The PICK thread

Im not big on picking, but when I do, my go-to is that purple tortex 1.14 that you have. I also like that ultex 1.14
I’ve got a drawer full of picks I’ve tried.

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BAM & BAM right there!

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Those are two of my favorites too. I really like Ultex and Tortex, 0.83 to 1.14. That range is my sweet spot.

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yeah, my range is from 0.88 to 1.40 but I mostly use the 1.14

Ultex only … nothing wrong with Tortex, sound-wise or feeling-wise … just that I wreck them way too fast. so, Ultex is the way to go for me. I’m using the normal “guitar” size, not those triangle picks. but I like small picks. (I use Ultex Jazz III with guitars ; very small picks … also very very very hard)

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I, too, am mostly using a 1.14mm :eyes:

Dunlop Flow style.

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:grimacing:

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Orange tortex .60mm for me. I like how bendy and snappy they are compared to when I was using a >=1mm pick

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Thinner picks are much easier to get started with for sure.

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yeah probably, and they bring an interesting character to the tone. it’s always useful to have a few thin soft picks in a box :slight_smile:

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When I want to pick, I have Hetfield’s White Fangs 1mm, awesome grip on them. Tried a bunch, now my L&M needs to have blue triangular 1mm tortex in stock.

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There’s no limit to the variety of picks. My experience was to start with some thinner picks just because it made the mistakes less painful to the ears. Of course maybe that’s the “violence and hate” Terb was referring to.

I use the Big Stubby picks in 3mm now that I’ve gotten better at it. I have osteo-arthritis in my thumbs in both hands and played fingers for years. I was starting to get some bad pain after gigs. I eventually learned that by clearing my tone up and using a pick I could get clearer, more defined sounds without so much force in the hands. Worked for me, feel better and like my sound better.

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Picking advice that just occurred to me: you want higher tension strings. Playing with a pick sucks on flubby strings. To me anyway, 45-100 rounds on a 34" feel great, and a .105 makes the E string feel a little better to pick (though it will buzz more). Picking a flubby B string is much less fun (despite sounding awesome) which is probably why I always liked .135’s more than .130s.

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Interesting. Maybe this is why it seams easier to pick on my 2-string slide bass with super high tension.

Now working on up/down as all the Morphine tunes can’t be played without up/down. Too fast at times.

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a .125 on my 35" Schecters is glorious to pick. A .130 is nice, too. All my 5-strings are tuned up half a step, now, and that extra bit of tension is nice.

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Yeah I bet 35” really makes a huge difference.

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Recently, I was trying a riff that is all open string on the E, and I was having a hard time to get it up to speed, because what I found was that that E string seems to be all over the place and I couldn’t hit it consistently, because it wasn’t consistent in the same spot. So what you are saying about higher tension strings for picking makes a lot of sense to me, this should help quite a bit for those kind of Riffs (in my case: White Zombie - Thunderkiss '65).

But what I find interesting: Billy Corgan once said that tuning down a half step feels great for picking. Could it be that it is the other way around for guitar, that “those people” want less string tension?

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as I’m very used to playing with a pick (from my guitar years) I can pick with low tension strings without much problem. as an example, I played my last cover with a low C on a 100 string (40/100 on Greenie) ; two full steps below the standard tuning. but that’s kinda extreme.

when I play a really fast line and I really need that “rebound” between two attacks, I prefer more tension. What I do then is than I place my attack closer to the bridge, which effectively increases the force you have to put locally on the string to make it vibrate.

also the pick choice can be more important for fast lines. I choose mostly a 1.14 Ultex in this context , wherhas I can choose one between 0.88-1.00-1.14-1.40 otherwise, depending on how I want my attack to sound.

but yeah, a bit more tension can really help, especially for those who are new to pick, I think, when the attack is not 100% consistent.

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I play mostly fingers, but when I pick, these are the ones.

And not just cuz the color, I like thin picks

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I recently discovered that Dunlop makes a 4.2mm pick… at about $6 USD each i cannot afford to lose one of those :joy:

V-Picks has the “Insanity” 11.85mm thick pick that costs about $40 :open_mouth:

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Holy hell
That’s only like 2.5 - 3mm string clearance on some basses

You would need a fat ass neck with 18-19mm string space to even consider it

Even then it seems like a novelty item.

But at $40 ea,…

I will stick with a pet rock. :wink: :rofl: :rofl:

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