What pick do you pick when you pick a pick for your picking?

[Teleguy61]

Or, how many picks would a pickup pick if a pickup could pick picks?

 

[roadbiker]

(After some thought I put this in the Acoustic forum rather than elsewhere because I'm mainly interested in what other acoustic players use. Not that the electric or archtop folks don't matter, but their requirements are going to be different.)

So, guys. Picks.

There are about eleventy thousand different choices, and yet we each seem to find our favorites. I've known players who have crazy expensive picks, tending towards being super thick, and I've also known players who are fine with basic Fender medium faux-tortoise or plain Dunlop Tortex. I even met one guy online who strongly favors picks made from old credit cards with a Pick Punch, and I refrained from suggesting a psychological evaluation; whatever works for him.

So what's your preference? And why?

Myself, I favor these Cool Picks ultra, in medium gauge:



They're made of something that Cool amusingly calls "cellulon bi-matrix," which sounds like a mouthful of techno-bull, but it is a very unusual material. If you drop one on a hard surface, it sounds like glass. And they really do have a tone all their own, bright and crisp. I like them for the tone, for the rubberized grip, and for having very pointy points. What I don't like as much about them is their price (usually about a buck apiece) and their longevity, which is pretty short. These are the only picks you will consistently wear out before losing them, because they're not really intended for the kind of wear acoustic strings put on them.

After playing so many years and not paying too much attention to picks, I usually used the free picks in the guitar stores (remember when they did that?), you know, the tortoise shell looking picks. I used generic, Fender, Guild, Taylor and some other picks. Not much of a difference. Then about 15 years ago I bought some Dunlop picks. I tried a variety of them and really liked them. I preferred the purple .71mm picks, but I also tried the yellow Tortex .73mm and green Tortex .88mm picks. I liked the yellow ones okay, but the green ones, not so much. I tried Davi picks too. They are also good picks with a nice grip and they flex a little by design. I like them and used them for a few years. Then I stumbled upon Gravity Picks! They are now my "go to" picks and the only ones I use. When they first came out, they were about $5/pick, which I thought was pretty pricey, but they are really great picks. They are acrylic picks made in the USA and what I like about them most is that you don't really hear the pick; only the notes/chords. I use the .60mm classic picks(purple). I have a bunch of other ones as well, but the .60s are my favorite. They have a good grip and they last a good long time. I used to buy them directly from Gravity, but now you can get them from Sweetwater... and for a good price.

 

[Guildedagain]

Sleater Kinney was named after an offramp ;]

 

[Bill Ashton]

Typical LTG vere...I cannot say I really "like" Sleater Kinney's music, though I kind of enjoy watching them (YouTube videos). What I do like is their "hiatus" band Wild Flag, kind of power-pop, kind of not...



Regardless, the Guild looms large...

In hindsight, is it perhaps the 1986 Volvo 244 that gets my juices flowing? Probably not, no Blaupunkt radio, some replacement

 

[S100]

I think Sleater-Kinney is an amazing band. Corrine Fisher can belt!

 

[donnylang]

Took me forever to find one in this gauge (.58- Thin-Medium), but this D’Andrea celluloid pick is my fave for my ‘67 D40:

… hard to photograph, but they are slightly curved- took a little getting used to but I like it. *Pictured w/ guitar + strings, as I think these are not minor factors in choice of pick ha.

 

[Muckman]

After using a variety of Jazz III and Flow picks for a while, I found my old stash of picks from when I was playing a lot of mandolin and first trying to flatpick. These Dawg picks are, to my understanding, D' Andrea Pro Plek mandolin picks with a slightly different shape to one corner. I had over a dozen of these stashed away....at first I didn't really care for the massive width of them, I filed one down considerably until it was essentially the size of a standard Fender celluloid pick, but it lost some of the heft to the tone. This one works really well for me, the point I put on it and the mass of it, makes for a very versatile pick. Big and bright tone

 

[walrus]

I tried the Dunlop Flow picks and liked them, but they wore down pretty fast.

Just out of curiosity, anyone try these? I was too afraid, what a massive pick! Dunlop Flow Jumbo, 4.2.





walrus