Kids Do Not Try This At Home!
FYI celluloid burns like that. Other materials do not!
Every couple of years I ask myself why I’ve been using a my regular guitar pick. Sometimes I decide to make a change; sometimes I don’t. I was even on thumbpicks for a few weeks in 2004. That’s for another blog.
Here’s almost everything I know about the physical properties of guitar flat picks.
There are three basic plastics guitar picks are made from. There are exceptions made of things claiming to be space-age or indestructible. I don’t know anything about those. Use them at your own risk.
Celluloid Pick
(Derlin) Tortex Pick
(Nylon) Jazz III Pick
There are three basic pick shapes: standard, large/triangular & small/jazz/drop. Some of them come to a point; some are more rounded.
Picks come in different thicknesses.
Personal Observations:
- Celluloid – Bright & Somewhat Harsh When Used Clean
- Nylon (Jazz III) – Noticeably Warm
- Derlin (Tortex) – Neither Harsh Nor Warm, Not Many Overtones
Artist Usage:
- Most picks I have from pro Pop/Rock artists are of medium thickness. Some are a little heavier.
- I have an Yngwie Malmsteen pick that is extremely thick.
- I have a Ronnie Dunn pick that is extremely thin.
- ALL of my Berklee Guitar Professors who use picks, use heavy picks of standard shape.
- Pat Metheny is quoted as using thin picks with heavy strings.
- Eric Johnson has signature series Jazz III picks.
- Mark Tremonti uses Jazz III picks.
- Stevie Ray Vaughn was known to use a standard pick upside down.
- Joe Pass broke standard picks in half so he would have two smaller picks.
I suggest you find a shop that will sell you a variety of single picks. Do a lot of side-by-side comparisons. Then wake up tomorrow, & do them again. I would say that the shape & thickness of the pick depends on your playing style & the type of control you want to feel when you hold the pick, while the pick material has more to do with the tone you want & the way the pick wears down.
