Four woods as a pick material (test video + analysis)

[MikkoKarhula]

Hi!

I have project where I test Finnish materials for guitar picks. In this video I had four picks made of juniper, pine, curly birch and rowan. Each of them had different qualities. And long story short, curly birch and rowan where best according my personal criterias

Juniper has crispness, persistence, power, fullness and some kind of skin-like tone... Juniper is famous of its tenacity that never breaks and aroma that you can spice your smoked fish or even beer. ☺They have used the oil of this wood in healing because its quality in boosting blood circulation. That scent stays in fingers after you grab it. It's great material but maybe little too rough for my acoustic playing. Might be ok for electric guitar rock players.

Curly birch has very balanced sound. It's very warm, round, strong, little crispy in the high-end and precise. It's highly valued material in numerous uses in Finnish woodworking and I'm not surprised how great it is as a guitar pick. When making picks out of this wood it's axciting to see how it looks because every time it has very different patterning. To me really joy to watch and play every imaginable style.


Rowan has very powerful and clear sounding qualities. In this video it's finished in very natural way that increases protection and looks but leaves it natural sounding. Today I use long finishing methods that will increase the brightness even more. The most important thing is still warmness that separates these wooden picks from plastic ones. In Finnish folklore rowan is mentioned as a sacred tree that protected its owner from evil magic. And it truly has spicy attitude as a pick too. Personally I love the touch, looks and how cleanly it glides on strings.

Pine has very pleasant qualities. It's soft and very light material that has warm and gentle sound but a lot of high-ends. That for it suites very nicely for picking chords and comping. Pine is most common tree in Finland and it's not so commonly used in instruments but it works ok as a guitar pick. Because of it lightness nd softness it doesn't give the same respectful feeling though.

The idea for these wooden picks came when I needed more natural sounding pick for playing acoustic guitar. Ever since I have used these models. They work really nice on nylon string acoustic and archtop guitar. They give more body and special characters to sound.

If you are interested check out more from
www.finnpick.com
or listen and watch videos from
https://www.youtube.com/user/juhan81