Fender Tru-Shell Picks

[Matters]

Here’s what I use to bevel and buff my picks. They work great.

http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and...ouch_Pads.html

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by Matters

Here’s what I use to bevel and buff my picks. They work great.

http://www.stewmac.com/Materials_and...ouch_Pads.html

Those are very very good. I used them for a while. I found a couple things even better, but it's a trade secret.

One issue with Micro Mesh is that they use a different grit rating system, based in Europe, I believe, and this can really mess you up when trying to approximate other abrasives you may use.

sm

[saullacoursiere]

Here are pics of my results. I polished the bevel until slightly shiny.

Action is smoother and faster. Tone warmed slightly as I heard it. Tone-wise, I prefer without the bevel. Playability-wise, I prefer the bevel. I'm going to play around with bevel finish, I have a hunch that the matte/texture is what caused the tonal difference.

[saullacoursiere]

I also beveled a Dunlop primetone 3mm. Night and day difference. Faster, smoother, brighter and louder. I was really pleased with the result.

[HHP]

Originally Posted by saullacoursiere

Here are pics of my results. I polished the bevel until slightly shiny.

Action is smoother and faster. Tone warmed slightly as I heard it. Tone-wise, I prefer without the bevel. Playability-wise, I prefer the bevel. I'm going to play around with bevel finish, I have a hunch that the matte/texture is what caused the tonal difference.

Looks like you did a very nice job on the bevels. If you want warmer, you can round off one of the tips and then speed bevel that. I do that on try-corner picks to give me some tonal options without changing picks. The bone colored one has has 1 standard tip and 2 different radii on the others. Comes in handy for mandolin as the rounded points help with fast tremolo.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Great job on the beveling, Saul!

Folks, this is easy to do AS LONG AS YOU TAKE IT SLOW. You don't have to be a wizard or an artisan. Patience is the key, but the results can really enhance your playing.

scott memmer

[Birdbrain]

It's not all about getting a BETTER tone from your guitar, because that's subjective. Various "boo-teek" picks can give you a DIFFERENT tone from your guitar. I've found, through limited research, that a different pick alters the tone as much or more than any string change, while being much quicker and, at the boutiques I favor, less expensive.

Want to brighten & crispen up my sound? I reach for my V-Pick, or my cocoanut shell triangle. Or deaden the strings for a mellower sound. My dunlop Primetone will do that. I have a solid wood pick that, surprisingly, doesn't always make the sound seem woodier, but it's different. Each of my guitars tends to select its own favorite pick, and that's another factor in finding my own sound.

The fellows I jam with pride themselves on buying thin Fender picks by the gross. Humblebragging? They think my $5 picks are overpriced; I suspect the same about their Stratocasters. They find other ways to tailor their own tones, but they're choosing to ignore pick variety. Or maybe a different Strat will hold that magic tone? That's an expensive path, compared to a premium pick.

[HHP]

Originally Posted by Ex-Nashvillian

It's not all about getting a BETTER tone from your guitar, because that's subjective. Various "boo-teek" picks can give you a DIFFERENT tone from your guitar. I've found, through limited research, that a different pick alters the tone as much or more than any string change, while being much quicker and, at the boutiques I favor, less expensive.

Want to brighten & crispen up my sound? I reach for my V-Pick, or my cocoanut shell triangle. Or deaden the strings for a mellower sound. My dunlop Primetone will do that. I have a solid wood pick that, surprisingly, doesn't always make the sound seem woodier, but it's different. Each of my guitars tends to select its own favorite pick, and that's another factor in finding my own sound.

The fellows I jam with pride themselves on buying thin Fender picks by the gross. Humblebragging? They think my $5 picks are overpriced; I suspect the same about their Stratocasters. They find other ways to tailor their own tones, but they're choosing to ignore pick variety. Or maybe a different Strat will hold that magic tone? That's an expensive path, compared to a premium pick.

The people I play with are the same. They have a case of the vapors when I tell them I'm using $10-$40 picks. That is, until I let them try mine and then I get requests to make one up for them.

[rokdog49]

I have experimented with a lot of pick materials, and thicknesses.
I have beveled some picks as well.
I'm glad I have variety as my ears hear differently every day.
Some days I want bright and others not so much.
Seems like the pick has more to do with what a guitar sounds like than a string sometimes. YMMV.

[Wolfram]

Some good bevelling on show here!

For those interested, I use a securely mounted Kress 1050 router spinning a small grinding wheel to rough-cut my bevels - I use quite a low spindle speed to minimise heat build-up so the extra torque of the 1kW router really helps to get an even cut in one or two passes (dependent on the thickness of the pick). Warning - as has been mentioned elsewhere re: the Dremel, exercise caution - this needs a lot of practice - it's easy to completely ruin a pick in a fraction of a second!

I then use one of my own Wolfram Precision : Crystal Pro glass files to fine-shape the bevel. The rigid, pressure-sensitive surface gives much more control of the flat bevel contour than sandpaper - I do a lot of detail work to the picking tip as well as shaping it.

I then use four grits of sandpaper to achieve a smoother transition from the face of the pick into the bevel - it's easier to achieve this with the 'fuzziness' of sandpaper than with the precision of the file.

I then buff through three polishing compounds and wheels mounted on a modified bench grinder.

It's a lot of work, but I find each step is necessary to achieve what I'm chasing as the perfect pick.

Cheers,
David

[HHP]

Originally Posted by Wolfram Slides

Some good bevelling on show here!

For those interested, I use a securely mounted Kress 1050 router spinning a small grinding wheel to rough-cut my bevels - I use quite a low spindle speed to minimise heat build-up so the extra torque of the 1kW router really helps to get an even cut in one or two passes (dependent on the thickness of the pick). Warning - as has been mentioned elsewhere re: the Dremel, exercise caution - this needs a lot of practice - it's easy to completely ruin a pick in a fraction of a second!

I then use one of my own Wolfram Precision : Crystal Pro glass files to fine-shape the bevel. The rigid, pressure-sensitive surface gives much more control of the flat bevel contour than sandpaper - I do a lot of detail work to the picking tip as well as shaping it.

I then use four grits of sandpaper to achieve a smoother transition from the face of the pick into the bevel - it's easier to achieve this with the 'fuzziness' of sandpaper than with the precision of the file.

I then buff through three polishing compounds and wheels mounted on a modified bench grinder.

It's a lot of work, but I find each step is necessary to achieve what I'm chasing as the perfect pick.

Cheers,
David

That's like...real engineering. I'm sure you would be aghast to see me do one. Everything I use you can get at Wal-Mart.

[lowrider]

I got the extra heavy Tru Shell pick a few days ago. It's 1.5 mm thick and it didn't do much for me. I bevelled it today and it's just ok. Dunlop Primetone 2.0 and 1.0 give me a much fuller tone on my Martin mutenye Road Series.

I'll stick with Primetones.

[docwatsonfan]

I know, old thread,

just broke my tru shell medium large triangle while playing this am....

I wasn't even doing a Pete Townsend windmill either

well it is back to my dunlop tortex , or something that won't curl or break