I thought I chimed in on this topic, but maybe it was on some OTHER forum. Yes, I'm picky about picks. I'm a Clayton Picks convert. A guy walked up to me after a set at a festival more than 15 years ago, and offered me a selection of Clayton picks. I loved the feel of them immediately. AND the tone... I think they make a difference... so I'm a convert. These are my acoustic picks... Clayton .63mm to Clayton .73mm. These work well for me, and I buy them whenever possible. (I have enough now). I believe there have been advances in Pick Technology, and I like what I hear. In the past I used Fender medium, large rounded triangle, WHITE... I started using WHITE pix while playing bars, because on some sweaty and greasy nights the pick would fly out of my hand in mid song, and if it was WHITE I could find it under dodgy lighting conditions. In those days, the tone rendered by the pick was not discernible... bar venues being noisy, with drunks yammering, video games hooting and beeping, cash register boinging and all that. In those days, what seemed important was the beat, more than anything... But there have been advances in live sound technology too, since I quit playing bars. Picks make a big tonal difference IMHO, when you can hear it. For electric I prefer thin picks, Clayton .5 mm... They have a couple different styles but I like the small rounded triangle. These fit my fingers, I play them well, love the tone they render... and when using these, I never break strings. The picks will rip first. I just threw that "Grover" pick in there for a joke. That came free with a set of Vintage Keystone tuners, and I tried it and liked it. But it wore out fast... see the tip. The Clayton .5mm work great for electric guitar for me, and I sometimes use Dunlop in the same thickness, or close. Dunlop is ok too.
I have been using the Clayton 1.93's for bass, I think I need to drill or roughen up the surface a touch, but they are quite nice.
So I eventually ended up buying some Dunlop Nylon Max Grip .60mm picks, and they turned out to actually be a bit stiffer than the USA Nylon ones, I think because they are not polished towards the tip end, and therefor a big thicker, more like the round corners of the USA Nylon ones, giving them just the right amount of flexibility for me, not too floppy for single note picking, but still flexible enough to work great for strumming as well. I still prefer using my fingers, but when not the Dunlop Nylon Max Grip .60mm pick is my new favorite pick.
Best balance of volume, attack, wear resistance and tone for me in .94 https://www.jimdunlop.com/product/ph112p-7-10137-04900-0.do?view=100136,100197
I've switched to the small Jazz III picks a handful of years back and when I pickup a standard sized pick it feels huge and clumsy. I use either the red nylon or black carbon fiber........
Jazz III: The Ultex vs Primetone battle I still like the way the Ultex has a thick thud in the top registers, and feels so familiar. But the Primetone has such a nice transparent feel to it, nice snappy chirp, good grip. They might be a touch too light in attack in the top register (really nit-picking here, haha), don't have the same stiffness as the Ultex. But overall, I'm happy I spent the money (most expensive pick ive ever had lol)
I've always preferred nylon picks - medium or heavy. They're not too bright sounding like some other materials. Dunlop or Herco for me.
Back in the day, our guitar player would go through several picks a night. He would be in a lead ride, and then use the edge, and slide down the strings. This grooved the pick, so He would throw it to the audience, and grab another. Thinking about this, I had the band name printed on the medium style picks he liked, and right away we had free advertisement!
Have used Dunlop Jazz III black or red Stiffo's for years, but recently tried an Ernie Ball Prodigy 2.0, which was nice. I used a super thin .38 Tortex when I started playing, but thickened it up pretty quickly. I'd like to try one of the super fat V-picks one day when I can talk myself into spending $20 on somethng I lose so quickly!
Clayton for me. Either .50 or .63 . Used to use tortex but Clayton just sound so much better. I’ve used Clayton sand sharks as well but haven’t been able to find them in .50 for awhile
I switch between picks. Usually the Dunlop .73 (yellow), but will use and enjoy Dunlop 1.14 (purple) or a 1.0 (blue). I did buy a dozen buffalo horn picks from China, and use 2 or 3 of the most usable ones (5 were sheer crap). I like the tone and feel of them.
Switched to Quarters and 500 peso Chilean coins years ago, and have never turned back. The benefit is that they are rounded, which rolls over the strings easily and you can pick (in my opinion) more precisely, as you don't have that annoying point going deeper between the strings and getting stuck, in comparison to a rounded bottom.) In the 80s I realized that I was using the round end of thick picks, but didn't think anything else beyond it. I now know why Gibbons, May, blues players, Django Rheinhardt, etc used coins and buttons. I also use buttons that are evenly rounded on both sides. What you learn to do in a couple of weeks is flex your wrist and change your strumming style instead of depending on the flexibility of a pick. I play much better now, with precision and tone differences that I just don't have with plastic picks. I don't like, nor see the benefit of coins that have flat edges like a nickle.
Thanks for this. I've been wondering about making my own for a long time, and though I've enough options between coins and buttons, I like to have more! I'll check these out.
