How Much Difference Does a Pick Make?

[JellyOnToast2345]

So, yesterday while I was supposed to be working, I ended up deeply researching picks. And I was disgusted when I stumbled upon some $50 picks (Blue Chip, Red Bear, etc.). Personally, I don't think I could stomach spending more than a few cents a piece for something I regularly lose.

Then out of curiosity, I figured I would try some variety Dunlop packs of picks. Up until last night, I'd been using .88 Dunlop Jazz III pitch black Tortex picks for electric and .50 for acoustic. The packs I bought had nylon, max grip, celluloid, ultex, tortex, and gator grip in mostly .73, .88, 1.0, and 1.14 thicknesses (1 medium and 1 thick version of each material. I also got a Jazz III variety pack, which had the same materials all in .88 or 1.0 thicknesses. To top it off I got a set with light and medium to try on acoustic. For the test, I played Breathe by Pink Floyd, Sweet Home Alabama, and a few random solos on my Les Paul Traditional unplugged and the same stuff on my Taylor 414CE with the light picks.

I started with the Les Paul and right off the bat, I threw out the nylons and max grips. They felt ridiculously cheap. I'm not a big fan of the grip surface either. In addition, they made a really dull sound that had almost no treble and they were very clicky. I found this same clicky tone with all the 1.0 and above thicknesses and threw them out as well. So this left me with medium Ultex, Gator Grip, Tortex, and Celluloid. For whatever reason I really liked the Gator Grip. The Tortex got clicky at times so I threw it out. The celluloid was alright but it wasn't easy to hold on to, so it went out as well. That left the Gator Grip and Ultex. Interestingly enough, these were the only two picks with bevels. In the end, I felt like the Gator Grip was very similar in tone to the Ultex, but I liked the look and feel better, so it won.

Next I tried the Jazz III picks on the Les Paul. I threw out the max grip and nylons without even trying them. I believe the standard red ones are celluloid, and they were very clicky (I got two for some reason) so I threw them out. There was no gator grip, so that left a regular Ultex, a regular Tortex, and a XL Ultex. The XL felt like a regular pick (size), and it had raised letters which I don't care for. The regular Ultex also had raised letters and it was clicky. The Tortex had no clicky-ness, was easy to hold, and gave a good tone overall. It was .88 thickness. After A/Bing it and the regular size Gator Grip, I still preferred the Jazz. So I ended up liking the pick I had all along. Nothing $10 in wasted money on picks didn't tell me.

Next I tried the acoustic. Again the max grip and nylons went away, and the Tortex quickly followed. I believe it was .60, which to me is too much thickness for an acoustic. It gets really warm and it's hard to get all the strings to ring out evenly. I prefer .50 for the classic thin pick on acoustic sound. The gator grip was also too thick (the thinnest one in the pack was .73). In the end, I was left with celluloid, which really surprised me. It actually sounded good. However when I got out my trusty .50 Jazz III tortex, I still preferred it over the celluloid.

So in other words, I spent $15 on a variety of picks, only to find I prefer the ones I've been using all along. However, I did get some usable picks out of it. Everything except the nylon, max grips, and the celluloid Jazz III picks was very usable. I still like the gator grips a lot, and I don't mind the full sized Ultex, although the Jazz IIIs have raised letters. I guess that helps with grip but I can't stand the way it feels. But in the end, I still prefer .50 and .88 jazz III tortex picks.

After all that, I had my dad strum some chords with the Tortex, celluloid, and nylon. I tried 15 times and may have guessed the order right twice. There's not a big difference, even on an acoustic. I think the biggest difference comes from thickness rather than material. I need .50 for acoustic and .88 or .73 for electric. I like thin picks for acoustic and medium for electric. Thick picks are clicky and they make it hard to play rhythm guitar. Anything above .50 on acoustic sounds crappy to me, unless your playing single note lines or bluegrass stuff. As far as strumming chords, it has to be thin.

So my question, I guess, is has anyone tried the high end picks like Blue Chip or Red Bear, and if so, did they really make a $30+ difference? Another pick brand I was looking at yesterday is Stone Works. They make stone picks and Captain Lee from Anderton's uses one of their plain jane picks. All these brands make jazz picks though, which is good for me, because I wouldn't spend $5 on a standard size pick, let alone $30. I need jazz size.

Sorry for the long winded post.

 

[stealthelephant]

I have found my fav pick for clean chimey work is a bone pick. Nothing else comes close. Strats can love it.

All my picks are 3m and greater and I can tell the difference in sound from them blindly, sometimes even with mild overdrive so I disagree with ur statement regarding thickness - material matters as well.

I have read in magizines that getting the Brian May tone heavily relies in using a coin


But then again I think I may have misread ur post. T'was huge, huge I tell ya

 

[JellyOnToast2345]

I have found my fav pick for clean chimey work is a bone pick. Nothing else comes close. Strats can love it.

All my picks are 3m and greater and I can tell the difference in sound from them blindly, sometimes even with mild overdrive so I disagree with ur statement regarding thickness - material matters as well.

I have read in magizines that getting the Brian May tone heavily relies in using a coin


But then again I think I may have misread ur post. T'was huge, huge I tell ya

You didn't misread it, but I didn't represent what I was trying to say very well. I didn't mean to dispel thicker picks entirely. Almost all boutique picks are well over 1 mm in thickness. The ones that I had made a dull, clicky sound. The thickest was the Big Stubby, and it was also the clickiest. I didn't mention that pick in my prior post for the sake of saving reading time.

Also I didn't mean to say picks don't make a difference. I could undoubtedly hear a difference, both when I was playing and when my dad was. I just couldn't guess which was which. There was a difference though. And yeah I've heard he uses a 6 pence coin. Interesting. Believable considering his guitar is homemade from random crap around the house.

And yes t'was quite huge

 

[Ryan Givhan]

i use 2mm dunlops. i use to use 3mm big stubbies, but i like the warmer attack i get with the regular dunlops.


i cant use thin picks. it is almost impossible to play fast with a thin pick

 

[QuicksilverSS]

Getcha' one of these and try different substrates...

 

[circles]

I've stopped using pics, except in rare circumstances, but your comments are helpful for future reference.

 

[Mookakian]

Different strokes for different folks. Personally I think its one of the most important tools and even more important, learning how to utilize picks/fingers!

 

[JellyOnToast2345]

I have found my favorite for clean chimey work is a bone pick. Nothing else comes close. Strats can love it.

All my picks are 3m and greater and I can tell the difference in sound from them blindly, sometimes even with mild overdrive so I disagree with ur statement regarding thickness - material matters as well.

I have read in magizines that getting the Brian May tone heavily relies in using a coin


But then again I think I may have misread ur post. T'was huge, huge I tell ya

I also shouldve mentioned, when I said material doesn't matter as much, I meant between different types of plastics. Like ultex vs tortex vs celluloid etc. Obviously theres a big difference between stone and plastic and glass, for instance

 

[JellyOnToast2345]

i use 2mm dunlops. i use to use 3mm big stubbies, but i like the warmer attack i get with the regular dunlops.


i cant use thin picks. it is almost impossible to play fast with a thin pick

Yeah I only use thin picks for strumming chords on acoustic. Sounds much better than a thick pick in that situation. Cant use it for lead though. Love the guitar in your profile pic by the way

 

[JellyOnToast2345]

Getcha' one of these and try different substrates...

I had one of those in my amazon cart and was about to pull the trigger, but then i thought about it, and theres nothing i have that i could make a pick out of, save old credit cards. I just dont think it would do me much good. Definitely cool though and I would probably buy one anyways, but I prefer jazz picks. If they made one that punched jazzers, I'd buy it

 

[GitFiddle]

A few years ago, I stumbled upon an opportunity to get a couple peso picks from the guy that supposedly made a bunch for Billy G. I was really impressed and really liked they way they felt and sounded. I never took them to gigs for fear of losing one.

I had been playing Fender Mediums since the 70s, until I found out recently that they are now made in China. That's when I started my quest to find a new pick.

I ended up with bone picks from Rocky Mountain Slides. They are 2-3 bucks a piece and I absolutely fell in love with them. That's all I use now. I bought about ten of them and gig with them every weekend. I think I have only lost one so far. They do not wear out and I love the sound I get from the strings with them.

 

[stealthelephant]

when I was playing and when my dad was. I just couldn't guess which was which.

when i observe another, i cant tell the difference on most picks either, except for that bone pick (that now it seems im in the danger of continuously coming back to).

I was demo'ing 2 of my amps to a guy who was buying an amp for his son. One on amp i used a plastic one, and the other i just happened to grab the bone pick. the guy listening thought it was the amp adding all the extra pingyness and attack until i showed him with the different pick.

but then again thats more of an exception...

but as for an observer not being able to tell the difference, i hear this a lot whether it be an amp (SS vs tube vs modelers vs pedals) or a pick and i disagree with that sediment also (that if the observer/audience cant tell whats the difference?)

as an observer you cant tell if a car is running on regular unleaded gas/petrol or super unleaded...but the driver will if it causes an engine fail, and with temperature and warning gauges running higher than normal,
as an observer you cant tell if a car is running on petrol/gas or Ethonal or liquid gas! but the driver absolutely feels the difference and if he were in a race the observer would notice the difference in performance (a sudden lack of perforamnce in their favourite driver) but not necessarily know it was down to the fuel...
likewise if u are giging and ur amp is shite an observer would say it was you that was shite and not the amp, and the whole time they might even think the amp was a decent amp.... lol?

and then of course if your using a coin to play people would definitely hear it, just have no clue what they hearing

my 2c

 

[KelvinS1965]

I did similar to the OP and bought a tin of assorted picks, they happened to be Jim Dunlop ones as that's mostly what I use. End result was that I'm happy with the one I started with. I just don't feel right playing with a thicker pick like 1mm or more, though the really thin ones (.38mm ?) are too floppy for my taste too. I don't think it limits my speed using a thinner pick, my hands are the limiter on that score.

If I'm trying out an amp or something in a shop and I use whatever pick they have to hand it's nearly always too thick and I struggle, so at least I'm consistent.

The only problem is my favourite pick is just labelled a Jim Dunlop 'Medium' and there wasn't another in the assorted tin, I think it's around .60mm so I'll have to try some other makes around that size.

I think it's worth spending a bit of time to try other things out, even if you end up back where you started. It's not as if it costs much to find out either. You can always give your spare picks to another player for them to try as well.

 

[Ethereal]

Anybody has tried graphtech tusq picks? I was curious about them so ordered a bunch to try out, should be in the mail soon. What piqued my curioisiy was that they come in 3 color tones, and graphtech CLAIMS that the difference is not only cosmetic, but that heir color affects tone!!! Ha! Gotta hear that to believe it. Sounds like a pile of marketing bull to me. Should find out soon cuz ordered them in all three tones : white (bright tone) beige (balanced tone) and gunmetal grey ( dark tone). We'll see if they produce the differece in tone that they claim...

The thing is that I just checked my order and realized I made a mistake on th thickness, ordered 0.88 ( about what i use on other brands) , 1.00 ( which I've used) and 2.00 when what i really wanted was a 0.63s!! Never ever hav used anything over 1.00 and don't think i can even wield them. So guess I wont have a proper diameter for trying them on my acoustic guitars :-(. Guess if they prove to be good I'll order the thin ones and will keep the 2.00 to file them into the perfect shape/ thickness if i need to.

 

[Brocko]

i have always found picks are a personal preference - you can get different tones with wide varieties of thickness and in some cases material but i personally think much of that is how you approach the attack, angle etc. I use my fingers a lot more now anyway, but picks have their place. I tend to like the otrtex dunlop ones as they just feel nice. I tend not to like the really shiny smooth variety.

I would never pay £50 for a pick, that is just taking the piss.

 

[Ethereal]

... and as side note, in order to settle this debate once and for all about whether picks many difference:

BUT OF COURSE IT DOES!!! Don't believe me? Just watch Tenacious D's "The Pick of Destiny" movie for you to finally see how picks are more important than playing skill, pups, wiring, guitar, strings and amp.

LOL

 

[e44crowe]

My preference is the gold nylon Dunlops in .88 (I use the max grip ones but that is not a requirement).

the nylon picks give me a good balance between release for strumming and bite for individual string stuff.

 

[MrKensei]

I've spenta lot of money experiementingwith different picks, I've settled(I think)on the John Petruccie Jazz III. I'm not surefo the amterial but it sounds very similar to tusq when tapped against a hard object.
I really wanted to try out the Graphtech picks but despite saying on 3 occasions they were sending ema sample, they never bothered.

As for the ultra expensive picks... GTFO. I doubt it is possiblefor them to be that much better.Unless they come with a free steak and BJ.

 

[Z.K.]

I've spenta lot of money experiementingwith different picks, I've settled(I think)on the John Petruccie Jazz III. I'm not surefo the amterial but it sounds very similar to tusq when tapped against a hard object.
I really wanted to try out the Graphtech picks but despite saying on 3 occasions they were sending ema sample, they never bothered.

As for the ultra expensive picks... GTFO. I doubt it is possiblefor them to be that much better.Unless they come with a free steak and BJ.

I've also settled om the Petrucci Jazz pick, the material is black ultex. Iv'e tried all variations of tortex pick, regular and jazz size, dunlop stubbies, all versions Jazz III picks, graph tech tusq picks, couple of V picks, and a bunch of other ones i forget right now and none are better than the petrucci pick. Makes a big difference for me, this pick seems to glide smoothly from string to string, good for strumming or lead.

 

[rabidhamster]

IMO The secret to playing fast with thin picks is to deform the pick on the string. Once you get used to the feeling of pushing your pick through the string instead of the string through the pick like with the fatties, you'll find you play just as fast.

Thick picks can be fun. Bone sounds intriguing. I've got some picks I made from Deer Antler that I really like, they have a nice thick robust sound, like playing thumbstyle if I de-gloved my thumb