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Post by Mike Floorstand on Jul 20, 2014 21:58:00 GMT
Bought a bunch of plectra recently with the intention of finding which is "the one" (specifically, the best one for my nylon-strung tenor banjo).
Anyone else ever done that?
Just me then?
Now I'm not quite sure where to start. Each plectrum will need to be scientifically graded during a rigorous and exhaustive testing regime, and ranked according to brightness, warmth, volume, feel, pick noise and a number of other empirical factors.
But at the moment I find myself drawn to the pink and purple ones...
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2014 22:15:54 GMT
I've done that as well recently Mike. I experimented with some rather pricey faux tortoiseshell ones (I even started a thread about them). Great for a few days until they started to wear pretty badly and produced a horrible scratchy tone. I also got a mixed pack of picks from Strings direct- you can get them in medium, light and heavy packs. I have concluded that:
Blue Jim Dunlop tortes ones sound best on my guitars- lovely warm tone as close to my fingernail sound as I can get Clayton Ultem or Jim Dunlop Ultex (over 1mm) sound great for chordal work on my octave mandolin Bog standard grey nylon Jim Dunlops (3rd from the right in your bottom row) sound bloody brilliant for flatpicking tunes on my OM
A fun and relatively cheap way of experimenting with tone I find,
Robbie
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Post by vikingblues on Jul 20, 2014 22:27:09 GMT
I've never been that organised Mike! Just a collection gradually built up of odds and sods a few at a time over the years. Been amazed at the massive differences to mandolin family instruments from different picks. Need to grade them for ease of picking up when dropped and maybe you need to add to the lists of tests the effect of temperature on which ones sound best, plus how they sound near the bridge or near the neck etc Don't forget if you get another banjo you'll need to go through the whole testing procedure again. Mark ... pink and purple ones...
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Jul 20, 2014 22:43:13 GMT
Pink and purple are good! Try finding any of those browny ones on a pub carpet....
Keith
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2014 22:48:02 GMT
Pink and purple are good! Try finding any of those browny ones on a pub carpet.... Keith Bloody hell Keith, you go to some posh pubs- carpet?
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scotch
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Post by scotch on Jul 20, 2014 22:49:06 GMT
I particularly like Heavy Picks. But then I lost them all. That led me onto using alot of cardboard, Then coins. Then I just gave up cause I just cant seem to keep a pick longer than the month.
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Post by vikingblues on Jul 20, 2014 22:50:12 GMT
Pink and purple are good! Try finding any of those browny ones on a pub carpet.... Keith Bloody hell Keith, you go to some posh pubs- carpet? On the plus side they'd probably come up off the pub carpet a lot stickier and less likely to be dropped again!
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Post by marcus on Jul 21, 2014 1:16:36 GMT
Our 3 year old daughter heartily agrees. I use these, because... well just because
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alig
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Post by alig on Jul 21, 2014 6:03:56 GMT
I can't remember the process (!) by which I arrived at them but I've used the orange Tortex (I think - the ones with the tortoise motif on 'em...) for years and have recently been experimenting with the yellow (a little heavier) and the green (heavier still) cos the orange chappies had begun to sound a little 'thin'.
Green - no good for me
Jury still out on the yellow. Better for flat picking but I'll have to slightly adjust my strumming 'attack' to make these work for me.
Tricky.
However, I like the sound of the contact on the strings of the material they're made of.
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Post by ocarolan on Jul 21, 2014 7:56:16 GMT
Alasdair, I'm an orange Tortex user too - the triangle shaped ones as they are large and have three plucking tips for the price of one.
I also have occasional flirtations with the yellow ones, but keep returning to the orange.
I use two fingers and a thumb to hold a plectrum, and by holding tighter, the thumb presses the pick into the concavity between the two fingers, bending it slightly - this makes it effectively more rigid and less flexible - gives a sound and feel from the orange one that is not unlike the heavier yellow. I don't do this all the time, just now and again for extra volume etc with flatpicked tunes - much looser grip for general strummage and dum-chingness.
Keith
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alig
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Post by alig on Jul 21, 2014 8:56:07 GMT
Ah. I'm a thumb and index man myself and prefer the shape of the ones above.
I have, or used to have (ref the Orsino!) quite a percussive strumming style where I held the plec quite loosely and the orange suited me down to the ground. I've noticed that whereas in the past I used to have my fingernails pointing towards the guitar top (again, ref the Orsino!), I now seem to have changed to a more 'fingers parallel to the top' kind of style.
Dunno how, when or why this change occurred.
It's one of many mysteries.
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Post by missclarktree on Jul 21, 2014 17:30:29 GMT
Bought a bunch of plectra recently with the intention of finding which is "the one" (specifically, the best one for my nylon-strung tenor banjo).
Anyone else ever done that?
Just me then?
Now I'm not quite sure where to start. Each plectrum will need to be scientifically graded during a rigorous and exhaustive testing regime, and ranked according to brightness, warmth, volume, feel, pick noise and a number of other empirical factors.
But at the moment I find myself drawn to the pink and purple ones... Don't forget to grade them by weight, and also by the speed at which they fall to the ground when dropped from an equal height.
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Post by mandovark on Jul 21, 2014 20:19:56 GMT
I use the purple Dunlop one as my regular pick of choice (second row from the bottom, third pick from the right). It's the only one I've found that I like for guitar, cello-mandolin and mandolin, and frankly it's enough trouble having to switch quickly between instruments on stage without having to switch picks as well. If I'm playing mandolin and nothing else, I like the green Planet Waves ones. Mike - at least all the picks in your collection have a brand name on them. I have a few anonymous ones, and it's a real pain in the posterior to find a pick you like and then have no idea what the hell it is or where you might find another one. On a different note, does anyone else find that when you look through your collection of picks, there are always a few in there that you don't remember buying and have no idea where they came from?
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Post by mandovark on Jul 21, 2014 20:21:36 GMT
Don't forget to grade them by weight, and also by the speed at which they fall to the ground when dropped from an equal height. And also for ease of retrieval from your guitar's soundhole if dropped at an inopportune moment.
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Post by marcus on Jul 22, 2014 2:08:51 GMT
Funnily enough I've never encountered this problem. On the contrary, whenever I look through my collection of picks I find that there are far fewer in there than the last time I looked and I have no idea where they could have gone.... Coincidence? ? This reminds me of playing at a Christmas Mass a couple of years ago. As usual for Christmas (and at polar opposites to the run-of-the-mill Sunday), the church was packed and a bunch of children, including our own, were crammed in on the floor under the feet of the "band". At one stage I noticed my son (who was dressed in a Santa's Little Helper outfit ) dishing out presents to the other kids (including one little fellow in leather lederhosen ) At the end of the Mass, while packing away my gear, I realised that our little helper had got hold of my pick box and had been joyfully sharing the contents with his new-found friends. Ahhhh, the joys of giving (especially when you are giving away someone else's stuff)
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