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Gipsy picks on round wounded strings
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I use flat wounded strings on my archtop, and round wounded on my acoustic guitar. I’ve used lots of different picks in my life: Dunlop Jazztone, Big stubby, Dunlop Delrin 500, Dunlop gator grips, Dunlop primetone… And also I’ve used Wegen, dugain and timber tones picks. The point is that picks on round wounded strings wear down so quickly (maybe is the way I play), in about 3 week or a month I need a new pick. You can do that with cheap picks, but not with Wegen, dugain etc, because they are so expensive.
Some one has the same problem? Some one restores or repairs picks to make them last longer? How can you restore them?
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That's odd--I've used the same Wegen picks (Bluegrass and Dipper) on phosphor bronze round-wounds for more than a year with no sign of wear. Nor do my other favored picks, the blue Dunlop Tortex. Of course, I use the shoulder rather than the point, but I have never worn out a pick of any kind. Broken 'em (the cheap hard-plastic ones), but never seen wear.
Jokko at Manouchepicks will make you a pick out of Rhinoforce. It's meant to be pretty durable.
I also wear away the edges of my picks - here's my advice. Polish the beveled edge of the pick with a piece of very fine emery cloth, #2500-#3000 grit every time you finish using it. It takes the rough edge off and polishes the bevel, and a smooth and polished bevel doesn't wear away nearly as fast. Polishing also improves the way the pick glides over the strings and also seems to get rid of some of the "click" that a very hard pick produces, too.
3 weeks to a month for a new pick is impressive! A new meaning of "shredding" :P
Do you play with the pick angled at all? Back in my teenage days when I played... progressive metal... I would use really heavy strings that would tear up jazz III picks pretty easily, but I also angled the pick into the string a bit more to play faster, which wore away at the edge. Now that I'm a little more tame and almost exclusively playing on Argentines, I've noticed that specific technique doesn't get a great sound, so I've retrained my hand to play with the pick a bit flatter against the strings. Not only does it produce a better sound, my picks are also lasting quite a long time.
Similar to @Russell Letson I use wegen picks, the big cities in 1.8mm. with the exception of losing one, haven't had to swap out for a new pick in almost a year. They are pricey but at least you get 4 in a set for the price of the fat wegens, which I find are a bit too clunky for me. Also tried the primetones which have an awful click when they hit the strings. I'm in love with the big cities, I highly recommend them!
My preferred pick is made by a guy in the UK. Here's a link to his ebay page https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gypsy-jazz-pick-3-5mm-Hand-made-from-casein-for-outstanding-tone-and-projection/274098050754?hash=item3fd18456c2:g:0uEAAOSwu-FdX8L-
He makes them from casein which is basically curdled milk. This is the same thing that Selmer used for their tuner buttons. They called it Gallalith - or milk-stone in Greek. As you can see price wise they're really reasonable and very, very durable. I've never had an issue with any picks I've ever bought wearing away so I've got nothing to suggest about that.
Here are a couple of pics of my absolute favourite pick which I've modified by re-bevelling the edge. It looks so grubby but hey ho.First the back and the second shows the front.
It looks like a detached nipple ?
Wim, thanks to your comment the pick shall be called 'the nipple' from now on.
The reason why my picks wear down so quickly is what Mac63000 said, I angle the pick into the string, maybe to play faster, so the wounded strings acts as a file or sandpaper against the pick (it doesn’t happen as much with flat wounded strings), the effect is that after about a month playing daily (particularly when comping that you hit all the strings) the pick starts to slide over the string, lose precision and gets a worse sound, so I need a new pick.
After so many years playing that way I don’t really feel like retraining my hand to play in other way. I think it would be very difficult for me comping with a heavy pick in a flatter position, the pick would get stuck in the strings. I’ll follow scot’s tips and see how it works. I’ll also try Casein picks.
Thankyou very much for your help
Have you tried BlueChip picks? Expensive, but pretty much bullet proof
?