Pick thicknesses

Hey Guys, 🙂

Well, I mostly agree with Pavel’s advice/opinions. Thinner picks might seem easier at first, but then alternate-picking at warp-speeds (above my pay-grade mind you – LOL!!!) from what I’ve been told – is more difficult. Since I haven’t graduated my sixteenths past the “moderato/allegro” tempo-range (approx. 138 BPM’s :o) I can only speak to a pick’s thickness in terms of tone and “slower-stuff.” First of all, there are exceptions to just about everything! That being said, it seems that most shredders (sixteenths @200 BPM and beyond!) generally favor thicker picks! Personally,I find that medium guage picks are only very useful for “jangly-acoustic strumming” and ripping distorted pick-scrapes! (Seriously!) In fact, the two rock guitarists who come to mind that use medium picks are Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoades! Eddie really doesn’t do too much staccato/alt.-picking stuff (I know there are probably some exceptions, but mostly legato, pick & legato combinations, and/or tapping. Randy using medium picks surprises me a bit (I actually just read that tidbit/fact earlier today in my new Guitar Player mag!) Randy could/did bring the alternate-picked staccato (and bring it he did!!! I won’t bother citing specific examples, but suffice to say, there are several! Anyways, if you think about it, one thing that both Eddie & Randy had in common (besides a boatload of talent, good-looks, California living, and superb sense-of-time!) were their kick-ass pick-scrapes/pick-slides!!! I know that’s NOT a technique that requires a whole lotta talent, but it is almost impossible to get their kind of “scrapiness” from anything heavier than a medium pick! I guess that’s why it was fairly easy for me to believe that both Randy and Eddie used the mediums. (I’ve known about EVH using mediums for a long time though!) Another important point regarding pick-guage is picking dynamics & tone. If you have a light pick-grip-pressure and excellent “guaging-of-the-tip” (IE: using the very tip only – like 1/8th” to 1/16″) you should be able to get varying amounts of dynamics to your playing, and the heavier pick-thickness allows you a much wider dynamic-range. A thin-pick (by comparison) is almost like having a built in limiter! IE: You can only get so much out of the string! 😉 😎

For whatever it’s worth, I’ve been favoring Ibanez Rubber-Grip Heavy’s for about a year now (I occasionally use the Ibanez Rubber-Grip Mediums for my Tool-Tribute and acoustic duo gigs.) 😎

Remember what I said at the outset here…There are exceptions to everything! That being said, I hope what I’ve added here can provide some perspective and insight? 😉

BTW, I’m seeing Jeff Beck a week from tonight…NO PICKS ALLOWED!!! 😮 :p

~Bill Meehan~ 😀

I’m a thin pick guy. I have a heavy right hand technique, and with thick picks I can waste a set of strings in 2 days (believe me, I have actually done it lol). I use dunlop .60mm tortex (the orange ones) because they have the best balance for me, they’re not too thin, but they have enough flexibilty to suit me.

Each to their own I guess…….

IMO, picks are like everything else music related, you have to find what suites your needs and most importantly whats comfortable to you. I use Jazz III myself, but every once in awhile switch to 1mm nylon. Like lyle said he picks heavy, so yeah lighter gauge probably is best for him. I tend to pick heavy sometimes, (not so much now) i don’t think any way..hehe, so i used to have a big problem picking everything harder the faster i went. So heavy gauge probably wasn’t the right pick for me at the time. But as you slowly mature as a player you learn control, instead of being so spastic. I am still spastic…LOL, but it’s getting there.

Point is, you can either adapt to one kind of pick or experiment with several others. I have tried others and so far the Jazz III and 1mm black nylon are best for me.

At the moment I use Dava Jazz Picks and Dunlop Jazz III, but I use the Davas more at the moment, because they are a little bigger, which I like.
Before I used Dunlop Tortex Shaprs, V Picks, Planet Waves, Dunlop Nylons 1mm, but it changes all the time.
Just two weeks ago I used a really big and heavy pick, no idea which company it is of, I just bought it sometime ago to try if it suits me.
In general I prefer picks that are resistent and don’t “bend” too much. It just gives me a better feel and it feels more controlled to me 🙂
And I also prefer pointy picks.
But I still haven’t found THE pick for me, but I feel pretty good with the Dava Jazz ones and the Dunlop Jazz III.