FEATURE > HOW TO PICK YOUR PICK
Nylon picks—includ- ing the legendary Herco Flex used by Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, and Gene Simmons (and which are now made and distribut- ed by Dunlop)—have been a mainstay for many players for decades. They have an arguably brighter sound and more flexibility than comparably
thick plastic picks, and they very often have
textured grips that make them less likely to
slip out of your hand at that sweaty blues
jam. They may appeal more to players
shooting for a vintage sound, as they seem
less suited to the kind of very compressed
tone and tight rhythm phrasing that modern
rockers gravitate towards.
Stone, wood, leather, and other more
exotic materials certainly have their place,
too—both as aesthetically beautiful items
and as alternate tone generators. In general, the harder and denser the material,
the more crisp and cutting the resulting
sound. As with guitar bodies and necks,
wood picks can impart a variety of tones
ranging from brighter and more articulate
(e.g., from harder woods) to earthier,
warmer sounds from softer woods. The
Stone Picks Co. ( stonepicks.com) makes
picks from gemstones and jade, while
Stoneworks ( stoneworkspicks.com) creates one-of-a-kind picks from materials
like turquoise, variscite, and something
they call “dinosaur bone.” Surfpick
( surfpick.com) makes plectra out of
lignum vitae wood, while Pick Your Axe
( pickyouraxe.com) offers a variety of
woods, including zebrawood, walnut and
bubinga. If you’re hell-bent for leather,
you’ll want to check out Corter Leather
( corterleather.bigcartel.com), which
makes picks out of good ol’ hide—you
can even have them tanned to order. If
you find you still like the sound of that
nickel or quarter after all, you might look
into Fender’s Steel pick ( fender.com)—
just don’t drop it in a slot machine.
Whatever the mate-
rial, a thinner pick—
somewhere between
. 40 and . 60 mm for
more standard mate-
rials like Delrin or
nylon—will have a lighter sound that often
works better for acoustic strumming and
other applications where you want a more
trebly tone. The classic strummed acoustic
guitar zing sound—so useful on rock, pop,
and country recordings for filling in the
midrange and helping to define rhythms—
is almost always the result of using a thin
or extra thin pick. Indeed, the noise of the
thin pick flapping against the strings is
often an essential part of that sound.
Conversely, thin picks make little sense
for rock rhythm guitar or lead, however,
as they deliver very little bass or midrange
Get with the Thickness
BEA PLAYER
reverendguitars.com
Pete Anderson
premierguitar.com
PREMIER GUITAR JUNE 2012 123
