A reluctant pick purchase.

[Robin, Wales]

Blue Chip picks are not my favourites. I think that Vespel can be a bit bland compared to some other materials. But BC picks are simply very easy to use - they are easy to grip and slide across the strings. And that has advantages for me when playing at concerts.

Tonight I had a solo spot within a choir concert. Audience of 50+ and no p/a, so just my D-18 and my vocals. I know the venue well. It is a Baptist Church and the acoustics are completely dead. I was going to use the TP-1R 50 that I have, but I thought it might not be bright enough. So I reluctantly ordered a TP-1R 40.

The pick arrived this afternoon and I thought that it was disappointingly too bright when I played it at home. But a quick try out in the venue before the concert showed its value.

The performance went well. Of course, the audience couldn't care less about the subtlety of tone! But for me, that slightly crisper sound meant that I could hear my D-18 better and so pitch my voice.

So, reluctantly, the TP-1R 40 is staying, because I expect that I will find occasion to use it again.

[Brent Hutto]

I have a TP48-1R (in between the thicknesses of the two you pictured) and once I played it for a couple days, I lost all interest in my other Blue Chip and Wegen picks when playing my acoustic guitar. The point and pointy-shoulder are just 100% perfect for most of my playing and I can spin it to the round shoulder once in a while when I want to get a slightly different attack.

In fact, I loved that pick so much I ordered a second one and had it sent to my guitar teacher that Christmas.

I'm mostly playing electric guitar now and don't much care for it on the Telecaster so I just keep it in the case with my L-00 size acoustic guitar.

P.S. To your point about Blue Chip picks being "easy to use", for an extremely limited player like me I think "easy to use" and "sounds good" are impossible to distinguish from each other. That ease of keeping the pick in exactly the right position in my fingers without even trying and the way the bevel is so predictable in its slide through the string helps my poor technique so much that of course it sounds better. Even if in a hypothetical world where my technique was flawless, some other material might sound slightly better.

[Robin, Wales]

Brent, you have summed it up perfectly. "Easy to use" and "sounds good" are related. At home, I hear every small nuance of timbre. There's no doubt that I'm more accurate, quicker, cleaner and have better timing with a BC TP pick. But my Wegen picks sound "better".

Of course, when I'm playing for an audience, they don't know (or care) that I have other picks that I think sound slightly "better". But they do care about my accuracy and timing.

[Honkycat]

Any recordings of the performance?

[Silly Moustache]

Hi Robin, glad the concert went well.

As I've said here many times I have long settled in TAD50s (1.25 m/m) for guitars with medium gauge strings, so my Collings 12 fret dreads, my Santa Cruz "RS" jumbo, my archtops.
Everything else has light gauge so 000, 00, 0 etc.

Actually for my 12 strings and archtops, I tend to prefer Wegen TF140s

Every flat top guitar has a BC but also a Wegen - just in case (actually in Princess Mary Box).