Guitar Picks

I use thin picks when playing strumming acoustic guitar parts. If it requires anything intricate I use a heavy pick. I use heavy picks exclusively when playing electric guitar. I do use different tip shapes for different things though.

Every few years I will experiment using different picks just to see if anything with my playing technique has changed that might be improved by utilizing something different than what I currently use. I haven't found anything lately would be beneficial but I did a number of years ago. I think it is a good idea to revisit stuff like that occasionally. Sometimes it helps to make a change.

2.0 Dunlop.
I like the pick to move as my fingers do.

I use thinner picks on acoustic than I do electric. I only play one size on electric (D'addario Duralin 1.20 Sharp. The purple one, ever so slightly thicker than the Dunlop 1.14. I tried 'em all, all sorts of materials and thicknesses, but always came back to this one), but I play a couple different flavors on acoustic (all Dunlop Tortex): .60 (orange) if I need to be quiet (my Breedlove is so loud, I was drowning out the singer at a show I was doing, and I wasn't even plugged in. So I had to get a super thin pick), .73 (yellow) for general strumming and leads, and sometimes a .88 (green) if I need to do some intricate acoustic lead work.

Medium for electric rhythm. Rounded fat side.

As a bassist, I think 2 mm picks get along with my hand the best.

(The only time I use them is on my 8-string fretless though.)

    I used to use picks, for guitar. I’ve made a bunch of picks over the years. I’m still looking for the right weight /side of rawhide to make up another batch. I made quite a few out of scraps of Hawksbill sea turtle shell that were beautiful and really sweet sounding. Most went to the owner of the ancient shell, I took an agreed upon percentage for myself an gave most of these to friends. 

    A couple of years ago I purchased a side of rawhide that was the perfect thickness for making picks, I bought it for other purposes, the thickness was perfect and the material itself held up well. I made a few guitar style pics to try out, then cut the whole hide up into picks. I even had a custom leather punch made to knock them out quicker and with more consistency. I‘ll make another batch as soon as I find a workable gauge of rawhide. 

    I attended Victor Wooten’s bass and nature camp about 4 years ago. I had a personal bass pick wallet that held 4 bass picks, the pick wallet was actually just a pouch with a fold over tab that slipped under a strap sewn to the body.  It was made out of the belly hide of a Florida Alligator. It was really sweet, but I don’t often, if ever, use a pick on bass. The four bass picks were rawhide, tortoise shell,. Sterling silver and Brazilian Roswood, each has a different tone. I was sitting around BSing with Victor between classes and asked him if he ever used picks. He does, so I took the gator wallet off my key chain and gave it too him, I told him what the materials were and that they each sounded different. I had a few things I had made for Holly, and had a few extra for the female staff, Victor had asked me a couple of times about some of my homemade gear, plus I had the home made fretless with me. He knew I made stuff.

    The following day he told me they do produce different sounds and thanked me again. Cool, I never use them. 

Cool, I found a picture of the one I gave Victor

flic.kr/p/8Bs8jn
flic.kr/p/2aqJq8N.    Throw this one in too, a few of the Tortoise shell picks in the polishing stage 

   Thanks, there is a cost though, stuff that holds no interest for me is like the 12 levels of hell, trying to get it accomplished. The perfect example is house painting, I almost prefer to fall off the ladder. On occasion I’ll find a project so simple that once the learning phase is over, I never do it again, like paper making, it’s a cool demonstration though.

    Soap making has kind of turned that way, but it’s such a useful skill and open to variations that I still make soap occasionally, particularly the 100% coconut oil version. Best soap I’ve ever used on heavy grease. My auto mechanic buddies panic when they get down to their last bar. It does have a bad side affect of drying the skin out, it removes all oil, you, wouldn't want it as a bath bar. On clothing that gets grease I’ll spot scrub the stain then throw it in the washing machine.

    When I got back after nearly a month in New Mexico this year, I spent three months perfecting my tortilla recipe and technique, actually I’m still tweaking it. Then using up a bunch of scrap fabric making tortilla steamer/holders. I’m very rarely board though, which is pretty cool. It’s some form of compulsion. Like the tortilla project, I even took the time to make my own tortilla press as part of the process. I swear it makes a more consistent/level tortilla than my fancy Mexican cast iron ones. That project was inspired by  2X10 eight foot resin saturated pine board at Lowes.

Tortilla cozie  flic.kr/p/2m6QCJz

Tortilla press  flic.kr/p/2kEUeX8

I remember visiting a local guitar store on Main Street/Fredrick Rd in Catonsville, MD. (I was in a nearby seminary-college, in late 60s).

They featured a barrel full of picks at the register.  For a fixed price (I think? a dollar) you could have all the picks you could grab with one hand. 

yup, those were the good ol' days...

2mm Dunlop Jazz. Bought a bag/100 pcs twentyfive years ago that will last me forever.

I still have the pick wallet that you gave me when we did the Key West Poker Run together.

I used the red Mel Bay picks for decades. They were thin, maybe .60. Then I made a CD at a friend's little studio, and was surprised at all the "pick click." Didn't like it, so I tried moving up to thicker picks.

Then the arthritis got me, and now I have trouble keeping a pick straight. Thick picks are no good now, due to the "rebound" off the strings- they rotate in my grip. Thin picks aren't so bad, so I've gone back to them.

But I now use Dunlop .60s, with a little rubber grippy-thing stuck to them (found them on the internet). They don't "click" as bad as the Mel Bays, due to the type of plastic they are made of.

Besides, they don't make the Mel Bay picks anymore, not since he died.

I bet I've got 250 different picks. Constantly experimenting with them, trying to find one that works.

I use thin picks and mostly wooden to keep the plectrum from falling out of my sweaty hand, it's important not using glossy one.

dunlop orange or fender mediums

Yellow Dunlop Tortex.    .73 mm.