10/10/2019 Jim Dunlop Traditional Tear Shaped Flatpick
Country/Folk acoustic flatpicking requires Dunlop black STIFFOS. Teardrop shape helps them resting a bit more inside the side of the finger. Then a friend showed me Jim Dunlop Jazz 3 red really pointy picks.
Testing new picks is almost an hobby in itself for me, I just can't stop.Luckily it's relatively inexpensive.Funnily my base tone 'gold standard' picks are Fender Celluloids, which are dirt cheap. Another update LOL:I bought myself some more picks, a Dunlop Tortex 1.0mm, some Dunlop Jazz III Maxgrips, Dunlop Tortex.60mm and.73mm, a Dunlop BIG STUBBY NYLON 3.0mm and a Dunlop Fin Nylon.The 1.0mm Tortex is awesome, feels great and sounds great. The thinner.60 and.73 ones don't feel as great which is funny because surely the.60mm is the same as the L3? The L3 sounds way brighter than it. Brightest pick I've got by miles, no other pick I've got is anywhere near as bright as the L3.The Maxgrips are brilliant, they sound great, neither dark not bright, just kinda neutral, but the grip is awesome for hybrid pickin' and palming the pick easily.The Dunlop BIG STUBBY Nylon is AMAZING!!! I already had the see through purple one, and it felt great but it's too. I don't know what better word to use, it kinda squeaks on the strings, but the Nylon one is a major improvement over that one, it feels just as great, it sounds a bit darker than the purple one, but there is no squeak!
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It's also a great size and grip for playing the way I do.Definitely will be using this one as much as I can for now! I love it.The Fin is ridiculously awesome too. The ribbed side is incredible on the acoustic, this doesn't come through the amp so well (still kinda does though) but man it sounds MASSIVE. Adds loads of brightness to the sound.
Really unique. Not sure I've got much choice for a pick other than this one for acoustic, that ribbed side just sounds too damn good.Also the fin side is the opposite, it's way quiet and way darker sounding - also useful, easy to kinda spazz out on the strings with too, it's extremely versatile and I'll need to use it more to get the most out of it. I like everything it can do and even though it looks like a stupid shape it's easy to palm for me, actually has a indentation where it fits inside your finger when palmed, really cool pick. Don't let the looks put you off, it's great.Way too many awesome picks.Still surprised at just how different they all sound. My darkest sounding pick is the Tortex III 1.14mm, the difference between that and my Tortex L3 is way bigger than you'd expect.
One is all about the treble the other one basically destroys all treble. I really like both and see them being useful for different stuff.I don't think I've got a favourite, sometimes my hands will feel like they want something super grippy like the Nylpro, ULTEX or Maxgrip, sometimes my hands are okay with less grip and maximum toanz in the M3 (this is still the best sounding pick I've got I reckon, don't know why). Whatever floats my boat, right?Most my picks are Dunlop btw because the only dealers within like 2 hours of me have decent stock of them.I've also noticed that there's a sweet spot when picking, this is a bit random sorry guys - depending on where I'm fretting, there's a great sounding spot to use the pick at riiiight under where the neck begins on my AS-53. If I'm fretting closer to the nut, then the sweet spot shifts over onto the fretboard at around the 18th fret or so.What's up with this? It's really noticeable when I'm playing in this spot, it's a really smooth sound with some nice depth to it. Kinda cool.I find it best for bluesy licks. It's only the space of like 1-2 high end frets, but yeah it's a thing I've discovered.
My previous band did a few bluegrass/bluegrass-type numbers so I toted along an acoustic and used a proper flatpick ie a 1.5 in triangle. Loved the sharp corner and the leverage.In playing electric I went back to a traditional teardrop shape albeit I tried every brand under the sun from Dunlop Nylon to Dava to V-Pick (which I still love and use occasionally).Timing is everything and Dunlop Ultex issued a larger semi-triangle model that seems to capture the best of both worlds. The material is just rough enough to prevent slippage and get some purchase on the string(s) but is still, as one MF reviewer stated, the closest thing to tortoiseshell he's tried. My previous band did a few bluegrass/bluegrass-type numbers so I toted along an acoustic and used a proper flatpick ie a 1.5 in triangle. Loved the sharp corner and the leverage.In playing electric I went back to a traditional teardrop shape albeit I tried every brand under the sun from Dunlop Nylon to Dava to V-Pick (which I still love and use occasionally).Timing is everything and Dunlop Ultex issued a larger semi-triangle model that seems to capture the best of both worlds.
The material is just rough enough to prevent slippage and get some purchase on the string(s) but is still, as one MF reviewer stated, the closest thing to tortoiseshell he's tried. Click to expand.I tried Ultex blind very recently along with a bunch of other picks on different instruments like electric and acoustic guitar, and mandolin and mandola, being handed picks without looking at them, and seeing which picks my friends in the blind and I liked in terms of tone. (One friend was noting which pick was being tried and which ones were getting the positive comments.)I was.shocked. that our opinions clustered around three thicknesses of Dunlop Ultex picks. Yeah the ULTEX is great. Click to expand.I may have misunderstood your intention there, to me the statement seemed that you were amazed at the depth of the topic, as though it may not matter as much as it is made out to be here by some.
I apologize if that is not the case. I do agree all the other components of what you play, along with requisite practice, all are important and make up the end product. I am, though, defending the depth of the topic, in part because I never realized how big a difference a pick can make in tone and technique until recently, even if not as big a difference as comparing a strat with a les paul.Going more in depth with that, up until recently I was pretty happy with thinner picks for acoustic, thicker (.72 - 1.0) for electric, no matter the material.
When I tried the dragon heart I noticed a substantial change in tone, and I also wound up altering my technique a bit, and I think the end result is an improvement. I'm happy such an elementary (and relatively inexpensive) change yielded such results, and would encourage others to try basic like this before trying more expensive gear, be it pedals, amps, or guitars.At any rate, I do think as long as you are happy with what you are hearing, you'll be more encouraged to practice (which, contrary to popular belief here, does improve sound).
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