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you know tom im glad you are enjoying the pick and they are different
i use proplecs-the big rounded triangle on my mando-the rounded edges and thickness really help -tone, tremello, -probably they help my growth in technique- for mando i feel these really do outshine everything else-for me at this time
and i use Pickboy jazz-hot pink so when i drop it its easy to find
and pro-plec 351 for jazz- i like the feel and control and size-
what ever happened to pick boy picks
seems they are no longer stocked at regular guitar stores
i agree almost anything works -but i can no longer abide thin picks at all-when i first started bluegrass flat picking, and had no technique, they were my favorites
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03-07-2012 06:27 PM
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I never tried a Blue Chip. But, out of the many picks that I have tried,.. I have found the picks that satisfy me. Dunlop Ultex(.)
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I have a box of picks bought, found and gifted over the years, probably 300 or so, and I just grab a handful on my way out the door, since different techniques can benefit from different weights, thicknesses and materials. Fred Kelly makes some great-sounding picks for jazz, and the Clayton line is very cost-effective. Practicing with stone is very good for your technique, but most bead shops will have a pick-shaped, polished stone for about 20% of what a marketed plectrum sells for.
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Motivated by this thread i ordered some ProPleks. My first reaction was negative but after a while i came to really like them. Most of them have a tip that is way too round for me. But the 330 feels good. The tone is incredibly mellow with these picks and i really like that. The dunlop 205 and Jazz 551 are also nice but do not have such a nice tone. In terms of playing feel and grip i still think that nothing comes close to the Wegen pick that i bought a while ago. But tonewise two thumbs up for the ProPleks. In particular i started to like my flatwounds again after using them.
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Top to bottom; "standard", "jazz" and "rock"
I actually went out and dug up the oddest looking picks I could find to contribute to this thread and since I posted the link and stated that this was all I was using now, it turns out that the joke is on me. I really can't put them down.
You choke down to the lower line if you want stiff, middle for medium and the top one for strumming.
Weird looking, but great playability and feel.
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We got on this same pick question at a jam the other night and started passing around our favorites. We even traded a few. I liked The V-picks a lot, and the Golden Gates were very nice too. I'm not ready to give up my Dunlop 207s yet but variety is the spice of life!
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While I try out other picks now and then, I always end up returning to Dunlop Jazz Tone 205 for amplified playing. I bought a box full of them 15 years ago and they should last for the rest of my life. For acoustic 4-to-the-bar rhythm guitar I have settled on Dunlop Ultex triangular 1.14mm. I have a few times tried a couple of expensive and exotic picks but I don't find them better sounding and feeling than cheap picks - some actually sound worse to my ears.
Originally Posted by AlohaJoe
I used to love to try different fancy pics. I've bought Wegen, Blue Chip, bone, Ebony, fossilized dinosaur poop, whatever. They were all good in different ways. Recently, somebody gave me a Dunlop 207 and I prefer the smooth sound it produces over anything I've heard before. As a bonus, they're cheap!
Last edited by oldane; 03-11-2012 at 06:27 AM.
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That's interesting. I liked everything about the ProPleks I tried except the tone - too mellow! Different strokes ... Originally Posted by FrankLearns
As previously stated, I do like the BlueChip Jazz60 a lot, but I'm not going to buy any more of them - I'll use the one I have exclusively with my archtop and put it at the top of my XMas wish list - that way I may end up getting a couple more. The Dunlop amber (1.14mm) Ultex Jazz III will remain my standard, but the few black (2mm) Ultex Jazz III's and the 2 Wegen 'Twins' I have I'll keep as a change-of-pace for my acoustics.
By the way, I traded my old stash of JazzTone205's and red nylon JazzIII's for a clip-on tuner at my local music store!
One thing should be abundantly clear: the Jazz III shape is my shape.Last edited by Tom Karol; 03-11-2012 at 10:55 AM.
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The Golden Tortoise
Amber has some very important things in common with tortoise shell, not the least of which is its' warm, wonderful tone. Amber is an organic substance that was once the sap from a tree 22-26 million years ago, in this case the Hymenaea tree. What was once a sticky, honey-like goo eventually condensed to become the same density and texture of tortoise shell. Amber and tortoise shell are both organic materiels that naturally grew from a living being, perhaps this is the quality that gives their tone so much life.
An amazing quality that Amber has that is not found in toroise shell, is the rare inclusion of fossils like bugs, reptiles, and a variety of organic materiels as old as 25 million years. When the amber was still just tree sap it picked up many critters and organic materiels that have since remained trapped in time. It's rare to find an amber specimen that shows the detail of inclusions as well as a guitar pick. The image above has a very clear mosquito in the left side and a moth-like bug at the top, several smaller bugs are spread throughout. This is a very rare specimen at 2.5mm.
Another quality of Amber from the Hymenaea tree of modern day Chiapas, Mexico, is its' range of colors. The iron rich soil of the high mountains of Chiapas tends to bleed rich redish brown colors penetrating up to 2 centimeters under the surface of the amber. More rare and captivating are the deep green and blue colors that can be seen when some amber is shown under a bright light, usually against a dark background. The specimen above has an inclusion of unidentified organic matter.
Nothing is quite as important as the sound of Amber Guitar Picks on the guitar strings. Amber has a warm rich tone reminiscent of tortoise shell picks differing with every shape and size. When cut 2mm or thinner amber even flexes like tortoise shell, when thicker it's unbendable. Ambers' ability to absorb shock makes it much less likely to break. In this artists' opinion, Amber is as good as toroise shell in every way. I'd like to hear your opinion.
Ran across these picks...danged expensive!
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The law says that old tortoise shell (and ivory for that matter) has to stay in its original shape otherwise it's a violation. So, technically, you can't make picks out of old combs or brushes. Practically, unless you're going to sell them, you'll probably never have a problem. Originally Posted by whatswisdom
Brad
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Last year I ordered a bunch of more expensive picks, including a few Blue Chips (used). I finally decided that the one I like the best is a "sarod" water buffalo horn pick from John Pearse (http://www.jpstrings.com/brpicks.htm#HornPks). I tried their fast turtle casein picks (http://www.jpstrings.com/brpicks.htm#Fast%20Turtles) but like the buffalo better.
Brad
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Hey bborzell, I gotta thank you! Because of your post, I bought a pack of six of these from Amazon (for $6), and I have to say I really like them too! Originally Posted by bborzell
The rubberized texture lightly grips the fingers, and there's virtually no annoying click. Great feel, great tone. My new favorite affordable pick!
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Glad to hear that these things are getting some love. I actually ordered them on a lark after reading this thread. I kinda thought the geeky look and colors would spice up the thread. Never did I think that i would really like them, but i do.This is a real sleeper pick design. Originally Posted by Flat
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I submitted a brief review of the BC Jazz 60 on Bluechip Picks' website a week ago when this thread had pretty much run its course. I basically said what I'd said here, that it was the best pick I'd ever tried and that I was glad that I bought it, but - even though I understood that the material used was extremely expensive and the pick was beautifully fabricated - it was at most 10% better than the picks I normally use while being 100 times as expensive, and therefore I couldn't really justify buying more. I even added that I did hope to get a few more by putting them at the top of my holiday gift wish list.
Well, they apparently chose not to post my review on their Website (at least not yet). That's certainly their right; it's their Website. I checked the few other reviews that they did post. Every one of them said basically the same thing: "Best pick in the world and worth every penny!" Again, they have the right to post only the purely positive reviews on their own website which exists to sell their picks, but then those reviews basically mean nothing and any reasonably intelligent customer would know that.
I still hope to get some more as gifts - Father's Day is coming up!Last edited by Tom Karol; 03-19-2012 at 02:00 PM. Reason: Add "(at least not yet)."
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I believe that "balanced" reviews and manufacturers websites (some mnufacturer's forums being the exception) are quite rare. The Blue Chip folks seem to be very interested in testimonials and not critical reviews. I own 1 triangle Blue Chip for mandolin and another jazz guitar pick that seems to have been carried off by the cat. They feel and play nicely, but not 30 times the cost of my actual favorite pick. Originally Posted by Tom Karol
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I used to love Dunlop Jazz IIIs but my last order of DJ IIIs was a huge disappointment. After some trial and error, I was happy to find the Planet Waves Black Ice Extra Heavy (1.50 mm):
Close seconds for me were the Black Ice Heavy (1.10mm) and the Pick-Boy Pos-a-Grip Jazz (1.50mm):
Last edited by HighSpeedSpoon; 03-19-2012 at 06:18 PM. Reason: grammatical
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+1 on the Black Ice extra heavy. I've been using Dunlop Jazz IIIs, but haven't been completely happy. I got some Black Ice picks a couple weeks ago and that's the one. Other picks gave me subtle differences in tone. It's significantly noticeable with these. Much warmer tone. It's also the first pick I've tried that actually feels "faster". I don't (can't) play very fast, so maybe there's no real gain in speed, but it's definitely a different feel. I also like that they're a little bigger than most other "jazz" picks.
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I wanted to be fair. BlueChip has finally posted the review I submitted to them a month ago on their Website (see below). Good for them! I also have to admit that I am actually considering ordering 2 more - my Eastman just doesn't sound or feel quite as good using any other picks. But the Tele and the 335 will stay with the amber (1.14 mm) Ultex Jazz III's and the 000-28 and the Vagabond Travel Guitar will stick with the black (2.0 mm) Ultex Jazz III's.
"Product Reviews
I'm glad I bought it!
Posted by Tom Karol on 13th Mar 2012
There are hardly any reviews submitted about these picks, so I thought I'd try.
I've been playing the guitar for over 50 years - mostly Jazz, but a little bit of everything. This is the best pick I've ever tried. (I've never tried a tortoise shell pick, but I have experimented with a few other fairly expensive picks.) It feels grippy in my fingers but slippery on the strings. It sounds smooth and clear. It's (for me) exactly the right size, shape, thickness, and bevel. It's very precisely made. It's purported to be extremely wear resistant (too soon for me to tell).
But I've got to be honest. I understand that the material used is very expensive, so I'm not complaining, but the pick cost me $39.45 including shipping. My second favorite pick is subjectively 90% as good (to me) in every respect. It's the Dunlop 1.14 amber Ultex Jazz III. They cost about 40 cents each. I have over 50 of them. So I won't be ordering any more BlueChip Jazz 60's. BUT, I WILL be putting them at the top of my holiday gift wish list every year, so I DO hope to acquire a few more ... and then maybe a few more after that!"
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I had 30 bucks in store credit at my local small shop and splurged on some Pappas brand plectrums at 12 bucks each. They were Fender shape, but a bit larger and fairly heavy. I really liked the tone and feel of the casein milk protein material, but they tasted weird ( I sometimes put the pick in my mouth to play fingerstyle). I thought they were the best picks ever, but they developed a curve that I didn't like. I showed them to a friend who tried to bend, then broke, first one, and then the other. Great idea, but maybe a bad batch or the formula needs to be tweaked. They had a neat thing going, splippery enough to slide off the strings easily, but easy to hold on to at the same time. I have some pricey Wegen mandopicks that I liked for a while, but I'm back to Dunlop Ultex or Tortex .73s.
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I have experimented with both traditional picks like a Fender 358 (extra heavy), D'Andrea ProPlec pro358, Dunlop Ultex Jazx IIIs oover the years. In more recent years I have tried a number of boutique pick makers: Blue Chip and Wegen. I really like them both, but for different guitars. For archtop jazz the BC Jazz 100 (2.5 mm) is a great ick, but it is honestly not worth the price in my opinion. The Wegen Big City Picks are great all picks (1.8 mm). For Gypsy jazz, I really like the Wegen GP 250 (2.5 mm) more than the 3.5 mm Gypsy Jazz Pick (but its good too). For acoustic guitar playing the BC TD50 is great for single note jazz playing (great purity of tone and slippery with the strings)and the TD35 is really good for a brighter tone and strumming.
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Just got one of pure carbon fiber ones to try and it sounds so different. I noticed that tapered edge under specific angle produces wild dynamics while if played under different angle (flat) gives that clean soft sound. So far I'm hooked...
Check the guys page Crazy Joe's Picks
Cheers!
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