So about this whole pick thing.....
 

I've been playing for years. Ever since I was old enough to take lessons, I've used Fender heavy picks. Mostly on electrics, but over the years I've gotten used to them on acoustics too. I don't know why, they just sound and feel right to me. Every time I pick up something else, I immediately know something is off.

So what's up with all those expensive picks you guys keep going on about? I'm not poking at anybody, just curious. What is it you get out of them that I seem to be missing?

For reference, somebody handed me a $40 pick in a shop one day. I played it. It felt way too thick and there was almost no attack to the note. I handed it right back and thanked the guy. Maybe I'm just plain dense?

Nope, you like what you like and you know what you like.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I keep trying those thick picks everyone raves about, but I really only like picks in the .70-1.0 range.

Except I do like a rounded corner 1.4 on the mandolin.

I'm very fond of any Ultex/Ultem pick, but I spend a little extra on Primetones because grippy. Personally, I'd say be happy that you aren't on a quest.

Yup, Fender Mediums for me since 1974. No curiosity whatsoever.

So about this whole pick thing.....
 

I use a plain dunlop black which is pretty stiff, i think 1.0 for picking melody notes and stuff. And a thinner one for strumming, .60.

Too thick and you will lose feeling and responsiveness. We're talkin acoustics only right?

Oh, and i get like 10 for $5.99 at GC.

I'm with ya.

I played Fender medium 351's for something like 25 years. As my playing style, hearing, and skin texture, and grip changed as I "matured" I realized they probably were no longer ideal, so I went on the great pick search... but they had to be "common" and not so pricey that I'd shed tears over their loss.

After a bunch of experimenting Dunlop Primetone 1.4mm large triangles won out. The extra surface area helps with the grip and the triangle means you get three fresh tips for each pick used. The tone and feel also hit the sweet spot, and they are inexpensive.

I'm campin' happy, now.

Like you, I have my favorite traditional style pick, in my case a D'Andrea medium-heavy, which measures out as .84mm. It's an excellent "do everything" gauge, and it's got that sweet celluloid tone that doesn't click or clack. I hold it fairly loosely if I want a good strumming tone, up tight and close to the edge if I want more control and a darker tone for melody lines.

I use these picks for every instrument I play, with the exception of five string banjo. But on guitar, mandolin and mountain dulcimer, they do everything I need a pick to do.

HOWEVER - the double string courses on mandolins really chew up celluloid picks. The wear on the edges quickly gets scraped ragged. Which, in turn, creates a rough tone.

I had read about Blue Chip picks and some other bespoke brands of high end picks, and at first I was dubious about what I saw as a fad. But I ran into a mandolin playing acquaintance of my at a music festival, and he was using a Blue Chip TD-35, the thinnest pick that Blue Chip makes. He let me borrow both his pick and his mandolin to play a few tunes.

The Blue Chip pick sounded good, and its flexibility was similar to that of my beloved medium-heavies.

But here's the thing: the Blue Chip TD-35 handles like and has the slight flex of my .84mm medium-heavies, but with practically ZERO wear. I've gone through and destroyed the edges of a celluloid medium-heavy during a single Sunday service, whereas these Blue Chips seem to last forever. I can't tell which are older and which are the newest: they all feel new.

I've got about five of them, which I acquired over a three or four year period that ended some two or three years ago. I like to have one in the case pocket of my main performing instruments, especially my stage mandolin and my acoustic baritone guitar. The Blue Chips are about the only picks I use on those two instruments.

On standard six string guitar I use them, too, but not as much as the celluloid picks.

So whether high end picks are worth the money really comes down to the use you'll put them to. To my mind, their robust resistance to wear makes them optimal for my mandolin playing, and I happen to prefer the tone on my baritone when I'm using a Blue Chip.

If I only played guitar I might be more indifferent towards them, but I still use a Blue Chip on regular six string guitars quite a bit.

But for me where they pay for themselves is how resilient and seemingly indestructible they are when used on the mandolin.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

A lot depends on the technique, pick, and the particular guitar.

My first expensive pick was a Blue Chip TAD60. Didn't really sound good with anything I own and/or my technique.

I picked up a Charmed Life NFR and CLF 1.15. The NFR sounded excellent with my Bob Thompson DN. The CLF didn't wow me until I got a Bob Thompson OM. The NFR sounds ok with the OM, but not as good as the NFR.

A little later, I picked up a Blue Chip TD40 and TD50. The TD40 sounds best on a Don Sharp DN. For whatever reason, the Charmed Life CLF and NFR picks that I have don't do much on this particular guitar.

I normally play at least 3 hours a day and use two of the three corners on a pick. A dunlop 1.14 Gator Grip lasts one day before it has to be tossed. A Dunlop Primetone 1.3 lasts one week (switching corners mid-week). A BlueChip 60 lasts 10 months to a year. For what I play, the BlueChip and the Primetone sound the best.

I think the high end picks feel super smooth and powerful. They wear so slowly it’s hard to tell that they even age. I’ve played with the same pick for 9 years.

It’s worth getting into a little more deeply and maybe testing some other styles or thicknesses. Or not. If you’re happy, don’t sweat it.

There are no rules - use what you like. I never liked Fender picks, but played Dunlop nylon .88 mm picks from the time I was a kid. When I got back into playing again about 2 1/2 years ago, I tried a few different picks and then in the past 6-8 months I went down the rabbit hole, trying various Vespel (the Blue Chip material that Scott offers at Charmed Life too) picks and casein picks from Charmed Life, Red Bear, and a couple others. At first I really liked the Vespel picks and didn’t like casein at all. Then casein started growing on me and now that’s all I use. The skinniest Charmed Life (about .9 to 1.0 mm) on my electrics, and either a Charmed Life 1.15 or a Red Bear 1.25 (which is also larger and had holes for grip) on my acoustic. For a lot of strumming, I like the thinner picks on my acoustic, but for more percussive strumming and for picking, I love the larger heavier pick.

It was sort of expensive there for a couple months as I tried stuff, but now that I know what I like, if I don’t lose picks (which I don’t seem to anymore - a $30 pick will focus the mind not to!) these should last nearly forever. And they feel and sound phenomenal (to me). When I play other picks now, I don't like them - I've become a pick snob. And I'm not a particularly good player, but I guess I'm good enough to appreciate a nice guitar and so why should picks be different? One of these days, I should get around to selling my Blue Chip and Charmed Life Vespel picks, but i keep thinking they may grow on me again someday and I’d probably sell the lot of them for $100 or something, so it’s not like a major problem to keep them just in case. I kind of like them on my electrics, but I like those skinny casein picks more...

-Ray

Hi, for many years, I used a now defunct nylon/delrin teardrop pick by Martin called a Naturaltone 1.14 m/m.
They were my standard althogh I noted that they wore a rough bevel rather easioly (I was mostly a bluegrass rhythm guitarist at the time).

I can't remember when I first heard about Blue Chip picks, and a couple of touring bluegrass players showed me their mid brown unimpressive looking things at, nearly 100 times the price of most picks.

I instantly decided that they were a scam aimed at the folk with posh guitars who liked to buy the most expensive accessory whatever the cost.
On various fora, talk kept occurring about these things - $35 plus postage etc. I probably wrote threads saying they had to be a con.

Then, I got one - a used one - can't remember how - maybe on ebay or from another forum member?

I quite liked it, and discovered that the triangular shape (346) really suited me. I investigated further.

I discovered that these things had built in bevels and didn't practically wear, and felt good in my hand, and came in many and various shapes and thicknesses.

I spent a lot of money on every other 346 shape pick I could get, and even learnt how to emulate the BC bevels, including Wegen picks, which I like a lot.



Although I have a collection of old tortoiseshell picks bought from "back in the day", I found that the BC pick (a TAD40) gave me a superior feel, and didn't wear.


Then I ordered three more another BCs - a TAD40, 50, and 60. (1,1.25 and 1.5 m/m respectively).

I found that to play my dreadnoughts with medium strings the TAD50 suited me perfectly - and on smaller guitars with light guage strings the TAD40 was best.
I went crazy and ordered picks - one each for all my guitars, and for my mandolin (TAD50-3r) and two TAD60s - for my mando picking pal.

I have not yet lost, broken or worn a blue chip pick. I do tend to perfer the Wegen TF140 picks on my 12 strings though.

Has anybody tested if sound differences with picks are discernible to a listener at a distance? I've noticed that guitars with different top woods sound far more distinct when you are actually playing them than when sitting 8-12 feet away. I wonder if picks are the same?

I find that I adapt to whatever picks are available. Just by exposure I've come to favor those little red picks GC puts on the floor (in Atlanta it seems like there's a guitar center about every 5 miles). They don't last long, but usually at least one winds up in my pocket every time I visit a GC so there's always some around. But it is surprising how weird it is to fall back on the Dunlop picks I buy when I run out of GC picks.

Picks make a big difference in tone in "front" of the guitar as well as behind it.

There are MANY youtube videos that will prove that picks do, indeed, make a huge difference in tone.

I like a thick (1.5 mm) triangular pick. Don't know what got me on the Blue Chip wagon, but I gave them a try and liked them.

Then I decided to give the Dunlop Primetone sculpted a try. Again the triangular 1.5 mm version. Liked them just about as much as the Blue Chip, with the Blue Chip having a better grip.

So I drilled some holes into the Primetone, and that problem was solved.

Sold off my Blue Chip and mostly use the Primetones now. Sonically, there is not enough difference to justify the cost delta. Have yet to have one break or wear out.

I do have a couple of casein pick that I will use from time to time.

D

murph what do you use?

For me the main thing is the wear factor. I can totally destroy a 1.5 Primetone in one or two gigs but a Vespel pick won't show any wear at all a year later. Another thing is smoothness and speed on the strings. The majority of the boutique picks on the market are made from industrial polymers that are designed for high temperature / high performance bearing applications so they are also self-lubricating. If you are trying to pick fast runs or even do fast strumming the lubrication factor makes them glide across the strings much faster and with less effort. These factors speed things up quite a bit. And really buying a $35 pick isn't expensive if it means you don't have to keep buying new picks every month or so. But like everything else, some folks will love them and others will say it's all smoke and mirrors.

I don't understand how people who spend so much on guitars and other associated gear can wear them down so much. I don't break strings and I don't wear down picks. My technique is all in the wrist. I lose more to the lint trap that I do to wear and tear. I've had some picks for decades; they keep turning up like a bad penny. They're usually plastic ones from big box stores or name brands.

Back to the topic at hand, gray/black nylon Dunlops are pretty much all I need. I like the black 1mm ones or the .88mm ones. I don't like a glassy attack sound and prefer a little flex. I admit that I have a couple of "bad penny" plastic picks. One is day glo green that I like to use when I'm playing outside; I tend to lose things easily.

Not dense at all, just the opposite. You have a sound in your head and you found the pick that helps you produce that sound. It's hard to do better than that.

I have a different sound in my head. I suspect what you call attack I call pick click. Not right or wrong, just different preferences.

I like to amuse myself with short runs of fast notes. When I was auditioning picks I found that Blue Chip picks provided the fastest, cleanest runs given the same technique.

I think it's worth noting that, even for the people who appreciate expensive picks for the tone, it's a subtle difference to any audience (if they can tell at all). I use the pick for my own enjoyment. And as always, if you don't hear and/or appreciate the difference - don't pay for it.

I almost never do strictly strumming for any length of time, assuming I understand the term. If I did I imagine I would opt for a thinner pick.

We don't all wear the same shirt or drive the same car, no reason we should all use the same pick.

I think one thing is some people like the control of a heavy pick but don't like the sound of picks in general - at least that's my impression for the use of materials like casein, it's to sound more like flesh.

I like the sound of a Fender medium for the softer attack, which I use for electric, but the feel of the heavy on an acoustic due to the extra string tension. So I have a Pearse fast turtle on the way.

Like 20 years I was using Fender picks, the heavy ones, and for one reason or another stopped using them. Probably because I mostly only finger pic acoustic guitars and liked heavier picks for electric. But just last year I sort of rediscovered them so I bought a huge batch of Fender heavy pics.

So I agree, I think they are great. They do wear out fast but that's probably has something to do with the feel and the tone they produce. Kind of like a race car tire they grip well but wear out faster then normal. Reasonable trade off.

Besides, I've tried expensive pics and I always loose them. So often times by the time a FEnder heavy pic wears out it's gone anyway :D

In a similar but opposite vein, I don't quite get how folks who spend so many thousands (in some cases, TENS of thousands) on guitars can get all bent out of shape about spending $35 on a pick. Obviously if someone tries expensive picks and doesn't feel or hear a difference, they may decide to go back to their Primetones or Fenders or whatever. But to reject the very IDEA of a $35 pick when playing a $5000 guitar doesn't compute to me. I have three electric guitars and one acoustic and i think I have about $5000-6000 in my whole setup, including amplifiers. I looked askance at $35 picks until I tried a few - now they're whats for dinner, so to speak. I probably have a total of about $300 in picks, could probably sell a few and get that down to $200, and I may never have to buy another one if I continue not losing them.

People who don't play guitar think it's madness to spend $1000 on a guitar, people who do play gladly spend three or ten times that much if they have the money easily available. I've been through it with bicycles and cameras too - if you know what you like and you know the difference, you often get what you pay for. Obviously a great guitarist will sound better on a cheap guitar than a mediocre guitarist will sound on the best guitar on earth, but if the mediocre guitarist has the $$$ and can appreciate the difference between an OK and a great guitar and the great guitar will inspire him or her to play more and enjoy it more, more power to them. Same with picks, I say, which are a relatively tiny expense compared to most expenditures in this hobby/activity/profession...

-Ray

No, you're not dense! I have found most of the 'boutique' picks far too fat for my liking, leaving my tone dull and uninspiring. My preference is for picks in the .88-1.00 range, and few posh makers do any in those sizes. My go-to are Dunlop Ultex.

Same here! Now I'm primarily a fingerstyle player and I rarely get out a pick, but when I do I haven't found anything yet that I like better than plain old Fender mediums. Although I haven't tried any of the premium picks, I have tried most of the Dunlops and keep coming back to the Fenders!

New guitar player here. Over the past two months, and after much experimentation, I definitely prefer the brown one over the red one that I have.

Funny you mention that. I only play white or bright colored picks so when I drop them on a dark stage I can see them. :-D

I like heavy fender celluloid picks as long a they have what I consider a proper bevel. They tend to be bright but can deliver some warmth and roundness to the tone as well. The amount of brightness can be dialed in by varying the tip shape, the sharper the point the brighter it will sound. Very useable range of tones with some experimentation in attack.

I also like a lot of other picks a well. If a thirty dollar pick works for someone else what do I care?

So, you are saying that I need a white one? Jeesh. This guitar thing is getting expensive.;)

If you don't think that pick material makes a difference I'd invite you to check out the Taylor "From the Factory" podcast they just recently put up. Apparently Taylor is expanding their branded pick line and they used some new compund they call Thermex. Well they played the regular plastic (cellulose) pick and some of the Thermex ones and wow...what a difference (no I do NOT own Taylor stock nor do I work there)! Even with different Thermex materials ("Ultra" vs "Pro") it was pretty easy to hear the differences in tone and warmth.

Based on the above I purchased a set of the Ultras. Coincidentally to this thread they are the heaviest pick I've ever used. I started playing a few years back with mediums, then my guitar teacher recommended something a little heavier (.9s) for more individual note control (until then I was mainly a strummer) and have now moved to these new Taylors. The Taylor pick that felt and sounded the best to me (the ones I bought) are 1.25s which are probably double the thickness of my originals. The sound though, oh the sound...like I had a new guitar as it brings out the bass while toning down the famous Taylor brightness and hilighting the mid range just perfectly (to my ear anyway) while practically being silent on the strings (no pick noise AT ALL really).

I lent the new pick to a friend and their first statement was shock at the thickness of this pick. Then, they played a little and said exactly what I did ....it's like a totally different guitar (this, on a Martin). They completely fell in love with it instantly and I ended up giving them that pick since it was under $3. Guaranteed I wouldn't have been able to do that with my paycheck and a $35 pick.

So yes, now I'm a believer that pick material (as well as thickness) most definitely plays a role in your sound. The trick is to find what works for you and I think I may just have done that. YMMV.

You don't necessarily need or want any fancy boutique picks but the idea is to be open minded about trying stuff.

To just try out the first pick you get without putting thought into it and continue to play that for years and years as you spend lots of money is kind of nuts. I got told to play Tortex Yellow "just cause" when I got my first guitar.. that's a pretty terrible pick for me it turned out. It took me a while to realize it. I have fairly bright guitars, so the Tortex yellow just sounded pretty brittle and scratchy. They wear out fast, and they are really slippery on my particular skin chemistry.

Picks really really change the sound of guitars.. sometimes for acoustics I feel like the picks can make a bigger difference than different guitars.

I have hundreds of cheap picks and a handful of expensive ones.. in the end I don't know if I will be stuck on expensive ones, but it was important to try them. All the expensive ones I bought are a fraction the cost of another guitar. Maybe about as much as a single effect pedal.

No two players are going to necessarily prefer the same thing and you're not necessarily going to prefer the same thing on all or most of your guitars.

Picks are probably the most economical and most immediate "tone changer" you can buy.

I am a fan of thick picks...generally not a fan of expensive picks:)

I've been using 1.5mm D'Andrea Pro-Plecs for about 5 years now I I've never been happier. Used correctly, a thicker pick can do everything a thin pick can do, and a bunch of stuff a thin pick can't.