Pick Dilemma

Yah, that's the thing. When I used to play out 3-4 nights a week, I got into using the Dunlop Jazz picks, but the ones they don't make anymore, made of celluloid. The pointy ones. H3s or sometimes the M3s. Same shape as the Jazz III but celluloid.

Anyhow with these, or any shape/material/thickness pick, you can get different things out of them just by changing the angle of attack in regards to the string, and how hard or soft you're holding the thing. You can take a really thin pick and strum along with it, but then turn it more at right angles to the strings for doing leads. The opposite is sometimes true too; thick pick for leads, then flatter to the strings and softer grip for strums. I used to keep several stuck on the pickguard with double-sided tape, but wound up just having all the same picks in case I dropped one. And even the dropping thing which happens to all of us pretty much, can be avoided by taking a pick or two with you to work and just handling them in your spare moments or while you're doing something else. This also can apply to holding it at different angles, holding it more toward the back or more toward the point; that kind of thing.

OT: Regarding Dunlop - man it still makes me mad when they can keep something like the 'Sharkfin Pick' and stop making the ones I got used to! That's why I'm more or less on a Dunlop Pick Strike (not that it matters to their profits) and have gone to other, more 'normal' shapes (the 451 shape), just so I'll never find myself in that same situation again. It's like "What do you mean they don't make them anymore?" Okay, they have the Jazz III shape in Tortex and all that, but...I like the 'smell' of celluloid when you've been playing a lot and the edge starts to get rough. ;)

Rant over :)

I've never dropped one live, but I blue-tac one on the pickguard too.

I prefer them when they have a point, but I guess it'll take a month or two to see how things settle down.

I would be very surprised if John Frusciante uses .33 picks.....although I could be wrong.

I used .50 until I got a guitar teacher recently. He insists I use 1mm picks. He is a total guitar nut - when he lived in Indonesia he was voted best rock guitarist in Java '89-'91 I think and used to play Yngwie covers - in fact for a while he toured Indonesia with a band including Yngwie's keyboard player. Now he lives in Australia and plays all kinds of styles. Anyway, he told me he used to go to concerts all the time and stand up the front so he could catch the guitarist's picks and he reckons practically all the great rock guitarists use 1mm picks.

You can definitely notice if you use a thin pick for lead that there is a flicking sound when you hit the string. That disappears with the 1mm and it is not too thick to make strumming difficult......

I originally said that Frusciante used .33 red Tortex picks, but having checked it out, it appears that the red Tortex picks are infact .50

With this knowledge I think I may have just solved my pick problem seeing as .50 is in between the .36 and .60 I currently use, so I might just go out and get some.

:D

I too think you should just buy a few different types and see which one you like. It's just one of those things :)