View Poll Results: Picking with the pointy or rounded end.
- Voters
- 134. You may not vote on this poll
-
Just curious how many of us turn our picks around to avoid the pointy end...
-
12-21-2020 11:58 PM
-
I don't even have to turn it around:
-
I don’t understand how anyone can play with the round end, but if it’s good enough for Birelli.....
-
I use a Jazztone 204 so the pointy end is a round end.
-
I like the pointy end for almost everything. Last week I noticed that, when I use my middle and ring fingers also, using the round side of the pick makes it sound more even through all the strings so I'm working on that.
-
I think alot more people do it than we realize, while "what pick do you use?" is a common question in "rig rundowns", "how do you HOLD your pick?" is not... players I have recently discovered who play with the rounded end:
Originally Posted by christianm77
Keith Urban
Guthrie Trapp
Tom Bukovac (he uses the point when he wants a brighter/sharper tone).
I have always played with the point, I even use "sharps" as I feel they are more accurate for me. BUT- I did start experimenting with the rounded end, and sure enough- that's a very valuable "tone tool"... I also discovered that, with the picks I use- Dunlop Ultex- if I go up to 2.0mm (I usually play 1.14mm), the pick is so thick that the sides are rounded off (meaning the edges), and it gives more of the tone of playing with the "round end"/"shoulder" of a pick.
Some of the minutia we concern ourselves with...LOL...
-
Pretty sure Robben Ford uses the rounded sides, and Larry Carlton, who I recall got the idea from Robben.
"In the last couple of years, I've switched back to what I used to use, which is a Fender-style heavy pick - but I use the rounded edge, not the point, just for tone."
Larry Carlton: 10 questions | MusicRadar
-
I use relatively thick picks, minimum 1.4mm up to 2mm. Thick picks are stiff. Stiff and pointy compresses the fundamental note a bit too much sometimes. I like partially rounded picks like Dunlop Jazz II or Pro Plecs. They sound more open and less compressed than pointy ones.
-
Me neither. I' tried many recurring times, always with no success. Barry Greene uses a normal medium pics rounded side and manages to get decent sound and errorless technique. Puzzler for me how, but I have a feeling the answer is as usual: practice. Originally Posted by christianm77
-
I use the pointy end of a small pick. (Jazz III shape but not a Jazz III.)
I have used the rounded end (or shoulder) of picks before, especially 351s.
-
I've used the side of normal picks, I've used picks with blunt rounded tips, and pretty much every combination imaginable. I think the material the pick is made from makes at least as much difference, if not more, than the shape. Thickness and material have a large effect on tone. I'm currently using a Blue Chip 60 Large Jazz, the pointy end, and that gives me a softer tone than a Fender heavy played with the edge, and it's easier for me to play. I also have a 40 and a 50, for when I want a slightly brighter tone. Different picks seem to sound better on different guitars and with different amps. But I can get the sound I want from a pick without needing to turn it sideways, by using a thicker pick, made from different materials. I will say that I haven't used anything other than a Blue Chip for a long time. I have hundreds of picks lying around, and they just collect dust.
-
Yes Robben plays with the rounded end. I don't have a link for you, but I think you could dig up an interview easily enough if you want to substantiate it. Originally Posted by BickertRules
TU for the 10 questions article. The thing about Jaguar was a total revelation to me. IDK a single guitarist who did NOT cop Strikes Twice when it came out :-)
The link to Jaguar was not available to my locale so here's another for anyone who runs into that issue:
I have tried pretty much all of the stuff in this thread except the Prime Tone, which I'm interested in checking out now that you mentioned them @TOMMO... though I'm actually pretty happy with Jazz 204s and 205s, sometimes using the pointy end and sometimes using the rounded end... lately, though, mostly the rounded end, the "shoulder" if you will...
-
A good variety of sizes and thickness available. I've been trying out several of them and they are all good. Originally Posted by starjasmine
-
Switched to rounded edge of a fender pick about 20 years ago for a fatter tone.
At first it was difficult. Not as articulate. Then I realized that I really liked a more legato approach anyway. To my ear it sounded better. So I picked lighter and used more hammer -ons and pull offs and now I won’t go back.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Originally Posted by JPM
-
A long time ago , when I first got my '04 ES-175, I went through my considerable collection (like strings, I buy picks compulsively) of picks to see which gave me the best "jazz tone," at least as I perceived it then. The clear winner was a black plastic Dunlop Jazz II*, well worn in. Subsequently I developed ways of approximating that tone with other picks. My favorites are Dunlop 205s with the tips slightly blunted. The 208s work as well and are particularly effective with acoustic flattops. I also collect various shaping/polishing materials - bits of shell, polished stones, scraps of leather, pieces of wood (red oak is especially abrasive; hard maple is great for polishing) and so forth. Originally Posted by Tal_175
The best picks I ever made by hand were fabricated from an industrial hand cleaner dispenser: translucent plastic with maybe 5 inches in diameter and about 1/8" thick. The material was quite hard and difficult to work - a bandsaw gave me a rough shape, but beveling the edges was work! But the radius of the finished product gave it an easy grip and kept them from rotating. I used them almost exclusively for years. In retrospect, I'm just glad I didn't slice my fingers off with the bandsaw!
*Went out and bought a gross. Lifetime supply!
-
This thread is making me try using the shoulders of the picks again. I experimented with that on and off in the past but never stuck with it. I'm liking it now.
-
I move between the pointy end and the round end, depending on the tone I want to produce at any given time. Why stick to one when you can have two tones for contrast? This works better - more noticeably - on acoustic archtops than amplified, in my experience.
-
I always play with the round end. Originally Posted by christianm77
-
Warren Nunes sort of made his own.
He had a supply of genuine tortoise shell blanks. Big rounded triangles.
He'd heat them with a cigarette lighter and bend the whole thing to fit the pad of his thumb. So, the whole thing was concave to the thumb pad.
He'd pick with side of the pick. The opposite of pointy. It was barely rounded.
He'd burn the upper edge of the pick with the flame to make a rough, thickened edge, which facilitated grip.
Something like this, but much less pointy.
Picks & More - Jazz Science Guitar Institute
I believe that he may have played with the pick at an angle. To explain it, imagine the guitar is lying face up on the floor, with the headstock at 12 o'clock. You put the pick right between two of the strings. The sides of the pick are straight up and down. From the top, all you can see is the thin top edge of the pick. If it had writing on it, you'd have to be at floor level at 9 o'clock or 3 o'clock.
Now rotate it 30 degrees or so clockwise. At this point, the front edge of the pick is near the thinner string and the rear edge of the pick is near the thicker string. You're still looking at the upper edge of the pick.
If you then picked back and forth, thin string to thick to thin etc. you'd barely have to move the pick, because it was already so close to each string.
And, if you need to skip over a string, there's hardly any pick sticking out.
Warren did not sweep. It was alternate, a few slides and many pulloffs. Warren had blinding speed with a jack hammer-like approach. I heard him say several times, "I can pop any note".
He had a musical style that worked perfectly with this pick. I don't know that it would work for everybody else.Last edited by rpjazzguitar; 12-23-2020 at 05:39 AM.
-
To me pointy picks work great for single line fast playing, but they produce a very trembly sound which I find unsuitable for jazz.
Rounder normal picks work better for chords and to me sound warmer.
All picks I use them normally though, I've almost never turned them around to use their round side. I can see the attraction though, it's a very warm sound and minimal friction.
-
I've been round edge for a few years, long enough now that when I try the pointy end it throws my technique way out of whack...the extra resistance/friction is seems to slow me down because I'm used to gliding across strings using only the very edge of the pick. A down stroke on one string going to an upstroke on a string above it (lower note) is something I can no longer easily do at speed with the point - I used to, but now it would probably take months to re adjust. Originally Posted by Alter
Pick technique is such a microscopically nuanced topic that receives less discussion than it deserves. Ever hear sax players discuss mouth pieces or reeds? It's all they ever seem to talk about (well, at least among themselves...).
-
I play with the small Fender teardrops, extra heavy, rounded end, and get this...to add a better grip, I paint half of it with liquid paper/correction fluid. It solved the slipping and dropping issues I had, giving just enough stickiness with my sweaty hand without coming off on my fingers. Worked for me for the last 25 years--but I'm open minded. (Not really.)
Asked for and got two different "Blue Chip" picks as gift and for the life of me, I can't see the big deal is. After an honest try, I put them back in the fancy boxes. Maybe I'm just of the mindset where I can't stand the idea of losing a $40 pick, even if I don't use it. Perhaps it's related to my lack of desire/fortitude to play a high-end arch top (even though I could afford one). I think I'd never take it out of the house, and probably only rarely take it out of the case. (Tele and Strats for me, thanks.)
-
I'm using a Blue Chip too, a Jazz 40. (Shaped like a Jazz III but only 1.0 mm thick.) I love it. I was skittish about getting one----I didn't want to pay that much for a pick I hadn't tried. But fortunately, a friend here sent me a bunch of picks and the BC 40 was one of them and it really grabbed me. That material, Vespel, makes the pick easy to hold (without moving around) without gripping hard. Now and then I try other things----I have hundreds of picks lying around---but I keep coming back to the Blue Chip. I think I'll be sticking with it. Which means now I'll have to buy them! ;o) Originally Posted by sgosnell
-
I use a Blue Chip pick with my Tele (and my Tele only cost $200, so it's low end, but I love it.) My favorite thing about BC picks is that I can hold them without them slipping around in my hands. And they are hard to wear out----after months of playing with it every day it looks like it did when I first got it. (And it was given to me, so someone else played it before I started using it.) Originally Posted by Onlyserious
I don't like the idea of using a $40 pick either! Mine is either in my hand or on my music stand. I am careful with it.
Reply With Quote
George Barnes plays Bach/1966
Yesterday, 06:29 PM in The Players