Fingerpicks & thumbpicks

[Lakewood_Lad]

I've been fingerpicking for a little while just using the fleshy parts of my fingers. It's satisfactory but I know I could do more with my nails or with picks. Sometimes I hit the strings with a bit of nail and it rings out and it can add a nice bit of variation or it can sound a bit incongruous but I'd prefer to be in control of it - choosing when and whether or not to do it, how hard etc

Should I grow my fingernails? I've never done that. I'm not a nail biter but I tend to keep them pretty short.

I've been thinking about fingerpicks. I took a brief look and saw all sorts and thicknesses, some in stainless steel, some in plastic and so on and so on.

Does anyone have any advice or experience they can offer to a beginner? What would you have liked to have known when you started using them (or your nails)?

Thanks in advance.

[619TF]

There's been plenty of discussion of this here at AGF.

Try this to see some quick search results (and/or use the search function here yourself):
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...archid=8400262

[bufflehead]

I spent an entire year trying to get aboard with finger picks. This was some time ago. I experimented with different types, and although I got pretty good I was never good enough to match what I could do flat picking. I was frustrated when I finally gave up the effort because I'd been thinking that whole time that if I just kept practicing and developing new technique, the time would come when I'd achieve mastery.

That time never came. For me, there was always something clicky and clunky about wearing fingerpicks. Looking back, I wish I'd thrown them away sooner.

[Lakewood_Lad]

Originally Posted by bufflehead

I spent an entire year trying to get aboard with finger picks. This was some time ago. I experimented with different types, and although I got pretty good I was never good enough to match what I could do flat picking. I was frustrated when I finally gave up the effort because I'd been thinking that whole time that if I just kept practicing and developing new technique, the time would come when I'd achieve mastery.

That time never came. For me, there was always something clicky and clunky about wearing fingerpicks. Looking back, I wish I'd thrown them away sooner.

On reflection do you think if you'd had lighter or smaller gauge picks it might have been less clunky?

I know that I find some flatpicks awkward and others comfortable and I prefer the sounds of some more than others.

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by Lakewood_Lad

On reflection do you think if you'd had lighter or smaller gauge picks it might have been less clunky?

I know that I find some flatpicks awkward and others comfortable and I prefer the sounds of some more than others.

I tried a broad variety of fingerpicks, including Alaska Piks, Dunlop brass fingerpicks, open-design stainless, plastic picks, et cetera. To no avail.

[fregly]

Fingerpicks are about the worst thing ever. Bare flesh, natural nails, artificial....anything is better.

[JCave]

There's a place for each of them.

[ssjk]

Make sure there is nothing in the way that you play that makes fingerpicks almost impossible to use.

I play mostly finger style and mostly bare fingers with about 1/16 inch of nail. After a month or so of trying I could use fingerpicks except for one motion that I use all the time. If you strum down with the back of your fingers, you rip the picks off and have to go pick them up. Not good, and not fixable, and I've tried every pick made I think.

Absent some major technique flaw like that I'd guess you can get used to them if you work at it exclusively for a couple of months. Whether that's worth it or not is up to you.

[erhino41]

Try growing nails and see what happens. If you can grow strong natural nails, imho, that is the best way to go.

Of course there are many wonderful players using myriad different methods to make unbelievable music.

Experiment and see what works.

[buddyhu]

Originally Posted by JCave

There's a place for each of them.

Yep. Some great players use fingerpicks, and their tone doesn’t (to me) immediately scream “metal fingerpicks!!!”. Like many things related to guitars, technique and skill of the player are very big contributors to the final sound.

[DustyD]

I guess I'm in the minority here but I play with fingerpicks about 99% of the time...to me the game changer was when I started bending them to fit how I wanted them and really worked on the attack angle.

The last big eye opener for me was finding the right ones...I play with the Guptil music Propiks, the extra comfortable model in brass. Brass is definitely a touch softer in sound and feel and they're crazy comfortable. I'm not affiliated I just love them

[Steel and wood]

On my eternal quest to find the ultimate fingerpick (they don't exist) I settled on metal or bronze Dunlop fingerpicks favoured by banjo players. (I use a Herco thumb pick also).

I bend the Dunlop's over my finger (to fit the flesh of my fingers and not to act as a nail if that makes sense) and although I'm not completely satisfied, they will have to do. (Finding any number of suitable thumb picks was way easier).

Good luck!

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by DustyD

I guess I'm in the minority here but I play with fingerpicks about 99% of the time...to me the game changer was when I started bending them to fit how I wanted them and really worked on the attack angle.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A big “Aaaaaaahh-yup!” to this!

I use the Propik Fingertone nickel picks - split-wrap version - which I bend and fit to the curve of my fingertips. The flesh of my fingertip fits through the ‘hole’ in the pick to give ‘feel’ and warm-up the tone, and the metal tip just below my fingernail gives the ‘ping’.

But, as Dusty quite rightly says, getting the fit right, shaping the blade correctly, and working on the angle of attack, are the keys to fingerpick success.

My fingerpicks....

938F8406-54E6-4BB1-A829-AF49B2DEFBD8.jpg

A4E5BF15-A26C-4A38-BA70-8DB92669CAA7.jpg

My thumbpicks...choice depends on the tone I need to produce, each one sounds different to the other two.

AD8099F1-5E0F-48FF-9D8C-B4A75DBC650E.jpg

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

[Kitkatjoe]

I play exclusively with picks. I use a large plastic thumb pick and brass finger picks.
They do not need to stick out.I use higher gauge picks only. Bend the tips upward.

[Nymuso]

Originally Posted by Kitkatjoe

I play exclusively with picks. I use a large plastic thumb pick and brass finger picks.
They do not need to stick out.I use higher gauge picks only. Bend the tips upward.

This is my approach exactly, plastic thumb and brass finger picks. Pro tip: the brass picks can come loose and sometimes the thumb pick can rotate a bit it if you dig in. After much searching and experimenting, I learned that a bit of saliva on your fingers acts as an adherent. Found this on a banjo forum and it works.