Do you ever bevel you picks?...and what your go to shape?

All of our hands vary along with our muscles and nerve synapses so I suppose some pick mods can be beneficial to many folks.

Myself, personally, I just need black jazz IIIs. BLACK only. No mods necessary. As crazy as it sounds, the black ones play faster for me. Always used the red's until I went to the local shop and they only had black. I figured, jazz III is jazz III... until I played them and was really surprised that the blacks are faster than the reds. IME, the ultex jazz IIIs have the most drag compared to the others. As for tone... thinking back, I never really considered it, maybe it matters, maybe not. All I know is that the black ones play so easily for me that my tone probably benefits because of it. YMMV of course.
 
For the last 6 years, I was experimenting with only finger and nail picking picking my electrics. About a year ago, I came back to the pick.

I'm currently in the process of experimenting with all sorts of picks. Prior to my experiment, I had used Dunlop Tortex .88 mm and 1.14 mm 'forever'.

My current favorites are Primetone .88 mm and TUSQ .88 mm warm, deep and bright. Primetones come with a more polished/refined bevel than the TUSQs. I do not re-shape or re-bevel Primetones.

The thing I like about the TUSQs is, there is a very noticeable difference in sound between them. The thing I do not like is, after some wear, they develop an edge that doesn't break off and hangs on. I hit them with 1000 and 2000 grit paper to re-establish the shape and bevel.

So yeah... I'm a fan of beveled picks. To me, they sound cleaner and less scrapey than the Tortex I had used 'forever'.
 
My picks are stone or carbon fiber with bevels already there. I was thinking there must be a machine that will make this easier for those that desire a beveled pick. Google did not let me down.

machineryone.com

Baileigh Beveling Machine CM-6-1.0

DESCRIPTION Looking to add a chamfered edge to sheet material without breaking the bank? Look no further than this plate beveler. 1.5 hp motor runs on 110-volt single-phase power. Puts up to 6mm chamfer on any edge. Adjustable bevel angle, from 14° up to 45°. 5-blade cutting wheel provides a...
machineryone.com machineryone.com
 
Victor Vector said:
Only 10 bucks?....youve never played (or bought) a Blue Chip pick then. Theyre 40 bucks BUT totally worth it especially for acoustic/mandolin until you lose it....Ive lost 2 lol.
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That's all I've been playing for maybe 5-6 years. I have a few in each guitar case in a pick wallet thing that also holds capo and spare strings.

Haven't lost one, and none of them show any wear at all, which is unbelievable.

I like a beveled pic, too. If memory serves, the BC picks I bought are beveled. They definitely glide through the strings faster.

There are bevel angles that work better for me than others, I've found.
 
DreamTheaterRules said:
p.s. as to your specific topic question though, I found sharper edges create drag and actually slow me down. That's why I don't like super sharp pick points as well.
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I think this is true if the edges are too sharp, but angles and sharpness can be varied with a bevel. I'm not into super sharp points, but the Jazz III shape seems to work for me on electric guitar because it's so darn accurate. Doesn't work for me on acoustic, though. I have no idea why. Maybe because the strings are farther apart?
 
László said:
That's all I've been playing for maybe 5-6 years. I have a few in each guitar case in a pick wallet thing that also holds capo and spare strings.

Haven't lost one, and none of them show any wear at all, which is unbelievable.

I like a beveled pic, too. If memory serves, the BC picks I bought are beveled. They definitely glide through the strings faster.

There are bevel angles that work better for me than others, I've found.
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Yea BC's are IMHO the best pick there is. The fact that they dont wear after hundreds of hours of playtime itself is pretty amazing. Combine that with the playability they create along with the tone (you can REALLY hear the tonal aspect on acoustics: projection,clarity) its really worth the steep price tag.

I remember when I first heard about BC's. My reaction was the same as everyone elses...."WHAT?!! 40 bucks for a PICK!?!!" but man oh man they are worth every penny in retrospect especially if you are an acoustic player.
 
Victor Vector said:
Yea BC's are IMHO the best pick there is. The fact that they dont wear after hundreds of hours of playtime itself is pretty amazing. Combine that with the playability they create along with the tone (you can REALLY hear the tonal aspect on acoustics: projection,clarity) its really worth the steep price tag.

I remember when I first heard about BC's. My reaction was the same as everyone elses...."WHAT?!! 40 bucks for a PICK!?!!" but man oh man they are worth every penny in retrospect especially if you are an acoustic player.
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They produce a super-solid fundamental tone, with a smooth attack that isn't clacky. I really like that. I use them 95% of the time.

However, there are rare times when I'm putting together a track for clients when I'll use a cellulose pick precisely because it has that clacky attack and more harmonic content than fundamental. It can be ear candy to just hear a little of that over the top of a dense mix, to give a song some added rhythmic pulse without taking up the whole frequency spectrum, or having to use a lot of EQ.
 
I love the Jazz III ones for leads...but I have problems for playing rhythm parts with them. They feel too small in my hand, like they are constantly about to slip away. I have recently tried the John Petrucci Jazz III ones and they are absolutely fantastic: the material feels faster and they are a bit bigger, so it helps to fix my problem with them...almost.
 
I'm pretty exclusive to RedBear, one of the prime bevelers of custom picks, but I only use the non-beveled ones. To me pre-beveled picks glide over the strings like well broken in ones, but the articulation goes to shyt, making my (too many note:rolleyes:) runs sound like mush.

Forces me to really adjust my grip technique on chording, but I live with that in order to hear most of the notes in my single note lines.
 
Juan Luis Vidal said:
I love the Jazz III ones for leads...but I have problems for playing rhythm parts with them.
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For acoustic playing, I got some of Blue Chip's slightly larger Jazz III shaped picks; the larger grip area helps with the heavier strings on an acoustic, and because there's no cross-hatching or ribbing,I can turn the pick to one of the other ends for strumming. I also use their TP pick with a larger grip area, but pretty much the same tip as the Fender shape, as well as their traditional Fender-size pick.

It doesn't help that my hands are very dry - things tend to slip.
 
László said:
It doesn't help that my hands are very dry - things tend to slip.
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alantig said:
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It's good stuff, truly, but I must have clean hands, so that I can ascend the mountain of the Lord. I think I also need to figure out a way to have a pure heart and so on...

Seriously, in a session I go from guitar to keys and back a bunch. Sticky fingers work for holding picks, but they slow ya down on keys. It's a life of intractable suffering to be me.
 
László said:
Seriously, in a session I go from guitar to keys and back a bunch. Sticky fingers work for holding picks, but they slow ya down on keys. It's a life of intractable suffering to be me.
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For me, it's one of those things that's good in theory, not so much in practice. If it's not a synth keyboard, it's a computer keyboard. If it's not a keyboard, I'm switching to fingerstyle. And it gets in the way as much as it helps.
 
alantig said:
For me, it's one of those things that's good in theory, not so much in practice. If it's not a synth keyboard, it's a computer keyboard. If it's not a keyboard, I'm switching to fingerstyle. And it gets in the way as much as it helps.
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If I did a whole gig on guitar, I'd probably get some, though.
 
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