My secret weapon for guitar...

[Gregg Sartiano]

The "some is good, more is better" thing only goes so far with pick & string gauge.

I mean, I think .009's and thin or medium picks can sound fatter in some ways, but they're also more sensitive (in a bad way) to brutish playing. King's X (Dogman -- some of the heaviest gtr & bass sounds EVER!), Eddie Van Halen (his 5150 E.B. strings were .009-.040 -- AND VH tuned down often). I think EVH was using thin picks, too. Unchained! Nothin stays the same!

When King's X was going through their tuning-down-a-half-step-more-each-record phase, Doug told me they tried heavier strings (DP was 40-95 bass, Ty was .009 on gtr) and went RIGHT back immediately to the lighter ones.

[blackbox]

tortoise ahell picks are fairl easy to come by. You can find them at any guitar show or bluegrass festival. It does feel funny kinda like a doing a drug deal and you find out the dealer is your favorite 80 year church-going old uncle.

Also, every guitar god I've ever met whose tone I've worshipped has used fender thins or mediums. They also play very lightly and consistently. The guitar and amp do most of the work.

[eligit]

the other thing is that lighter strings automatically compress the volume so that can be positive or negative, depending on what you are after. that sinuous compressed brown sound comes from low string tension played lightly (with a GREAT TOUCH). the power amp tubes do most of the work and the wood does much less. i like a little more of an acoustic/jazz vibe (ie, actvate the wood a bit more) in my electric so i need slightly heavier strings.

i find that 10-49 is just about right for me on a 25"

for a 25.5 or even a 26" maybe 9-46 would be right....

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by everybody's x

I hold it backwards and use the rounded edge. I like to think of it as a tiny violin bow and its more like rubbing the strings intead of hitting them

I did that for years without even realising it.

[everybody's x]

I read an article in guitar magazine with rik emmett when I was about 15, about "circular picking" seemed to make sense to me, suddenly I could play twice as fast (which was ALL important back then) and alot more accurately, now days I could give a shit how fast I play but the picking style has become my comfort zone

[Meriphew]

Wegen picks are for wimps. You need one of these picks if you truly want to rock.

[DonPedro]

aaahhh, the famous rock sound...

[Jamz]

Good one!! LOL!

[DonPedro]

I tried the metal pick thing, and actually liked it for some applications. Has a very aggressive attack.

[cultureofgreed]

OK, so I am the not the only one who knows the secret of extra heavy pics? It still seems that every guitarist I know, except a few, use extra-lights. Epecially the metal cats who think you need lights to effectively play fast.

Guess this is not as big a secret as I thought.

[eligit]

here's something:

it depends at what angle you attack the strings. if you do more of a "slice across the strings" than a conventional pick stroke then you get that hard direct attack even if you use a medium pick.

to get that direct sound with "normal" technique (pick pointing directly into the guitar and perpendicular (90 degrees) to the plane of the strings) the heavy pick really helps.

with the light ones i always get that "give" that sounds like the "playing-card-in-the-bike-spokes" slap. this can be cool for fast acoustic strumming but in general i prefer the more direct sound.

[DonPedro]

Well, I am actually a bit surprised to see how many here are using heavy picks, not really that much of a secret

In my circle, people just shudder at the sight of my pick, and almost everybody is using medium or normal heavy picks.

[Cornvalley]

Toxtex Jazz medium here. Really though, you wouldn't want a steady diet of fat tones on the lowest strings or thin tones on the highest strings. Angle the pick with regards to striking the string and it will yeild different textures. Controlling that is the key to having a variety of tones with one pick.

[bcarr]

I read Tuck Andre's picking article about 5 years ago and I switched my technique to the George Benson style then. It took a long time to swich but it comes easily to me now. I really like this technique and it has helped my playing a lot. I get a much firmer grip and my fingers don't move around much anymore. It has helped with my accuracy and speed and now the technique feels much more natural. I really like the tone I get as well, much more solid and round. I can brighten things us as well when I angle the pick to a more 90 degree angle to the guitar.

So in other words that article really helped my playing out quite a bit.

[octatonic]

I use D'Addario H3's- the small purple ones.
I've used them for 10 years and I do 2-3 hours of exercises/scales a day at a minimum.

I've tried using heavier picks but don't feel it brings much to the party.
I use 12's on most of the electrics- it took a couple of years to buid up to them.

[sleepwalker]

Please tell me your avatar is Tony Danza. PLease please please. I'd love it so much.

Originally Posted by DonPedro

Ok, here it goes:

I have been playing the guitar for 25 years, or since I was ten. I quit playing for more than seven years, for some stupid reason, and started playing again 3 years ago.

The first months after a long absence were quite frustrating, as I knew myself to be rather talented as a young man, so I put a lot of effort into being as good I was when I was 20. It might sound stupid, but it is true. It has been a lot of fun since I got on the right track again.

One thing has remained, I always have "my own sound", whatever rig I'm playing. That sound comes from my fingers, and as many of you know, gear is only 20% of the sound if you have your own playing style. I can get that sound from crappy equipment, but of course it sounds better and more lush when you have good gear.

So, I started buying really good gear, and consequentially became a popular client in various music shops around little Reykjavik.

One day, a guitar salesman comes to me after listening to me play, and says: "You should really try this out" and hands me the most massive guitar pick I had seen all my life. A real monster.

I tried it out. Initially I found it clumsy and big, but then I realised that the tone I was delivering was monstrous. The pick was a Wegen pick, and cost a lot of money. I bought it, and started using it, and I have never gone back.

Here is my tip. You, guitar player, buy the thickest, most obscene guitar pick you can find, and start using it. If it does not work for you, you are used to using your pick at the wrong angle. If you use your pick the right way (straight - 90° from the guitar body) you will not have any problems, and your sound will become fatter instantly. Thicker, more lush, but still full of highs. If you don't, this is an excellent way to learn how to use it right.

This is a very undervalued aspect of guitarplaying, and not costly at all. A slightly less expensive mic and preamp can deliver much better sound if the source is good. Take my word for it, try, and when you try that medium guitar pick again, you will hate the plastic sound of it compared to massive thick sound of real picks.

It really makes a huge sonic difference.

http://www.wegenpicks.com/

Disclaimer:
I have no interest in recommending this other than the knowledge that you will never go back again, and will deliver a better sound, which will in the long run make for a better world.


Peace,

Don Pedro

[eligit]

Originally Posted by bcarr

I read Tuck Andre's picking article about 5 years ago and I switched my technique to the George Benson style then. It took a long time to swich but it comes easily to me now. I really like this technique and it has helped my playing a lot. I get a much firmer grip and my fingers don't move around much anymore. It has helped with my accuracy and speed and now the technique feels much more natural. I really like the tone I get as well, much more solid and round. I can brighten things us as well when I angle the pick to a more 90 degree angle to the guitar.

So in other words that article really helped my playing out quite a bit.

ah, so you read the article as well...

main prob w/ benson is ZERO right hand muting if you play loud w/ distortion....

either way i have noticed since then that jimi does the benson style at least some of the time. watch that woodstock vid.

i never fully switched to the benson technique but i DID switch my grip to something like him. at least some of the time.

[GPl]

Originally Posted by DonPedro

Well, I am actually a bit surprised to see how many here are using heavy picks, not really that much of a secret

In my circle, people just shudder at the sight of my pick, and almost everybody is using medium or normal heavy picks.

I hold a medium/light pick in my hand but am actually playing with a heavy small thick little bastard....when someone wants to know what pick, i pull out the light. Sometime ya gotta be a magician when your being a musician....

When recording guitar that I'm playing...I'll switch up picks depending on the flavor of the music...but i have always liked a thick heavy pick for the most part.

[DonPedro]

Of course it is Tony Danza. Who else could it be?

[5down1up]

i am searching for YEARS for the right setup ( well i guess ill never find it )

all kinds of strings , all kinds of guitars , all kinds of picks and all kinds of amps

after all of that testing , searching & crying 10.000.000³ tears :

its all good for something , theres no better and theres no best stike

and imho opionion the BEST sounding picks are still the fingers , theres no fatter tone , not on guitars and not on a bass and it adds the most dynamics to the playing as well . from real soft to BOING .

so , now i wasted 20 years to find out , just use what you got

[echo unit]

Hey Don,

Use your fingers dude. I do and it sounds way better than any pick of any shape or size.

A pick is like a wall between you and your guitar that stops your personality from coming through the instrumet you decide to play 100%.

[Doublehelix]

OK...I'm going to be the idiot here and disagree with the crowd.

I prefer a thinner pick since it gives me a wider range of tones.

I can hold the pick closer to the tip to get more rigidity or further away from the tip to get some "slap".

Also, with regard to pick angle...

I can vary my tones by varying the pick angle...and when I say "vary", I mean in 3 dimensions, not just straight in or up or down, but *sideways* and *rotated* as well.

To each his or her own I suppose. As I mentioned, I can coax more tones out of a guitar by using a thinner pick, and then vary the way I hold it.

FWIW, I use a .50 Tolex (red) and buy them by the bag since I will go through several of them in a night when gigging.

[ozraves]

I started using fat picks around 1980. Somewhere around 1995 or so I finally matured to using different picks for different sounds.

[waxnsteel]

I like the dunlop tortex, myself, different gages for different applications. I like the good pointy tip, so I've recently moved to the "The Wedge" version of the tortex. Someone said he used picks like EQ. I use em more for how they fit a style. For more strummy acoustic stuff, I go with the red ones. Picking out internal melodies and playing chords, I go with orange. If I were just playing leads, orange. Volume balance doesn't work right for me(hamfisted) if I use too light a pick and try to pick single note lines. On electric, though I go with green or blue. To go with this, I use the heaviest strings I can handle. 11's on electric, bluegrass guage on acoustic (12-56).

Tortoise shell is good stuff, as are dunlop's ultex, but I break them very easily. Even 1.0 mm

[rush]

Originally Posted by Doublehelix

OK...I'm going to be the idiot here and disagree with the crowd.

I prefer a thinner pick since it gives me a wider range of tones.

I can hold the pick closer to the tip to get more rigidity or further away from the tip to get some "slap".

Also, with regard to pick angle...

I can vary my tones by varying the pick angle...and when I say "vary", I mean in 3 dimensions, not just straight in or up or down, but *sideways* and *rotated* as well.

To each his or her own I suppose. As I mentioned, I can coax more tones out of a guitar by using a thinner pick, and then vary the way I hold it.

FWIW, I use a .50 Tolex (red) and buy them by the bag since I will go through several of them in a night when gigging.

I agree 100% .. I have lots more control with medium to heavy picks but I play with super light picks because I love the tones I can coax out!!!

[sekim]

My gig box has little compartments for different gage picks...just grab to suite the material/guitar...of course I have a pile of guitars strung up all different sorts of ways and a pile of amps...so why not a pile of picks too?! I've even been known to grind/file them to different angles and points.