Pick Thickness & Sound Relationship
 

Hello!

Just would like to know how sound is affected by the thickness of picks. Here's my personal experience:

Comparison between 1mm pick versus 0.60mm pick (Both Dunlop)
Picking - 1mm gives clearer sound compared to 0.60mm
Strumming - 0.60mm gives clearer sound compared to 1mm. Strumming with 1mm gives "muffed" sound. FYI - I strum medium to hard.

So, what's your own experience with picks?

I think you have to combine thickness, material, tip profile, and bevel to estimate sound. Thicker tend to be warmer, thin tend to be brighter.

I agree with HHP that thinner picks are brighter. And pick material can have a significant impact on tone.

In the last couple of weeks, I've been going through several picks trying to decide what I like. I even got to play a Blue Chip, which is what made me realize what a difference a pick can make. For now, I'm sticking to cheap picks, though.

Anyway, I've settled on Dunlop Delrin 500 picks. I like the 1.5mm for flatpicking and the .96mm for strumming. I had a couple of people listen and they preferred those picks as well. (The delrin feels a little slick in the fingers, but a few touches with a soldering iron takes care of that.)

I used an audio spectrum analyzer on three Fender picks - thin, medium, heavy - the results were interesting.

Briefly, the thinner the pick, the less bass. However, all three picks had the same treble response - sorry, but the midrange has been forgotten. Perhaps I'll look up the results and post them.

I'm with landru....thickness definitely effects bass, but material effects brightness...

My brightest pick is 3.5mm thick...but I don't usre anything under 2.5, really.

I have picks (generally 1.0 mm and up) that sound fine with single-note lines, but sound clicky when I strum chords. By "clicky" I mean that I hear what sounds like the pick impacting the string before the string's vibration takes over.

Comments, anyone?

Reading stuff like this is what got me to try thicker picks. That is how I handle GAS now. I just buy a new pick. Much cheaper than guitars. I find the heavier picks really let me hear everything my guitar can do. I don't like them for strumming though and stick with something in the .6 to .8 range for that.

I also have a problem controlling "pick click" when strumming with really heavy picks. Any pointers out there? It might be nice to get more bass in my strumming if I can avoid the excess pick sound.

I use an older Gibson Heavy, a smallish teardrop, black... they were getting hard to find in the 90's, so I bought a gross... and I'm still working through them! I have no idea of what thickness they are, in mm's... anyone know?

I have considered trying a Blue Chip, i just don't have any idea of what thickness to try!

After using heavy picks for quite a long time, anything thinner just feels and sounds "wimpy" to me... strumming really isn't that hard to adjust with a thicker pick; hold the pick a bit looser and use more wrist... the PLAYER is in charge of how and where he attacks the strings, after all! Hit it hard when you need to, back off a bit when you don't want that "wall of sound" effect...

play on...............................................>

John

Try a 50. BC makes a tear drop, called a TD. I use the TP60 - triangular and a little large but man, do I like the size and thickness. I've been using a jazz 1.5 mm and I'd say your pick is between 1mm and 1.25mm. The BC 50 is 1.25mm.

I agree with your general assessment, thicker for pickin' lighter fro strummin'm

I've experimented a lot until a Gibson dealer gave me a set of Gibson medium picks. Best I tried thus far, provide the clearest, true, natural tone of the guitar.

They are around .73 and work well both for strumming and pickin'. For my CW I use Tortex 60's to get that lush, woody tone when strummed.

Wow! All these thick-pickers. I use 0.5mm max. Maybe I should try a thicker pick? I'm mostly a strumming but do experiment with "picking" a little.

What does everybody think of bone picks? I tried a few and to my ear they make the strings sound really muffled.

We know that the sound coming out of a pick is related not only to the thickness but so much to materials and shape, and beveling, and picking angle and profile...
Time ago I made this short test with some of the picks I had, just to give an idea:
http://www.4shared.com/playlist/2aVl...PICK_TEST.html

yep, thicker brings out more low end bass and more low end midrange, the trebel may be the same but i think when you add more low end the low end drowns out some of the treble and makes the guitar sound darker or less bright.

i guess it jsut depends on what your looking for 1mm or 1.5mm are what i like to play with. the nylon dunlop picks are the best sounding inexpense picks i have found for acoustic guitar.