My secret weapon for guitar...

[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

[neve1073]

I've been using the purple (heaviest) dunlop picks since 1983. My tone and my technique are fine.

If I get a chance though, I will try to check out one these picks you speak so highly of. There is a store I go to sometimes that may have them.

Thanks for the tip.

[max cooper]

I like the cross-section of the Fatone (isn't that a singer from NSync?) so I'll definitely check it out. I use .6 or .8 Dunlops; the rounded triangle ones, but I like a thick heavy deal once in a while.

RE: the Fatone (isn't that a singer from NSync?) - They don't have any singers that I know of. The FatOne is a large caliber weapon...

Sorry, I just had to be a jerk for a few seconds. I'm passing your tip on the my partner's sson who plays guitar...

<L>

[Riad]

I've been using yellow (.73mm) Dunlop pics for about 7 years, love them.

I also play with custom set of strings (13,16,19,28,38,56(or 58) tuned down a half step.

Rob

[WEAPON_X]

2mm here.

i always tell people "who cannot play with such size, will never archieve size in sound.".
with good right hand technique and trained left/right hand sync, you can play anything at any speed with hell of more definition and punch, but yet fat.

[zakco]

Are you talking about electric gtr exclusively?

As a live player, I'd maybe agree....but in the studio I use picks like EQ. With acoustic guitars pick choice can be as effective as mic placement in certain situations....at least in my experience. A fender medium can do wonders to open up an otherwise tubby acoustic tone.
-Z-

[swankdoc]

yup, big fat pics are good. Notice the taper edge of course.
Also I think proper pic grip is pretty essential to good technique. An undervalued "basic". Ive mentioned pic materials before, and I love the (mock of course) tortise shell ones.

Oh and the comment above re acoustic strumming with light pics is oh so true......good one.

[GMR]

A pick makes a lil' difference but not as much as fat string and a fat Guitar neck. I use 13-52. That I'll give you more tone and fatness than any pick!

[DonPedro]

Originally Posted by zakco

Are you talking about electric gtr exclusively?

As a live player, I'd maybe agree....but in the studio I use picks like EQ. With acoustic guitars pick choice can be as effective as mic placement in certain situations....at least in my experience. A fender medium can do wonders to open up an otherwise tubby acoustic tone.
-Z-

I don't play acoustic guitar that much, but last week I was asked to do a session with a friend, and couldn't turn him down. Of course I used my preferred pick. I don't have a comparison for you, but this is me and my fat pick on 0.11 strings.

Here is an example

[kats]

I've always have used the hardest picks available (not the thickest). Moreso because the "play" in softer picks slow me down. Having said that, you can dig in with harder picks which has a definate impact on tone as well.

I don't like dunlops (the nylon ones) because they get a little rough and scratchy as soon as they wear a little.

[eligit]

if you guys want to have your mind blown read this essay:

http://www.tuckandpatti.com/pick-finger_tech.html

he holds the pick kind of like jimi and it basically gets some of the things you are talking about. with a totally different method tho. wild stuff.

get out your reading glasses. it is LOOOOOOONG.

[DonPedro]

Holy sh. Good stuff.

[borau]

Yeah, Pat Methenys guitar sound totally suck because he uses a 0,27mm pick.

I tried using a pick made of granite once. Didn't sound too bad actually.

[Harley-OIART]

Absolutely hell on earth for your guitar strings but alot of fun sonically (brightness up the ) are those all metal picks. Just a slab of aluminum or stainless steel with the dimensions of I'd say a dunlop .55

Cool to goof around with for pick slides...

Anyway,
Scott

[warhead]

A guy was in my place the other day, playing with a turtle shell pick. I'd never seen a real one! It was very tough and thick.

Real turtles sound better.

War

[eligit]

Originally Posted by borau

Yeah, Pat Methenys guitar sound totally suck because he uses a 0,27mm pick.

I tried using a pick made of granite once. Didn't sound too bad actually.

well, with ALL the high end taken out of your signal who knows what the guitar sound actually is??


i keed.

[eligit]

Originally Posted by DonPedro

Holy sh. Good stuff.

probably the most interesting and in depth thing on picking i've ever seen. there is a LOT there even if you do not adopt what he considers the best way to go....incredible work.

[Sounds Great]

I started on bass so I was always using heavy picks. When I picked up on guitar I never changed. I would eat through a light pick in no time. I wear down the heavy ones pretty quick as it is.

[henryrobinett]

Tortoise shell picks!!!!!!!!!!! I love them. I used to studied with this guy Warren Nunes who had his student use these picks. They were thick and hard. You filed a corner down smoother it out with sandpaper. Then took a match to the center of it until it was soft and malleable. Then grabbed it like you'd hold it. It took shape and molded to the contours of you fingers holding it. And it sounded great. Kind of like your fingernails but firmer.

Then many years ago - mid seventies, they made it illegal. So no more tortoise shells.

So since I've had a hard time. For the last 15 years or so I've been using cooperpicks, thick. Hotlicks. I dig 'em. But not like tortoise shells.

[Mr. PC]

Hey Don-

That sounded good. Seemed to be a good "tone-to-attack" ratio. It wasn't too stringy sounding.

PC

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by GMR

A pick makes a lil' difference but not as much as fat string and a fat Guitar neck. I use 13-52. That I'll give you more tone and fatness than any pick!

I agree... but I go 13-60. Gotta resonate the wood.

[catfish11]

13-52 here too

as i have said here before, thick strings and pick are more noticable than higher sample rate, and much else

rock is ALL technique

not that i am all that

[Seamus]

Billy Gibbons uses an old Peso. Now that's fat.

[84K]

Never tried those picks, but I have gotten in arguments with people on the importance of the pick to the tone. Literally, arguments. Not fun. Some people think these things don't matter. I get

[Jamz]

Very nice clip DonPedro. Congratulations on continuing your 20 year passion.
Thanks for the info.
For as many posts there are as many opinions on several different makes, sizes and techniques. Sounds pretty familar. Whatever works.
To each his own.

However, I now have this funny vision of people reading this thread and naively handing tortoise shell, granite or metal picks to guitar players as they are about to record claiming "this is the sound".

[warhead]

Actually I picture the "tortoise shell pick dealer" approaching a guitarist from the dark corners of a studio and claiming he's got the good shit if he wants to fly.

War

[everybody's x]

I use a very thin .38mm dunlop. 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

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by DonPedro

Ok, here it goes:

I have been playing the guitar ...

A good point. A lot of us get into certain habits and, while they may have made sense at one point, as our playing or goals evolve, they may be holding us back.

I had always used medium picks for my electric work, since that was what I used for steel string acoustic and it felt right in my hands.


Back in the mid-late 90's I decided I wanted to get a Curtis Mayfield style wah wah sound so I really listened to his playing.

I realized he probably used his fingertips in a kind of roscioto (sp? -- I can never even get close enough to successfully look it up) thang, brushing the fingertips over the strings in a tight pattern.

As I was fooling around I started playing some leads, using my fingers instead of a flatpick.

Holy bananas. I felt like I could play so much more precisely -- and so much faster. (It must be said that I'd been working on my fingerpicking on gut string classical for more than a while before that.)

It took a little getting used to, at first, but I pretty much never went back, except for things that don't translate well... downstroke 8ths (yeah, like I use a lot of those in the 21st C! ) and "pinch" harmonic leads (ditto).



Back on the plectrum front -- several years ago a bass player gave me a big ol' really, really fat pick made out of some odd material (I think it's a graphite-resin compound or something) with a soft, non-slick texture. I've never been great with my fingers on my fretless bass (although I do often pick up a note or two extra with a finger when I slide chords for that Mick Karn effect [see note on 21st Century above].) But this pick (salted away somewhere for safekeeping so I sadly can't tell you the name), which must be the thickness of about 4 medium picks put together, with nice, textured, rounded edges, gives the most "finger-like" sound of any pick I've ever used on a bass. Really something.

[henryrobinett]

Originally Posted by warhead

Actually I picture the "tortoise shell pick dealer" approaching a guitarist from the dark corners of a studio and claiming he's got the good shit if he wants to fly.

War

Yeah boy. I haven't done drugs in many, many, many years, but I'd take some of that good shit in a dark corner. I'd love to have a bunch of triangular tortoise shell picks.

I also use the rounded edge of the pick. I like the sound much better than the sharp, pointy end.