Finally tried a Blue Chip pick, I'm hooked

[wintermoon]

Does BC offer a 2mm standard teardrop shape?
I think the 60 was 1.5mm but not listed on their site.

[DMgolf66]

Would love to see how this would shake out in a blind test. A bunch of picks laid out with no names on them and better yet, no prices.
Play them and see what happens. No bias, just sound, feel, playability, etc.
We'll never know, but I have a feeling Blue Chips would be the top of the heap.

[Mick-7]

Two other companies besides Blue Chip make their picks out of Vespel, i.e., Charmed Life and Raw Cat, and they offer various gauges of picks - I don't recall the details but they're equally expensive.

I suspect that if double blind studies were conducted with Vespel, Torlon and PEEK picks (they're all made of a similar material), the results would show that the placebo effect is boosting the sale of Blue Chip picks.

[sgcim]

Picks can go on amazing journeys. Just last week I had a white PB pick that I wanted to keep as a practice pick, so I didn't want to lose it.
We played Monday night at a Country Club, where they have a bowl of wrapped hard mint candies in the locker room. As usual, I plunged my hand into the bowl and got a few handfuls of mints and shoved them in my pockets.
We finished playing, and I drove home and threw my plunder of mints into a plastic container and went to sleep.
The next day, I looked for my white pick, AND IT WASN'T THERE!
I immediately realized there must have been an alien invasion (I'm watching "Falling Skies" on NetFlix, so it was quite a logical conclusion), and those damn aliens took all our picks!
Just in case i was wrong, I looked through the pockets of my pants and jacket(where I always keep my picks), and sure enough, it wasn't there.
I looked everywhere, but it was gone. I figured it must have been dropped when I took my keys out of my pants to drive home from the CC and it was in the parking lot, on the black cement.

I found a black PB that had a better point than the white one, and used that as my practice pick.
A few days went by, and I went to the fridge to stuff my face with what was left of the pilfered CC mints, and I dumped the last of the mints in my little mint cup, and, you guessed it, the white PB came flying out of the plastic container into my mint cup!

So let this be a lesson to $40 pick lovers- these things have a mind of their own!

[wintermoon]

We played Monday night at a Country Club, where they have a bowl of wrapped hard mint candies in the locker room. As usual, I plunged my hand into the bowl and got a few handfuls of mints and shoved them in my pockets.
We finished playing, and I drove home and threw my plunder of mints into a plastic container and went to sleep.

So you're the reason why when I play those gigs and want a mint and the bowl's always empty.

[DawgBone]

Would love to see how this would shake out in a blind test. A bunch of picks laid out with no names on them and better yet, no prices.
Play them and see what happens. No bias, just sound, feel, playability, etc.
We'll never know, but I have a feeling Blue Chips would be the top of the heap.

Maybe for some people. Certain players and certain guitars/rigs are not going to be ideal with a super clicky material like that. I'm sure I'd love their thumbpick, but is it better than a sterling silver thumbpick costing about twice as much? I dunno. I've been using golden gate pearloid thumbpicks for many years now. I like a click, actually it's more of a good clear bite, with my national np-2 nickel silver fingerpick, some might not.

[sgosnell]

Does BC offer a 2mm standard teardrop shape?
I think the 60 was 1.5mm but not listed on their site.

TD80 is the closest to that. .080" isn't exactly 2mm, but probably close enough.
TD80 - BlueChip Picks

[sgosnell]

The Blue Chip picks are not clicky at all. A Fender Heavy is much clickier than a Blue Chip.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

So you're the reason why when I play those gigs and want a mint and the bowl's always empty.

If you used casein picks, you could suck on them.

[nyc chaz]

The Blue Chip picks are not clicky at all. A Fender Heavy is much clickier than a Blue Chip.

This is one of the selling points of a BC in my view is that they have the least pick noise of any pick i have used.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I suspect that if double blind studies were conducted with Vespel, Torlon and PEEK picks (they're all made of a similar material), the results would show that the placebo effect is boosting the sale of Blue Chip picks.

There are significant differences in their physical properties that almost certainly affect how they feel and sound. Most importantly for picks, Vespel has the highest lubricity - it can be used as bearing material without lubrication in applications that require lubrication if PEEK or Torlon is used. So the smooth glide across strings that BC users describe has a basis in fact. How much of a difference it makes I don’t know.

I have never tried a BC, so I can’t provide feedback on personal experience.

[CliffR]

I really liked my BC. I agree with sgosnell - not clicky at all, but a nice round tone. And they do seem to glide across the strings. Is a $40 BC 160x better than a $0.25 pick? Of course not, but neither is a custom shop strat many times better than a MIM strat. But both are significantly better.

I did lost my BC, somewhere in the house, and I immediately ordered another. The first showed up before the second arrived. Since then, I've managed to lose both. I've gone back to a Dunlop Jazz III, hoping one or the other would show up, but no luck so far. I'm sure they will just as soon as I put another BC order in.

[sgcim]

I really liked my BC. I agree with sgosnell - not clicky at all, but a nice round tone. And they do seem to glide across the strings. Is a $40 BC 160x better than a $0.25 pick? Of course not, but neither is a custom shop strat many times better than a MIM strat. But both are significantly better.

I did lost my BC, somewhere in the house, and I immediately ordered another. The first showed up before the second arrived. Since then, I've managed to lose both. I've gone back to a Dunlop Jazz III, hoping one or the other would show up, but no luck so far. I'm sure they will just as soon as I put another BC order in.

So you lost $80 on two picks. At this rate you'll be in the poorhouse by late June.. LOL!

[j.l]

Really, really love my two Blue Chip picks. I've tried Dunlop Prime Tone and things like that, and hated the chirpiness; BC has none of that. It's a weird thing to get your head around spending this much on a pick, but to me, the best comparison is something like the bow of a violin: it's the thing that's making all the sound come out of the instrument. People will spend hundreds of dollars on an effect pedal they'll use for one part of one song, but this affects just about every note you play and the way the instrument feels to you. Worth it to me!

I got one of those little leather keyring pouches as well when I ordered it, so unless I lose it when I'm actively playing (no sign of that yet), I always know where it is.

[Mick-7]

Most importantly for picks, Vespel has the highest lubricity.

I have a hard time seeing why I should be concerned about the lubricity of a pick during the nanosecond it strikes one of my guitar strings. I do not hear fingerstyle players who play with their nails complaining about their lack of lubrication. God only knows how all the jazz guitar greats who never had Blue Chip picks ever got by.

[sgosnell]

I have about a dozen Blue Chip picks, and have never lost one for more than a few minutes. As I've said before, when friends and family want to know what to get me for birthday, xmas, or whatever, I give them a link to my wish list on the Blue Chip website. I'm too cheap to buy that many of their picks, but friends and family are fine with paying $35 for a present. I also have received one of their pick boxes, and at least half a dozen of the leather pick pouches. They often have promotions in which they offer free pouches, free engraving, or whatever. I'm not a paid endorser of Blue Chip, but I do really like their picks. I have at least a hundred picks of all shapes, sizes, and materials, but I seldom use any other than a few of the Blue Chips. Different shapes and thicknesses sound different, and seem to work better with certain guitars and amps, but I've come to prefer thinner models, especially the .035" ones. But use what you like and what you can afford. If you're financially distressed, or just cheap, then cheap picks are a valid choice. I've seen my father break a tooth out of a pocket comb and use that when no actual pick was available, and it sounded fine.

[bluejaybill]

I have about a dozen Blue Chip picks, and have never lost one for more than a few minutes. As I've said before, when friends and family want to know what to get me for birthday, xmas, or whatever, I give them a link to my wish list on the Blue Chip website. I'm too cheap to buy that many of their picks, but friends and family are fine with paying $35 for a present. I also have received one of their pick boxes, and at least half a dozen of the leather pick pouches. They often have promotions in which they offer free pouches, free engraving, or whatever. I'm not a paid endorser of Blue Chip, but I do really like their picks. I have at least a hundred picks of all shapes, sizes, and materials, but I seldom use any other than a few of the Blue Chips. Different shapes and thicknesses sound different, and seem to work better with certain guitars and amps, but I've come to prefer thinner models, especially the .035" ones. But use what you like and what you can afford. If you're financially distressed, or just cheap, then cheap picks are a valid choice. I've seen my father break a tooth out of a pocket comb and use that when no actual pick was available, and it sounded fine.

I also have quite a few, I like the 35 for .010 gauge strings, the 40 for most usual playing and acoustic guitars, and the 50 if I want a thicker jazz sound. I mainly use the TD and Jazz Large shapes.

I like the flow over the strings, the fact that as they bevel from use they don't catch on the strings (I used to go through many normal picks from that), the fact that as they warm up they are harder to drop, but mostly I like that they just sound great.They also seem to last forever, though they do take on a personal bevel eventually. I find that the tip shop affects the tone a bit, the rounder tip of the TD is warmer.

I don't need to go through a bunch of blind tests to figure out that they are the best I've used, even over other high priced picks.

And yes, I get that they are pricey, especially if you tend to lose picks all the time, but somehow I have never lost one.

[nyc chaz]

I have a hard time seeing why I should be concerned about the lubricity of a pick during the nanosecond it strikes one of my guitar strings. I do not hear fingerstyle players who play with their nails complaining about their lack of lubrication. God only knows how all the jazz guitar greats who never had Blue Chip picks ever got by.

It's true the greats got by without BC picks but who's to say if they had been available then they would have not used them.

[Cunamara]

If you used casein picks, you could suck on them.

I can suck with any pick (or guitar or amp).

[James W]

I briefly switched back to my black Jazz 3 pick earlier today.

By comparison with my BC Jazz 60, it sounded and felt sort of scratchy and lacked definition - perhaps simply that it is slightly worn down? Not sure - in any case, I really like my BC, and feel no regret buying it, just vindication.

[CliffR]

I briefly switched back to my black Jazz 3 pick earlier today.

By comparison with my BC Jazz 60, it sounded and felt sort of scratchy and lacked definition - perhaps simply that it is slightly worn down? Not sure - in any case, I really like my BC, and feel no regret buying it, just vindication.

Same.

[Sigmund451]

If the black Jazz III is an Ultex pick Id agree.

Ultex picks make a lot of noise...its almost like you have cranked up the gain on the amp.
They heavily color the sound...and I think moreso on roundwounds.
Sometimes its a nice addition but sometimes its just too much.

[Aiq]

El perfecto.

For myself that is.

[James W]

If the black Jazz III is an Ultex pick Id agree.

Ultex picks make a lot of noise...its almost like you have cranked up the gain on the amp.
They heavily color the sound...and I think moreso on roundwounds.
Sometimes its a nice addition but sometimes its just too much.

I'm not absolutely certain but I don't think my black jazz 3 is an Ultex. Could post a picture if you like.

[Tal_175]

I'm not absolutely certain but I don't think my black jazz 3 is an Ultex. Could post a picture if you like.

It's probably nylon.