Plectrums - I’ve lost all interest

[Mark Kleinhaut]

Did I mention I love fingerpicking? Seems I can only keep a plectrum in my hand for 10 seconds before I put it back down.

[DawgBone]

I like banjo picks myself. I don't have to hold them and the metal fingerpick gives me the option of a more modern 21st century nickel silver attack tone. Like a jet fighter for my index finger.

[Aiq]

Plectra?

[GuyBoden]

I've not used a Plectrum for more than five years. They now feel very strange in my fingers.

[Cunamara]

I play with my fingers probably 90% of the time now with a rather hacked right hand technique. Sometimes P-I, often I-M, sometimes P; P-I-M-A mainly for playing chords. For many years I had used a pick with a couple of fingers as needed; this was inspired by Rory Gallagher (my first guitar hero) who did a lot of pick-and-fingers playing. Once I found out about Ed Bickert, that was how I played all the time. I've progressed to just fingers most of the time over the past decade. What little right hand technique I have was developed through Gene Bertoncini's book Approaching The Guitar.

I use almost no nail on P-I-M, less than 1 mm from the quick, and a short nail on A of about 1-2 mm. I have thin, brittle nails that hook so they're very hard to maintain and sound good on steel strings. I seem to always break one hours or days before a gig. I've tried professional nails (far too thick to fit cleanly between the strings), glue on nails (too much maintenance) and the James Taylor approach (also too much maintenance). Thanks to Rob Mackillop's instructional videos, I've happily gone to basically no nails which I think sounds better on steel strings and the maintenance is so much easier. I get a nice fat sound with just a tiny bit of edge from the vestigial nail, whereas long nails were too bright.

I notice that this is affecting my choice of guitar. Some of my guitars just work better with a pick and some of them are better for use with fingers. Currently I am mainly using a semihollow short scale Telecaster shaped object with humbuckers that works very well with fingers. My GB10 also is good for this. My ES-175 and archtop are better with picks; the tone is a thinner with fingers than a pick, but maybe I'll figure out how to adjust my technique.

My choice of pick, when I use one, has also been affected, preferring the tone of casein picks which seem to balance better with the tone I get with my fingers. The best I have found for me are by John Pearse, the 2.5mm and 1.5mm ones. But they are huge; for many years my pick of choice has been the D'Andrea Pro Plec 358, which is tiny, and the Pearse shape is probably three times the surface area. I have a Hense Jazz III sized pick, which feels more familiar, and a D'Addario 351 size. The tone is pretty similar with all of them, differences in the thickness and edge finish seem to be the primary differentiators. Casein picks are expensive, though, and I understand that despite the branding they are all made in the same factory in Germany.

[frabarmus]

Mark, you seem to have the right hand technique of a classical guitarist (which is the best right hand technique, in my opinion, I wish I had that too). I don't like the sound of nails in general, I do like the sound of fingertips but I also like the sound of a thick plectrum on thick flatwound strings. Plectrum style is much easier, for me, I have to admit. When I use my fingers I'm usually not as "precise as I would like to be and when I pluck chords the notes from different strings have different volumes... I think finger style technique is important for contrapunctal playing and gives a more "pianistic taste" to the guitar.

I've recently come across a video about fingerstyle that I found interesting and might give it a try. I wonder what you guys think about this guy's personal finger picking (apparently original) technique...

[frabarmus]

P.S. By the way, Avi Rothbard has one of the most amazing, non-plectrum, thumb technique... playing fast alternate picking with just (or mostly) his thumb!! (I also like his original approach to playing "outside the harmony", although it's "off topic" in this thread).

[deacon Mark]

I find the pick and fingers the best. I could never give up a pick because the definition of sound is very different than fingers or thumb only. I simply use all the methods. With the fingers I can play without much nail or with more depends on my nails at the time. To me the best sound is mostly finger but some nail at the end. Using the thumb I do not use the nail it does not work. I would like to get fingers only single speed lines up faster, but I simply cannot be as fast as with pick. I am definitely much faster now than ever before and can handle even a faster moderate tempo but cannot approach the speed with the pick. With the pick speed is just there without struggle.

[frabarmus]

for many years my pick of choice has been the D'Andrea Pro Plec 358

+1, these are my go to picks.

[lammie200]

Did I mention I love fingerpicking? Seems I can only keep a plectrum in my hand for 10 seconds before I put it back down.

Welcome to the other side!

[Mick-7]

Well, it's not either/or, we do have a forum thread on finger-picks. Players such as Lorne Lofsky use 'em.

Plectra?

A Japanese sci-fi flick, right? Think I saw it, t'was a double bill with Day of the Triffids - the Triffids stole the show, they were hilarious, bet they'd make good luthiers too (they know wood!) -- The Day of the Triffids (1963) - IMDb

[Litterick]

I have not watched a YouTube video about right-hand technique for more than five years.

[Mark Kleinhaut]

Welcome to the other side!

Also from then other side, it’s incomprehensible to me to play just a “single line” solo, or to play only chords for comping.

[Aiq]

Mr. K, your playing is sublime and I enjoy each post. I think it is like piano.

We single note line katz are like horns.

It’s incomprehensible for me to not use a plectrum. (another great movie: Plectra vs. Mothra)

”I don’t play chords because I don’t play guitar, I play horn. It’s a f’~^\¥d up horn, but it’s a horn” Sonny Sherrock

[GuyBoden]

We single note line katz are like horns.

But, playing single notes on a Sax will always sound much better than playing single notes on a guitar.

Embrace the Polyphonic.

[FourOnSix]

But, playing single notes on a Sax will always sound much better than playing single notes on a guitar.

Embrace the Polyphonic.

Well, that depends on a lot of things. You shoulda heard me play saxophone in the 9th grade.

[Aiq]

I like guitar single note lines very much.

I like many saxophone tones as well.

But not as much as the guitar tones.

Another reason I’ll never be a made (jazz) man.

[gvurrdon]

I don't much like plectrums; small stiff ones give a good single-note tone but are hard to strum with. Soft enough ones for strumming (particularly upstrokes) don't give a good single-note tone and make a playing-card-in-bicycle-spokes noise I don't like. All are fiddly to hold.

But, have found fingerstyle extremely difficult and never made any progress with it or liked the sounds I got when I tried. Swing rhythm guitar thumb downstrokes worked for me in a big band, but I can't do anything else with useful with the thumb.

This is probably a sign that I should stick (at least primarily) to bass, where fingerstyle on upright or bass guitar is easy.

[Rodney Gene]

Both can be great.

I am consciously trying to avoid fingers whenever possible right now, even when it is more efficient, in order to keep my dedicated intent to get more proficient with a pick.

Years of country chicken pickin' hindered and decelerated my technique and skill set for other styles. I had to start from ground zero with all of it.

[JazzPadd]

Another thumber here, nothing fancy, just down strokes, slurs, slides, and strumming.

When I came back to jazz guitar after a rather long hiatus, I restarted by using a pick, trying many of them. I eventually settled on the Blue Chip small jazz sizes, for a while.

Then I recalled, when I was gigging regularly before the hiatus I used a pick for pop and rock (I played in a wedding band and a show band) but my thumb for jazz and big band.

So now after all these years, and since I mostly play jazz, it's back to a full time thumber, with some haphazard use of other fingers. What I realized is, since playing without a pick puts me in direct contact with strings, there's something magical about just fingers and strings, and it reminded me of my sojourn through world music stringed instruments.

[charlieparker]

Did I mention I love fingerpicking? Seems I can only keep a plectrum in my hand for 10 seconds before I put it back down.

For single note soloing you can't beat a pick unless you are Wes and use your thumb. Fingers are great for solo and chordal work or where you are a front man, but I can't recall any fingerpickers excelling in a combo/ensemble setting.

[James W]

For single note soloing you can't beat a pick unless you are Wes and use your thumb. Fingers are great for solo and chordal work or where you are a front man, but I can't recall any fingerpickers excelling in a combo/ensemble setting.

Lenny Breau, Kevin Eubanks, Lionel Loueke... The latter two tend to alternate P and I. Matteo Mancuso and another Italian fingerstyle guitarist whose name escapes me.

[lammie200]

So now after all these years, and since I mostly play jazz, it's back to a full time thumber, with some haphazard use of other fingers. What I realized is, since playing without a pick puts me in direct contact with strings, there's something magical about just fingers and strings, and it reminded me of my sojourn through world music stringed instruments.

For my college years and a little beyond all I had was a decent Spanish classical guitar that I always strung up with gut trebles. Probably formative enough that I have never taken to using the plastic. I have tried many times with many different variations of pick types. I always have gone back to my fingers and am not really interested in trying again.

[charlieparker]

Lenny Breau, Kevin Eubanks, Lionel Loueke... The latter two tend to alternate P and I. Matteo Mancuso and another Italian fingerstyle guitarist whose name escapes me.

I love Kevin, underrated guitarist. Breau mainly played by himself didn't he? I don't think I ever hear him play with a piano or sax player. Personally, fingerpicking sounds thin in that context. I guess it can be done but pick or thumb seems to produce a much fatter attack.

[Mark Kleinhaut]

I love Kevin, underrated guitarist. Breau mainly played by himself didn't he? I don't think I ever hear him play with a piano or sax player. Personally, fingerpicking sounds thin in that context. I guess it can be done but pick or thumb seems to produce a much fatter attack.

Check out Lenny with Brad Terry (clarinet) called the Livingroom Tapes.