How to Pick Picks:
Wow talk about a hard decision! We acoustic guitar people are very fussy about our picks. It seams as if we do not have access to our favorite pick or loose it, we tear the whole house apart looking for it in a nerve racking panic. Then you think…Why didn’t I just buy a dozen of these things anyway.
Sound familiar? Well if it does you are not in the minority. The guitar pick or plectrum provide the link and interaction between the guitar strings and the guitarists hand. This is indeed very important and once you settle in on a certain weight, material and shape, the tendency is to stick with it for a very long time.
If you are used to a heavy pick and you only have access to a thin or light pick, you feel like you are trying to play with a wet piece of cardboard. The same holds true for using a heavy pick when you are used to a thin. You feel like you are playing with a piece of steel. Yikes!!
I can tell you from experience that I have gone from light to medium to heavy myself. This is mainly because I started out with an electric guitar, so I used a light pick. As I graduated to Acoustic Guitars, I turned to medium, and as I make my final transformation to Flatpicking guitar, I now use exclusively a medium heavy to heavy pick.
Pick of the Picks – Pick Weight:
Pick weight probably has more to do with guitar tone output second only to the material, bracing and quality of the guitar itself. Here is what you can expect from each weight:
Thin: (.40 – .60mm thick) This will produce a very thin tone too. The pick tends to slap around quite a bit and it is almost impossible to play anything very fast, because you loose control.
Medium: (.60 – .73mm thick) These picks are what they exclaim in their name. They are a middle of the road weight. The tone of the guitar will be much fuller than with that of a thin pick and you will have a lot more control with the pick. It is still a bit thinner sounding that the heavy pick.
Heavy: (.88mm and up) The gage on the lower end of these picks tends to be termed medium heavy. I personally use a .88mm and I also feel comfortable with the 1.0mm picks. Anything heavier than that and it because too stiff for my playing tastes.
Pick of the Picks – Pick Materials:
Traditionally picks were made from celluloid or tortoise shell. There are many more choices available today, including nylon, tortex, ultex and many more.
This is really a very personal preference and you need to actually try out the picks to see what fits you the best. I personally prefer the Jim Dunlap Tortex picks. They are nicely polished, don’t have any sharp edges, have a matt surface and are easy to grip.
Pick of the Picks – Pick Shapes:
There are just about as many shapes of guitar picks as there are colors and weights. I think you will find, as I did, it is hard to beat the standard shaped pick. There is a reason it has been popular for so long. It is easy to grip and allows the perfect angle to strike the strings properly.
Again, I migrated through the triangular picks, the small mandolin style picks and so on and come back home to the old standard.
So choices may be many, but I would recommend to start with the standard shape and a medium to medium heavy. This is what most flatpickers use and you will find you can keep a great grip on the pick, have good control and get a great balanced tone from this pick.
