2O H2O is offline
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Originally Posted by EricLopez View Post
This is the pick I came up with and made from casein for gypsy jazz on my Selmer style guitar. The asymmetrical tip makes a huge difference when it comes to the arched, rotating wrist approach for that style:




This is the pick I made for bluegrass on my flat top acoustic. It's your standard guitar pick shape and is 2.5mm thick:

Wow, those are visually stunning!
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  #32  
Old 12-16-2017, 12:12 PM
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Lovely work, Eric. You got it figured out.

scott memmer
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  #33  
Old 12-16-2017, 02:57 PM
Wade Hampton Wade Hampton is offline
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Originally Posted by Todd Yates View Post
All that to say that tonal preference can drive pick choices without disparaging other choices. Thick, stiff picks are the only answer to the tone I want.
Absolutely, and I hope that in my own post I didn't come across as
disparaging your choices, Todd. I just get a little rankled when more
flexible picks get contemptuously dismissed by people like the guy
who was "joking" about them.

A large part of the reason I need some flex is that I play a sort of
hybrid style where I play both rhythm and lead parts at the same time.
I have to be able to cover a bunch of strings at once, and to do that
I've evolved a right hand technique that allows me to do that.
Having a bit of flex is necessary for me.

Your comment about being plugged in brings up an angle I hadn't
considered. While I used to play my Mossman in bars without any
amplification other than an instrument mic, once the technology
got better-sounding I did start using pickups in my guitars, while
continuing to use an instrument mic as well.

With mountain dulcimer, however, I've used pickups in addition to
microphones from the very start. Dulcimers are just too difficult
to get a good stage sound with using an instrument microphone
alone. Particularly if you move around onstage, as I always have.

So I play standing with the dulcimer hanging from a strap and
plugged in, which was always considered highly unorthodox
by my fellow dulcimer players back home in Missouri! I was always
the rock'n'roll weird guy in their minds.

Here's a photo of me in my 20's:



This is me at the Anchorage Folk Festival last year:



˙˙˙

So the way we play and the picks we use depend on our own musical
and performance needs. There's more than one way to skin a cat, and
more than one way to get good tone.


Wade Hampton Miller
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  #34  
Old 12-16-2017, 05:03 PM
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Originally Posted by Wade Hampton View Post
Absolutely, and I hope that in my own post I didn't come across as disparaging your choices, Todd.
Absolutely nothing wrong with your post.

My intention was to point out some players who to my ear are/were fantastic players, but did not typically achieve what I consider great acoustic tone. Some make the argument that if you can't play better than Steve Kaufman (just picking one for example) then you can't say anything negative about his tone. I think I can, and I think I can do it in a respectful way.
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  #35  
Old 12-17-2017, 03:19 PM
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Not to start a food fight, but a far more important factor than a pick in live performance is almost always the pickup and amplification chain. I've heard some God-awful $5000 guitars that would sound like crap no matter WHAT kind of pick they used. This is not the place for most good players, but folks, if you're gonna play live, you really need to pay attention to what a guitar sounds like unamplified and invest a little time and $$$$ to try to replicate that.

Nothing beats playing into a live microphone without using a pickup at all. This is why they still do it that way at the Grand Ole Opry.

Clearly this is a personal obsession of mine, and I apologize ahead of time if this appears as a hijack. I try to always focus on the audience, what they're seeing and hearing out there, versus what's going on onstage.

Apologies,
Scott
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  #36  
Old 12-17-2017, 06:42 PM
EMLPicks EMLPicks is offline
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Originally Posted by H2O View Post
Wow, those are visually stunning!
Thank you! The materials are indeed gorgeous to look at. More importantly, They sound fantastic and with the bevels they play really well and without any resistance.
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  #37  
Old 12-18-2017, 09:17 PM
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Default Backwards is better

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Originally Posted by Wade Hampton View Post

The eyes of those convinced that rigid picks are the only way to go probably glaze over as they skim my posts where I explain how to make a more flexible pick quite musically versatile by shifting and adjusting my grip. But it's no different than learning how to palm mute or any other technique, it just takes time to master.

Short version: great music can be made with inexpensive picks that some musicians choose to sneer at. But good tone is more about talent and technique than it is about the pick itself.


Wade Hampton Miller
Pat Metheny tells how, when he was starting out on guitar in suburban Kansas City, they local music store only carried light teardrops. And if you buy a set of Pat Metheny signature picks today, they'll be light teardrops, with imprinted art of abstract symbols, of course.

Pat still wanted a rich, fat jazzy tone, so he turned the pick around backward, playing with the round end. And if you see him play today, he still does.
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  #38  
Old 12-19-2017, 08:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Ex-Nashvillian View Post
Pat Metheny tells how, when he was starting out on guitar in suburban Kansas City, they local music store only carried light teardrops. And if you buy a set of Pat Metheny signature picks today, they'll be light teardrops, with imprinted art of abstract symbols, of course.

Pat still wanted a rich, fat jazzy tone, so he turned the pick around backward, playing with the round end. And if you see him play today, he still does.
I haven't seen those Pat Metheny picks for sale anywhere for a few years now, which is a real shame. I wouldn't really use them (it's not my style of pick), but being a huge Metheny fanboy, it would be cool to have one or two on hand. Hopefully Planet Waves brings them back eventually.
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  #39  
Old 12-20-2017, 01:50 PM
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Default Good news!

They're still available from the store at patmetheny.com, five for $9.99. I have one left. I truly dislike playing with slippery, thin teardrop picks, usually preferring a medium V-Pick, or cocoanut shell. It's tempting to follow your hero's example, but I could rebuild my entire electric rig and buy a few Manzers, and I still don't think I could like that pick, but it does sound better reversed, like Pat plays it.
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  #40  
Old 12-20-2017, 02:18 PM
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  #41  
Old 12-20-2017, 09:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ex-Nashvillian View Post
They're still available from the store at patmetheny.com, five for $9.99. I have one left. I truly dislike playing with slippery, thin teardrop picks, usually preferring a medium V-Pick, or cocoanut shell. It's tempting to follow your hero's example, but I could rebuild my entire electric rig and buy a few Manzers, and I still don't think I could like that pick, but it does sound better reversed, like Pat plays it.
Thanks so much for pointing that out! It looks like his merch store is totally revamped, and those picks are indeed there. I dislike playing picks in that style as well (as indicated in my photos in this thread), but they are fun little things to waste money on
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