tone, pick thickness, and pick noise

Passacaglia

Jazzaferri wrote:

5 bucks a dozen is way less stressful than 50 bucks each :shock:

Whoa! The Blue Chip runs this steep, Jay? That's a downpayment on my Vielle Reserve.

Jazzaferri

I know Paul, believe me I Know......And as I Am somewhat anal about gear, I have spares.

sjl

For me 2mm is the answer
>2 parasite noises
<2 too thin
I second the black dunlop gator poll. Cheap and great.

Buco

Passacaglia wrote:

One rather bothersome thing I've noticed using the Dunlop, is how often it flies out of my hand. At our Midwest Fest, playing until all hours of the morning fireside, I easily lost 8-10 in the darkness, pretty funny to recover them the next morning (perfect camo - kind of a dark green-gray). I presume that over time, this lame tendency will go away. I'm determined that if Hono, Denis, Adrian, et al can do it, at some point, I'll grow into them as well. At $5 a dozen, an attractive option.

Haha, I found one on Sun morning when I got up early and went up to the vanishing campfire.
I think I set it down on a chair or something.

klaatu

I find the Dugain contoured Tortoise colored acetate pick to be very quiet, with a nice warm tone:
http://tinyurl.com/8rd9qnr

It's beveled like the Wegen, with nice indents for your thumb and forefinger. The Dugain bone pick has a nice sound, but a little faint scraping noise that is not present in the Tortoise.

Buco

I just started using big city but the 1.4 variety cause that's what was being sold at Madison GJ fest when I decided to treat myself.
I really like the sound, it's not as fat as thicker Wegens but I don't think the sound lost the volume and it glides well over the strings.
My previous pick was a 2.5 (I think) Wegen that I would flip so that the indent is not on the thumb, following someone's advice from around here. This I liked too, it could produce better attack without change of effort. Before that it was 2mm Red Bear pick similar in shape as thicker Wegen but while it sounded good it was both thinner sounding and had less volume as I realized after returning to Wegen.
But I think what I like is the change itself, it reignites my interest in hearing the sound I produce thus reigniting the interest for practice and playing more in general which is something I'm constantly struggling with but that's a different topic. Pick noise that thicker Wegens produce never bothered me as I think it disappears in music but both Red Bear and Big City have less of it.
I think producing a clear note should be the first goal and having the sound you're after in your head will eventually get you there by trying to imitate, not to say it's that easy but trying to emulate something helps in my case.
Some tools are better than others but ultimatelly I agree, it's in the hands not in the tool.

Jazzaferri

To me the most important aspects of a pick are in descending order

Sound quality

Grip

Slickness over strings

Inherent lack of pick noise

I found that for me blue chip has the fattest tone of any of the box full of picks that. Have

I didnt notice any difference personally between the 80 = 2mm and the 100 = 2.5 mm blue chips in sound.

As soon as I get my studio back sometime this fall I will do some recordings with the different picks with the mics in the near and mid field positions to see what differences are noticeable at 5 feet.

Buco

You're really sparking my interest for the blue chip but I can't see myself spending that $ just yet.
Yet is the keyword here, when I first heard how much are these various hand made picks some years ago, I said "whaaaat that's crazy" and now I have at least a $100 worth of them.

Perltone

I just purchased a Blue Chip 80. All my other picks have gone into retirement. Tone, slickness, lead, rhythm, it surpasses everything I have. Excellent $50 investment.

B25Gib

There are way too many different guitar tonal qualities and player combinations of picking hand variables for me to believe that any one pick is the "Holy Grail" for all GJ applications. Consider: Is a guitar tone heavy on a basic fundamental tone or have alot of secondary overtones? Is it more complex, like a Selmer style or bell like as a good Busato style. Does it have Favino crunch or an old Castaluccia tone. All these differences can dictate a personal choice of pick, and there are so many available!
......I tried a friend's Blue Chip pick at DFNW and didn't hear any difference to my Wegen GJ 2.5mm on my Holo.
......That's the way I hear it!
......Rocky