Picks

Scoredog

As a relative GJ newbie I have been fooling around with picks.
So I did a glance over "search" here to see what people said about picks and found things like "these feel good" , "I really like these" etc etc but very little about the differences of tone between picks. Some of that may be because it's expensive to start comparing so many picks but my guess is people have experimented some. I have been using a tortoise shell like pick I picked up from **** and like it, I also tried out a Django pick from Michael and between these 2 had not touched my Wegen's in months. Just before an acoustic jam I pulled out the Wegen's and to my surprise they were not as mellow as the former 2 picks but much brighter and realized they would carry better in a jam. Using an amp and pickup changes that dynamic but for straight acoustic I realized in my past jam situations I would have been heard better using a Wegen. On the other side of this I would probably record with the tortoise shell type pics which sound less harsh but again that depends on the song. BTW my Wegen 2 and 5 mil's sounded similar to each other.

Anyway looking to see what others have discovered.

Jazzaferri

I use a Blue Chip Kenny Smith 60 (about 1.5mm). Very rounded tip but has speed bevel. Has the fattest tone and least pick noise of any pick I tried to date. If you are playing rhythm being heard is not ideal. If you are playing lead, and want a punchier, crisper attack, you might try a sharper point on your pick, a la Wegen Big City. My $.02

kevingcox

I hesitate to endorse simply "being heard" as the number one reason to use a particular pick. If I find myself struggling just to be heard I take it as a sign that I am at the wrong jam... either the other players are consciosuly trying to drown me out or they haven't got the musical sense to realize what they are doing.

The search for the perfect pick, or the resignation that it simply doesn't exist, seems to be a part of the journey. I have lots of friends who freak out over picks I hate and I myself have fallen in and out of love with at least a dozen different and expensive picks. Sometimes I play them and wonder what I was thinking, but sometimes it is like hanging out with an old friend.

Enjoy the journey.

anthon_74

I always go back to my Wegen. I've experimented with dugain picks made from bone, and another made from I think horn, but they always make too loud of a "ping" sound on the strings, and the tip wears out fast, and they're a bit heavy. The wegen is light and lasts a long time. Being heard will ultimately be more about your gypsy picking technique than the pick you use.

Charles Meadows

I got a Wegen M350 (Angelo Debarre uses them) and like it pretty well. Also love the Djangojazz faux tortoise 3.5mm. The Wegens certainly have a brashness to them. I can't yet get into the whole dunlop delrin picks. I have used those for mandolin for years. But on the GJ guitar they just sound too dark.

Scoredog

This thread is great, I'm hearing about tone so thanks everyone.

Anthony my technique could certainly be better, I can't play my fastest stuff at full volume except sweep stuff, I still need to bring it down a notch. I noticed in the short time we played at DF in Mill Valley you were very loud playing rhythm and I commented on that, it may also be because you were facing me and the room was very live. When i play with Patrick Ciliberto (Gonzalo's ex rhythm player) I have far less of that issue though it is still occasionally there. We are usually not in a live room and we don't face each other directly so that may be part of it.

Charles Meadows

Interestingly the Wegens seem to all sound the same to me. Big city, gypsy jazz and m series. The djangojazz are great. But the faux tortoise are the best. I found the cotton fiber djangojazz to have an occasional gritty feel on the strings.

Buco

I'm a blue chip guy, like Jay. I used to use the SR60 until I got the courage to buy KS60. They are both very warm sounding, SR60 will push more bass than KS60 but what to me is a remarkable property of these picks is the attack and what I love about them. And the click noise, at least in this thickness, is pretty much absent so all you hear is the sound of your guitar. And the warmth of it is similar to the sound of the flashy part of your thumb just with the volume of a pick that can really project. Every time I try, and usually buy a new pick I gravitate back towards blue chip.

anthon_74

Hey Scoredog ! sorry man, I didn't know who you were. I wasn't impugning your gypsy picking by any means, I was just echoing what a previous person had said.
As far as the volume of my guitar blasting you in the face, that was due to 4 things -
a) My guitar IS really loud
b) I play loud
c) You were kneeling right in front of my guitar hearing it head on. and
d) I was excited to see someone who actually had a Manouche style guitar with some real playing experience after sitting in relative silence due to the way the workshop played out... so I was probably hitting the strings extra hard.
Cheers !
Anthony

Scoredog

Hi Anthony,

no problems, I still have to work on my volume, not sure i'll get there though as I have some tendinitis. I was excited too to see someone who could play as there were no advanced players in that class. I had only wished we could have hung out some. Certainly considering going back next year as Santa Barbara is a reasonable day trip.

kevingcox

We also have to remember that sitting behind these guitars is quite different from being out in front. I have been in situations a few times where I switched guitars with someone and been jealous of the projection in volume and tone that they get, but later had third parties tell me that I was actually louder than the other player. It is helpful to remember that lesson as a rhythm player, especially when facing the soloist directly.

Threadjack question: clearly it will change in a jam, but has anyone noticed a penchant in European players to have the lead player to one side or the other on stage? I've never really looked for this detail, maybe I'll pay attention in the future.