Office freebie

[BJG145]

A set of "spudgers" or "pry tools" has been delivered to my desk, for cracking open laptops and tablets. And it includes a couple of snazzy guitar picks...I'm having those...

[Drew Stephenson]

Surprise bonus.

I actually tried using a plectrum the other night.
It did not go well.

[Guest]

I actually tried using a plectrum the other night.

tools of the devil.

[Drew Stephenson]

Especially slippery ones on a warm night.

I can see why they were giving away stacks of them now.

[Sam Spoons]

You've all got it wrong! Any pick thin enough to complement a spludger is about five times too thin for playing any string instrument known to man. You should all buy these and experience picking heaven https://www.djangoguitars.com/WegenGyps ... 5white.htm

[Wonks]

You've all got it wrong! Any pick thin enough to complement a spludger is about five times too thin for playing any string instrument known to man. You should all buy these and experience picking heaven https://www.djangoguitars.com/WegenGyps ... 5white.htm

The heat's got to you and you've really flipped this time.

Hard and thin for me. Anything that thick and I just get a dull plunking sound that I hate.

[shufflebeat]

My granny used to put two of those in a glass of water for keeping her teeth in at night.

[Eddy Deegan]

I'm a keyboard player and I love picks/plectrums because the only way I know how to get anything remotely musical out of a guitar requires one on my part. I prefer smaller ones though!

[BigRedX]

It is my experience that promotional and other free "picks" are nothing of the sort. They are simply triangular shaped pieces of plastic, which are completely unsuitable for playing the guitar. Any I receive go straight into the bin.

[Sam Spoons]

You've all got it wrong! Any pick thin enough to complement a spludger is about five times too thin for playing any string instrument known to man. You should all buy these and experience picking heaven https://www.djangoguitars.com/WegenGyps ... 5white.htm

The heat's got to you and you've really flipped this time.

Hard and thin for me. Anything that thick and I just get a dull plunking sound that I hate.

TBF I have moderated my stance a little over the years and use Wegen Bluegrass pics for some stuff, they are very stiff but only 1.4mm thick so a little brighter than the Gypsy pics. The Gypsy pics are designed for a specific style of guitar and music though and nothing else sounds quite right.

[Forum Admin]

My granny used to put two of those in a glass of water for keeping her teeth in at night.

[merlyn]

I like an inflexible pick. If I can bend it, it's no good for me. In the mainstream there is the Dunlop Jazz III which a lot of players use.

Once in inflexible pick land the material makes a difference. It's a while since I used one, but the Jazz III used to available in red or black. They were different materials and did sound different. What makes the most difference I've found is how sharp the point is. The sharper the point, the brighter.

I notice on the site Sam linked the picks are available with different degrees of sharpness.

[BJG145]

I like an inflexible pick. If I can bend it, it's no good for me. In the mainstream there is the Dunlop Jazz III which a lot of players use.

Jazz III FTW. The Ultex version is my standard pick, though I still haven't settled on the perfect strumming pick. I can't play rhythm with it.

[Forum Admin]

I like an inflexible pick. If I can bend it, it's no good for me. In the mainstream there is the Dunlop Jazz III which a lot of players use.

I'm a big Brian May fan and own a Burns replica of his Red Special guitar. I always play it using an old sixpence, just as Brian does, for authenticity when attempting Queen songs... but it works very well on non-Queen music and brings out harmonics and overtones in arpeggiated chords and such-like that my plastic plectrums cannot achieve.

[shufflebeat]

I'm a big Brian May fan and own a Burns replica of his Red Special guitar. I always play it using an old sixpence, just as Brian does...

I'm very rich so like to play with a five pound note. It makes rapid picking difficult but I can always pay someone else to do that on my behalf.

Otherwise, Jim Dunlops of various thicknesses depending on the whether (I can find them or not).

Some days are a .73 day while others require an .88, thankfully I've not needed to hunt out anything beyond that for a while.

[Wonks]

I'm very rich so like to play with a five pound note. It makes rapid picking difficult but I can always pay someone else to do that on my behalf.

I remove the metal strips from multiple £50 notes, melt them down and cast them using a mould I made from a sixpence, thus getting the benefit of both the above choices.

[shufflebeat]

Classy.

[merlyn]

I used to have a cup full of Jazz IIIs. I preferred the red ones, which were made of nylon I think. A friend seeing the cup asked "Do you think you have enough picks?" The obvious answer was "Yes." I wasn't going to run out in the foreseeable future.

I now use Dugain picks :

https://www.dugainplectrums.com/

It was a friend recommended these. He had tried the wooden ones, but found they wear down quite quickly as he plays hard. He had graduated to agate. Really. It appears Dugain don't offer stone picks any more, but they do offer stainless steel :

https://www.dugainplectrums.com/metaldu ... -pick.html

I use the Minidug and I recently got one made out of 'Synthetic R' whatever that is. I tried the different types of plastic -- acrylic, acetate and delrin. Acetate was good, but it wore down quickly, so I used delrin for a while. That also wears down eventually, so I'm trying synthetic R which is "very, very resistant". If it still has a point after a year I would concur that it is indeed "very, very resistant".

There's also a new material -- galalith or milk stone. This is what used to be plastic before plastic. It's made of milk. Really. Tons of milk used to be used to make this before oil based plastic. It's probably what Django used, and I noticed it's what some of the picks on the Wegen picks site are made from.

[BigRedX]

I buy my most commonly used picks (Herco Flex 75s) in boxes of 100. I'm currently close to running out on my 4th box (since the mid 80s), which means that each pick lasts me just over a month before I either lose it or decide it has become too worn to be any good.

[Rene Asologuitar]

A set of "spudgers" or "pry tools" has been delivered to my desk, for cracking open laptops and tablets. And it includes a couple of snazzy guitar picks...I'm having those...
***************************
Very generous.
I do fingerstyle playing, and really do not any more picks.
Love this thread!

[Sam Spoons]

I used to have a cup full of Jazz IIIs. I preferred the red ones, which were made of nylon I think. A friend seeing the cup asked "Do you think you have enough picks?" The obvious answer was "Yes." I wasn't going to run out in the foreseeable future.

I now use Dugain picks :

https://www.dugainplectrums.com/

It was a friend recommended these. He had tried the wooden ones, but found they wear down quite quickly as he plays hard. He had graduated to agate. Really. It appears Dugain don't offer stone picks any more, but they do offer stainless steel :

https://www.dugainplectrums.com/metaldu ... -pick.html

I use the Minidug and I recently got one made out of 'Synthetic R' whatever that is. I tried the different types of plastic -- acrylic, acetate and delrin. Acetate was good, but it wore down quickly, so I used delrin for a while. That also wears down eventually, so I'm trying synthetic R which is "very, very resistant". If it still has a point after a year I would concur that it is indeed "very, very resistant".

There's also a new material -- galalith or milk stone. This is what used to be plastic before plastic. It's made of milk. Really. Tons of milk used to be used to make this before oil based plastic. It's probably what Django used, and I noticed it's what some of the picks on the Wegen picks site are made from.

Michael Wegen doesn't say exactly what his picks are made of but I'm pretty sure it's an advanced acrylic used to make dentures not caesin (he keeps the exact formula a bit if a secret). His pics are all hand made and machined from solid not cast (he's a model maker by trade).

[merlyn]

I see. It turns out the galalith picks are not Wegen. They're on the djangoguitars site :

https://www.djangoguitars.com/Galalith- ... dg1gal.htm

[Sam Spoons]

Yes I've heard of those, one is a replica of the pic Django was known to have used. I s'pose it's a sort of 'Organic Bakalite'

[ManFromGlass]

I remember there was a certain formula of pick that was like a mini firework when you set it on fire. Flames in all directions. Almost exciting!!
ok - we all can’t afford to burn a guitar!

[Wonks]

Probably celluloid, (just like I use).