Fingerpick click

[BoneDigger]

Having started out on banjo, I tend to use thumb/finger picks when playing finger style guitar. For guitar, I use plastic thumb/fingerpicks. The issue I have with these is that there is a well defined click when the pick contacts the string. When recording, this is an obvious issue.

Aside from playing without picks (I have very short fingernails), is there a way to reduce this clicking sound? Again, I am just at this point interested in how to reduce the click, not looking for examples of why it's better to play with press on nails or finger pads.

[Nymuso]

When you find out let me know.

I’ve been using fingerpicks (brass) for about fifty years. On acoustic/electric I use a plastic thumb pick and flesh, (nails are a no-go for me) but for unamplified acoustic, I can’t get away from those picks.

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

Having started out on banjo, I tend to use thumb/finger picks when playing finger style guitar. For guitar, I use plastic thumb/fingerpicks. The issue I have with these is that there is a well defined click when the pick contacts the string. When recording, this is an obvious issue.

Aside from playing without picks (I have very short fingernails), is there a way to reduce this clicking sound? Again, I am just at this point interested in how to reduce the click, not looking for examples of why it's better to play with press on nails or finger pads.

I use plastic Alaska picks, no click, what picks are you using?

[BoneDigger]

These are what I use.20210222_142914.jpg

[6L6]

Here's what I've used since 1965. No clicking!

[ifret]

I've been using National plastic (or the John Pearse vintage....same thing) thumbpicks and National nickel fingerpicks since 1973. Sometimes I hear the fingerpicks, but not often. When I do, I really pay attention to my striking angle and adjust so I'm not hitting the strings so squarely. I was playing for an owner of a guitar store last year and he said it was the first time he's heard someone playing with metal fingerpicks where he really couldn't hear the metal on metal sound. I think it comes with practice....pay attention to how you are striking the strings. Also, try different types of picks. I use what I use, because they are very comfortable....like an extension of my fingers. I have tried many other types and they all feel clunky. I keep going back to what I've used for nearly 47 years.

[Robin, Wales]

Has anyone noticed that the "click" occurs on the way "in" to the string strike? It seems to be the pick face contacting (and stopping) the vibrating string (if the string is still vibrating from a previous pluck). So it is not the "pluck" itself that gives the click. I'm not quite sure what to make of this as I've only recently noticed it but a different approach angle may affect the amount of "click".

[BoneDigger]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

Has anyone noticed that the "click" occurs on the way "in" to the string strike? It seems to be the pick face contacting (and stopping) the vibrating string (if the string is still vibrating from a previous pluck). So it is not the "pluck" itself that gives the click. I'm not quite sure what to make of this as I've only recently noticed it but a different approach angle may affect the amount of "click".

Correct. In my opinion, it's the click of the pick sticking the string, not the plucking of the string or release.

If I play more loudly, the clicking is less obvious, but since my fingerpicking tends to be on the lighter side, its fairly noticeable. As a banjo player, I started out trying to play guitar with metal finger picks but found the metal on metal sound to be too much. I am trying to adjust the strike angle, but it still seems pretty loud.

[Mr. Jelly]

If I remember correctly when I am forced to break in a new thumb pick there is more click then when I use a nicely beveled thumb pick. I don't go through very many thumb picks. It seems once they get beveled, organically, they sustain that way.

[JayBee1404]

I use ProPik ‘Fingertones’, which have a hole in the blade for the pad of the finger. The ‘click’ is drastically reduced by the flesh of the pad contacting the string first, before the metal of the pick, you get that nice ‘feel’ of the string, and they produce a ‘warmer’ tone, to my ears, than standard finger-picks.

Highly recommended.

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