New Wegenpicks?

Jangle_Jamie

Thanks Michel, that's great. I am guilty of thinking 3D printing is just pressing a button and out it plops, so it's great to hear about your journey and equipment. I'm guessing you're hand finishing and polishing them too.

Back to the pick you sent me. I'm finding the teardrop shape not quite sharp enough at the point, so that the pick is sliding across the strings as opposed to digging in a bit more. It may that I've got so used to my Dugain picks that anything else seems different and hard for me to warm to.

I'd like to hear what others think too, particularly those who normally use all sorts of different picks.

Buco

I'll just chime in to say I received the envelope today. One for me and for Bill. I'll write here in detail after I spend time with them but so far, today, I'm enjoying playing with them.

Buco

I've had about a week with these.
I used a regular GP (3.5 mm) most of the time, vs GP250. Didn't have a chance to meet up with Bill and hand him either of these. I'm just more used to the thicker gauge picks nowadays.

The pick feels very light. Some picks feel more weighty, even though I doubt there's a lot of difference between them. This one is featherweight.
The classic Wegen slits are there to remind you who's shop these came from. I've come to appreciate these, they are simple but provide a very solid grip.

For the most important part, the sound and the wear, I feel this pick gets a high score. I can't notice any pick wear since I started using it. The bevels are silky smooth like the day I got it. The strings don't seem to do any damage to the pick material. It glides across the stings with such ease. That could be the biggest reason why I liked using it.

And I've used the GP all the time since I got it, so it had several hours of playing time. Just the fact that I never felt the need to go back to any of my familiar picks says that I was very happy with it.

The tone is good, nothing to complain about. I recorded a demo for one of my songs with it. I was using the round side tip for the rhythm. The only thing I wish you could have as an option on Wegen picks is putting a bevel on a side tip. This was one time when I was recording and comparing the tone of this pick and the others I use. I tried the GP and four others. There are differences but I was happy what I was getting out of the GP.

I used the 250 here and there. Like I mentioned I'm used to the feel of the thicker picks between the fingers. The 250 has maybe slightly more open tone, a touch brighter maybe. Where the 3.5 mm GP sounds a little bit more dense.

Just like every other Wegen pick, it's very well made. Not a single rough detail about it. 3D printed or not, the basic material needs to be made somewhere. It's not like the regular pick material is mined from the deepest depths of the earth. I'm actually really impressed by how well it held up to the strings. I have a hard time seeing even a scratch on the bevel under the flashlight.

These are as good as anything I tried.

MikeK

First of all, thank you Michel. For making great picks and for including us in this cool and interesting experiment. I received my 3.5 a few weeks ago. It's been a while since I've used Wegen 3.5's and I forgot how much I love the grooved indentation for your thumb. It makes me feel like nothing could make me lose my grip on it. However, this pick is a little too thick for me to get the single notes out with the clarity & ease that I yearn for on gigs where I solo. But surely that's because I've been using slightly thinner picks for that type of situation for a long time now and that's what I'm used to. But the 3.5 is superb for the gigs where I only play rhythm (violin, guitar & bass trio), which are far more common for me these days. I've been using the side of the new pick & I'm very happy with the sound & feel of it. My issue is that my attack tends to be intense for rhythm (not too loud, but powerful), so picks tend to wear out before too long & I have to file them down a bit to keep them in the rotation. So we'll see how the new one holds up over the next few weeks. But so far, I love it for my rhythm playing gigs.

arimail

I'm interested! I LOVE your picks.

Chiefbigeasy

Hello, Michel,

i’ve been a big fan of Wegen picks for years, and I particularly like the larger pics, especially the Trimus 2.5. I just ordered one of the thinner varieties, the TF, and I’m looking forward to trying it as well.

Did your recent experiment with 3-D printing and new material include larger pics? if so, I’d like to give one a try, if you’re still doing this experiment, or if you’re going to expand it in the future.

I can say this, however: very often, the same pick will sound very different on a different guitar. I like the sound of my Wegen Trimus on my Dupont, but I find that the large Blue Chip gives me the punch and tone I need on my other darker sounding guitar, a JWC. I don’t know if this is a factor you want to consider, but I’m happy to report on that aspect as well.

One more thing, and this is especially pertinent to the large Trimus pick. I currently own several other large three sided pics that actually have three different bevels. It may be a lot of work, but even one slightly rounder bevel on the Trimus pick would be an interesting addition and option. I wonder if you have considered this for manufacture.

In any case, thank you very much for a great and consistent product over the years.

Buco

So far, this material has been remarkably resistant to wear and scratches. The question is how many hours did I use it...good question... I wanna say couple of hours a day, sometimes less and sometimes more. But in a couple of weeks that I had it, it certainly had more than 10 hours of active playing time. As you can see, the down picking bevel is completely smooth. I've had expensive picks that start sounding scratchy within 3 hour gig. It's a great pick.

flaco

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/120723#Comment_120723

This has been exactly my same experience. I was super happy with the pick when I got it, and my only concern was with wear resistance. So far with probably 15 hours of play time there is no wear that I can detect.

pdg

I have the 3-D-printed Twin 2.5. Seems to be great, but the tip is much sharper (pointy) than my virtually-new standard Twin 2.5, and therefore it sounds and feels different when playing. So it's impossible to compare them.

Wegen101

Well, thanks to all who made a contribution to this thread. Let me answer some of the questions and suggestions, so far.

Will there be a difference in price to the standard Wegenpicks and these 3D prints? Yes, these prints will be cheaper, when I decide to put them up for sale.

I'm still looking for better materials, but comments suggest I'm on track. Also, you don't want to hassle your best friend, having a 3D printer, to spend a lot of time and money to copy your $8-$12 pick.

Another suggestion was about making custom picks in this way. I have made digital designs of some of my models, and in this way it is not very hard to do for the models already done.