Picks

anthon_74

Well Scoredog, like I think I told you, despite the distance, you HAVE to go to Django in june for the real experience. It's like burning man for gypsy Jazz players. I hear Djangofest NW in Washington is great too, although it's at the end of september and I can't personally take a trip at that time because I teach in and around the school system.
The only downside to django in june is it can be a tad bit discouraging at first seeing just how good many of these cats are. Everybody I know has the same feeling of being knocked down a peg or 5 or 6 when they arrive to their first Django in June. My eyes were bugging out of my head the first day I was there, as I stared at a 14 year old Antoine Boyer playing stuff I barely thought possible. you think watching youtube videos prepares you for it, but it doesn't.

Anthony

rgrice

I'm currently too obsessed with achieving the perfect live electrified sound that I can't get sidetracked on picks! There's always the quest for perfection in some area of playingplaying, isn't there! I'm pretty happy with Wegen, except I had to get a white one to locate in dark cafes!

woodamand

As someone who is new to this style, without even a manouche guitar yet, I find the pick conversations on this site to be interesting and unusual. Maybe since I have been playing all sorts of guitar music in differing styles on different guitars for years now, and when I use a flat pick, it is always the same kind of flat pick .60 or .73 Dunlop nylon. I hope going down this road that I don't get pick obsessed, since I feel like the sound needs to come from your fingers first. I would hate to get wound up if I lost a particular pick.
I am a long time reed player, and my clarinet teacher consistently told me, its not the reed - its what you do with what comes in contact with the reed - your mouth and the air pressure. Reed players obsess about reeds, many of them. Even the greats like Benny Goodman, so I read, would go thru 100 reeds until he found the right one. I don't do that at all, use my reeds for a long time, and people say I have a good tone on my horn.
I will no doubt buy a wegen or some such when I get a guitar, but for sure when I try out an instrument, I will be using what I know works for me, otherwise I will be dancing in roller skates, you know?
So - who has the largest collection of picks on the forum? Inquiring minds want to know!

Scoredog

Hopefully I don't...actually I am sure of it. I used the small Dunlop jazz picks for years for my regular playing until I got into GJ 2 years ago. I figured I'd find one pick and be done but for me I am actually enjoying using different picks. I know some people like to get used to one pick and that's that, but being able to achieve different tones, get brighter or mellow and adjust to different guitars is kind of an inexpensive way to change tone. Within a few seconds of picking up a different pick I find I can adjust pretty quickly.

woodamand

Certainly I will try a few, although paying more than 75 cents for a pick will be weird. I do like the idea of different tones for different picks, something to think about.

Jim Kaznosky

I think most people here understand that the pick is not going to make a person instantly better. This music is technically demanding that the pick is, as Tim Kliphuis said to me, our bow. It should be something we are comfortable with. I feel that having experience with a variety of picks is healthy if you have the time (and money) to do so. It's unhealthy if you obsess over these as if it is the final piece for giving you the sound. While I usually use a Wegen on gigs, I'll also bring something with a more rounded edge (used to be a Bluechip until I lost two of them) like a dunlop, and I'll even bring something with a point. It depends. I play the same with each of these, but I look at the different picks as adding a different accent.

Jazzaferri

A great pick, which is an individual thing, just makes it a little easier to play how you want to play. Yes you can rock climb in sandals or hiking boots, but a pair of sticky climbing shoes does make it easier.

alton

woodamand wrote: »

So - who has the largest collection of picks on the forum? Inquiring minds want to know!

So who does have the largest collection here?

I am also new to GJ. I definitely became obsessed with Gypsy jazz picks. I bought a Wegen Fatone and that was it! I now own several different Wegens, I bought a Djangojazz Django model (at $40!) and I even bought one of those crazy loud picks from Rino at DiJ. And you know what? They're all awesome, just in different ways!

Being new to GJ, and still on my first GJ guitar, when I got to DiJ this year (my first of hopefully many), I thought, "well that's it - my guitar isn't nearly loud enough, and just doesn't have THAT sound. I clearly need a new one!"

Then, at my first "facilitated jam" class, Ghali Hadefi, who was playing upright bass, needed a guitar to demonstrate guitar lines, and since I was sitting closest, I offered my humble guitar. All of a sudden, my guitar was awesome and had that sound! Later I found out that he used a Dunlop gator grip 2.0.

Anyone else hear him use one of those picks on his Selmer 607 replica? Holy shit.

I have been refining my rest stroke technique (or at least trying - it ain't easy!), and I tend to cycle through my pick collection, alternating picks based on days, weather, moods, moon phases, etc (Just kidding). I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't matter what pick you use, so long as 1) it has absolutely no "give" - has to be heavy 2) you have good technique (which I mostly do not) and 3) you know what you are doing and play it like you mean it (Also not always me).

That being said, I am still a total geek! Who has the largest collection?

Charles Meadows

I'd guess Michael by default. I've got tortoise, djangojazz, Rino, Red Bear, Wegen, Blue Chip, and Dunlop. My fav is between Wegen and Djangojazz. Still not sure.

Jazzaferri

Well for sure Michael has the largest collection. I have 5 different types of Blue Chip, 4 different Wegens and a couple of Dunlops. Most of them live in my drawer.