What is the best pick for strumming?

[cmds]

Originally Posted by leftys blues

I am not an authority on picks by any means and it seems mainly I play with flesh and nail. But there was an interesting experiment on the UMGF called the Traveling Pick Pack and I got on the list . The Pack had a number of Blue Chips, Wegens, Collosi ,and that is just a few. Literally at least 50 picks of all shapes and sizes. After three days I concluded that the three best for my playing style were:
Wegens
VPick
and....the best by a considerable margin...(yes I hate to say it) Blue Chip. I ordered two (different size and thickness ). And I intend to treat them well and hopefully not lose them because they are ridiculously expensive. But they were the best.

That sounds like a sweet experiment, actually.

[rlouie]

Originally Posted by Landru

Sir Louie;

You know, I've seen references to TS picks and I've looked for the TS pick company but I've never found them on the web. Now I'm getting the idea that the TS reference is to genuine tortoise shell from the deep days - am I right? I've never seen one - don't know what they would look like.

that would be correct, these are from the old days, there are no TS pick companies. .... the pic that I posted is what they look like........

Originally Posted by IanS

My guitar teacher has a TS pick that she says has been in constant use for 36 years!!! It sounds phenomenal on her Goodall Grand Concert. Just a magic sound. How is it they don't seem to wear at all?

they do wear but if you sand and buff them and take care of them they can last awhile........

[JTFoote]

I've got to go with Louie on this one, TS picks aren't like anything else -- there's something that I can only describe as a clear, full, ringing, balanced, "organic" quality to the sound with TS that makes other picks sound muffled or dull ... or even cheap and plastic-y in comparison, regardless of how you prefer to use a pick, or what gauge you like best.

Just for fun, the other day, I ordered some Dawg II picks. I didn't care for the size or shape right out of the package, or the sound that I felt was restricted by both aspects, so I cut and sanded one of the picks down until it was almost exactly the same size and shape as my favorite TS pick. Then I beveled it.

Once I was finished, I did a sound trial, and there was no doubt, the clear winner was the TS pick. The Dawg, although it had a much better sound by the careful reshaping (both in feel and in terms of individual note definition), created a softer and muddier tone -- much less "alive" when it was drawn across the strings.

I've done similar comparisons in the past, and the best of them, the Blue Chip, while a fine pick, and certainly better than anything else man-made I have ever used, still did not produce sound of the same level of quality, to my ears. And I think they are a little too slick, personally.

And if you first get your fingers damp before holding a TS pick, you'd very quickly realize that nothing sticks to your fingers better naturally than TS ... not even modified picks, such as Red Bear picks with holes drilled in them, for example.

There's a reason that companies are always striving to create a man-made material that has the sound and feel of TS, and it's not just because old-timers used to covet them, making them part of the complete vintage package for those who wish to emulate those players and that era.

It's because, and it's a fact -- as far as I'm concerned, that a high-quality, well-shaped TS will last a very long time with minor maintenance, feels like nothing else across the strings, is easily gripped, and produces a sound that is unusually fine -- if not audibly superior to a great many people - when combined with a good acoustic guitar and a player with a modicum of good technique.

Unfortunately, there is the legal and ethical standpoint that cannot be ignored, even if you agree that all of the above is true. But that is not the point of this thread.

The Real Deal:



... JT