Plectrum Users - one or more?

[Alan_M]

Out of curiosity, do you use one type and thickness of pick only, or do you switch it up depending on what you are playing, either stylistically or by which guitar you are playing?

For instance, my main squeeze for playing electrics is a Clayton Acetal Rounded Triangle .80 MM, but I will sometimes use a .63MM for a softer attack, like playing reggae type stuff, or when hybrid picking to more closely match the sound of the finger plucks. I also find the thinner gauge more suited when playing my X-170 or Starfire.
I also switch to a 1.00MM for precision when doing a lot of high speed single note playing and sweeps.

However, when playing acoustic, I use the Fender 351 Shape Thin Celluloid, or sometimes the Clayton Acetal Rounded Triangle .63MM, including high speed picking like bluegrass, so my choice for high speed is totally different from acoustic to electric. I suppose it's mostly due to the lack of need to pluck as firmly when using the electric, and the lighter gauge of string?

Anyway, those are my preferences, what are yours?

 

[jcwu]

For 15 years, due to ignorance, I used only one type of pick, in one thickness. Three years ago I started experimenting with different materials and thicknesses. Now I carry a few different picks with me, using different thicknesses depending on the attack I plan to use.

 

[Wilfred]

One kind, 'Dawg' mandolin picks.

 

[alpep]

sold rosewood pick
they start out at 1.2
after use?
they get smaller

 

[walrus]

Always a standard medium pick.

walrus

 

[rickrider1948]

Play mostly acoustic folk and bluegrass. Use mostly Clayton 1.25 standard picks but I like to try different ones, like somehow they will magically make me play better.

 

[guildman63]

Dunlop Maxgrip Jazz III 1.38mm for all electric, and vintage tortoise celluloid medium gauge Guild 346 guitar picks for all acoustic.

 

[dapmdave]

Good old Fender mediums, preferably in MOTS.

 

[Treem]

.88 Snarling Dogs is my choice.

 

[Los Angeles]

So when I was playing in the 90's, I really like Dunlop Tortex picks, but I played very aggressively and the pick would move around and rotate from playing, I eventually started wearing through my own fingernails and realized that I needed to fix the problem, so I found a 3-hole punch in a drawer at my motel desk clerk job and punched a hole in the picks. Way, WAY better! So now the pick stayed in the same position, but it would still spin a bit. So then I realized that If I made 3 overlapping punches, The result was a bigger hole with three sort of teeth that gripped my fingers. Now the pick would stick out the same distance from my fingers, AND it wouldn't spin as I played. Everyone that I showed this to had the same comment: "You should patent that!" Well, I didn't.

Fast forward several years, and these came out:

I use the ones in orange.

They are identical to Dunlop Tortex picks but they are better AND they are cheaper. I'm a big fan, even if it makes me sad that it could have been me that made all that money.

 

[gilded]

LA, if it makes you feel better, I bet Everly Music isn't making a pile of money on their picks.

To the OP, I usually used Fender Medium in MOTS, but use the gray or black dunlops on mando. For bass, I just kind of scrounge around the band and see if anybody has a Large Pick they'll loan me. If not, Fender Medium to the Rescue!

Back when I wanted to be a Jazz Player, I used the small Fender Medium Jazz size picks.

 

[Yoko Oh No]

usually i shake the guitar and whatever falls out i use

i'm not picky

 

[shihan]

After years of using Dunlop 2mm picks, I started trying some of the other picks I've accumulated over the years. Now, I usually use a stone pick for jazzier stuff; it gives a really round, mellow tone and because it's so smooth, it makes fast (for me) picking easy. The other pick I've really grown to like is a silver quarter shaped into a pick. It digs into the strings and adds a percussive snap to the strings, perfect with a tele or P-90 LP.
The other thing I'm doing, and it may sound weird, is using a tiny dunlop jazz pick that I don't like to play scales. It seems like this makes me concentrate and be more precise with my picking. When I switch to a pick I do like, it makes playing seem effortless.

 

[Harpymorgan]

I use a 0.5 usually Dunlop. But I play the round side, not the sharp end. A bad habit I've picked up, but I like the sort of harmonic attack sound that it makes. Also a thinner pick is more responsive to how tight you hold it.