Ever since my Tonare Grand came over the summer, I have been experimenting with guitar picks. I've found quite a few I've really liked, and I've learned a lot about the pick's effect on the guitar's tone, and what works well with my picking hand. Everything seems to matter with this stuff. Various picks enhance or attenuate different frequencies; they all seem to come off the strings differently; the shape and tips can enhance, or get caught up in the strings. Etc.
I'm not going to review the picks I've tried except to say that the two I like best are the Dunlop Ultex large jazz point picks for acoustic, and Jazz III for electric, and the pick I got to play around with for the last couple of days, the Blue Chip Jazz 50 that works for both, and honestly is worth the price of admission if you are a tone freak. Here it is on my mousepad along with a predictably fussy little wooden pick case I bought about 20 years ago:
You know you're kind of nuts if you pay $35 for a guitar pick, and feel like it was a pretty good deal.
But the only way I can describe the sound of these is...delicious. Really. They sound delicious. They're sparkly sounding, but also warm. They fly off the strings, yet the tone is all there. Most bright sounding picks are clacky against the strings, and lose the lower mids, not these.
Why are they so costly? Well, the reviewers have said that the material costs two arms and two legs, some kind of unobtainium that costs the maker over 4 grand a 10" by 10" sheet. They're CNC'd and beveled by hand. So there's that. But whatever, they really work. After they get warm from your hand, they feel slightly tacky, but they don't seem to leave any residue on your fingers, which is kind of odd in a good way. Because they don't slip around while you're playing, something I often struggle with in the middle of a take.
They're not pretty, like faux sea turtle or celluloid. That's because the material comes one way, and it is what it is. But...the tone is there.
I'm of the understanding that they wear like iron. They don't turn into broken potato chips if you have them in the pocket of your jeans in the washing machine (I haven't tried this yet, but I'm sure it will happen sooner rather than later because I tend to forget, and yeah, I keep it in that pick case in the hopes of preventing that happening).
Worth the price of an entree at a halfway decent restaurant? Well, for tone like that, sure. If I skip lunch every day, maybe I can get another one.
I'm not going to review the picks I've tried except to say that the two I like best are the Dunlop Ultex large jazz point picks for acoustic, and Jazz III for electric, and the pick I got to play around with for the last couple of days, the Blue Chip Jazz 50 that works for both, and honestly is worth the price of admission if you are a tone freak. Here it is on my mousepad along with a predictably fussy little wooden pick case I bought about 20 years ago:
You know you're kind of nuts if you pay $35 for a guitar pick, and feel like it was a pretty good deal.
But the only way I can describe the sound of these is...delicious. Really. They sound delicious. They're sparkly sounding, but also warm. They fly off the strings, yet the tone is all there. Most bright sounding picks are clacky against the strings, and lose the lower mids, not these.
Why are they so costly? Well, the reviewers have said that the material costs two arms and two legs, some kind of unobtainium that costs the maker over 4 grand a 10" by 10" sheet. They're CNC'd and beveled by hand. So there's that. But whatever, they really work. After they get warm from your hand, they feel slightly tacky, but they don't seem to leave any residue on your fingers, which is kind of odd in a good way. Because they don't slip around while you're playing, something I often struggle with in the middle of a take.
They're not pretty, like faux sea turtle or celluloid. That's because the material comes one way, and it is what it is. But...the tone is there.
I'm of the understanding that they wear like iron. They don't turn into broken potato chips if you have them in the pocket of your jeans in the washing machine (I haven't tried this yet, but I'm sure it will happen sooner rather than later because I tend to forget, and yeah, I keep it in that pick case in the hopes of preventing that happening).
Worth the price of an entree at a halfway decent restaurant? Well, for tone like that, sure. If I skip lunch every day, maybe I can get another one.