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Author Topic: metal picks on the way  (Read 3210 times)

gwEm

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metal picks on the way
« on: October 24, 2011, 11:31:55 AM »
a couple of shows back I ended up leaving my picks in the hotel :/

anyway, this is happened to me before, and I resorted to my usual solution in this case and ended up playing with a 5 euro cent coin, which is a copper coin.

i've always liked using a coin as a pick, and this reminded me of the super-bright attack you can get.

so i've just ordered 5 different metal guitar picks - 3 steel, a brass and an aluminium. it only cost me £6.70 or so, so I figure this will be cheap experimentation.

i imagine I won't be using these too much with a strat ;) but lets see!
« Last Edit: October 24, 2011, 11:43:08 AM by gwEm »
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Quote from: AndyR
you wouldn't use the meat knife on crusty bread but, equally, the serrated knife and straight edge knife aren't going to go through raw meat as quickly

Sancho

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2011, 11:38:40 AM »
I used metal picks for a while, when I was in a heavy John Sykes fase.
They chew through strings at an alarming rate. I broke strings every rehearsal :?
I'm back to Tortex now, and I can't say my tone has suffered...
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choucas09

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2011, 12:09:19 PM »
I don't know if any of you have encountered real tortoiseshell picks, banned now for obvious reason, but they had exceptional playability and tone.
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AndyR

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2011, 12:28:04 PM »
I tried metal picks many years ago. And yes, I've got a feeling you won't use them on a strat so much :lol: (mind you, you like brightness and attack, don't you?)

And it probably depends on how hard you dig in, but I definitely experienced the same issues as Sancho. They eat strings.

Are you allowed to make your own tortoiseshell picks from the family pet? (Assuming it has already passed on to "better things", obviously :lol:)
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gwEm

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2011, 12:36:25 PM »
i'm definately into brightness, but i think its possible to have too much attack ;)

i may go back to green tortex .88s as i usually do, but i think its worth ago
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Quote from: AndyR
you wouldn't use the meat knife on crusty bread but, equally, the serrated knife and straight edge knife aren't going to go through raw meat as quickly

AndyR

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2011, 12:41:34 PM »
Oh, it's definitely worth trying.

And even if you don't end up using them as regular gigging items, hang on to them... you can never have too many different kinds of pick for recording purposes.
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gwEm

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #6 on: October 26, 2011, 10:05:37 AM »
the results were slightly disappointing unfortunately. but i guess it can't work out with all my experiments :)

wasn't fussed by the tone or feel of any of the steel picks.

the brass pick felt absolutely amazing, pure luxury. but as one might expect the tone was very mellow, more so than a tortex. i think i'll end up using this one from time to time though, for my jazz-hack moments.

the aluminium one was very light, and didn't sound very musical when i tapped it. basically it felt wrong. it sounded bright and surprisingly sweet though when playing.

so basically i didn't capture the feeling of using that coin - i might try to get a copper pick just for one last attempt at this.
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Quote from: AndyR
you wouldn't use the meat knife on crusty bread but, equally, the serrated knife and straight edge knife aren't going to go through raw meat as quickly

AndyR

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #7 on: October 26, 2011, 10:12:54 AM »
That's kind of what I found. This was years ago mind. I'd tried the old sixpences because of Brian May (in fact I still have one, and it makes PERFECT sense when you use it on a Brian May guitar).

I quite liked the sixpence, but it was too small and fiddly for my strat playing. I had used metal fingerpicks on and off on acoustic - they take some bluddy getting used to, I never managed it, but mainly because they weren't a plectrum. So metal picks seemed a good idea...

Somehow they didn't feel like I was expecting, and although they added something I'd been missing, I was missing a whole lot more that I got with plastic/nylon picks.

And they eat strings... that stopped me using them pretty quickly!
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Stevepage

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2011, 12:37:25 PM »
I've been thinking about metal picks recently but I can't seem to find any where that sells them
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gwEm

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2011, 01:00:39 PM »
Quote from: Stevepage on October 26, 2011, 12:37:25 PM
I've been thinking about metal picks recently but I can't seem to find any where that sells them

http://www.guitarpicks.co.uk/

they arrived neatly packaged the next day - good service
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Quote from: AndyR
you wouldn't use the meat knife on crusty bread but, equally, the serrated knife and straight edge knife aren't going to go through raw meat as quickly

Transcend

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2011, 05:57:21 PM »
get some bone picks.

you want be dissapointed!

I wont ever go back to standard picks after trying them

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Roobubba

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2011, 03:03:22 PM »
Quote from: Toe-Knee on October 26, 2011, 05:57:21 PM
get some bone picks.

you want be dissapointed!

I wont ever go back to standard picks after trying them



They do wear down very quickly, though. PhilKing very kindly sent me a great selection of picks, and I'm still using some of them, but I found even the hard wearing ones get worn down within a gig or so, though they were very nice to play with (until scalloped!).

Roo
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Transcend

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2011, 03:22:56 PM »
im only one my second one since getting them months ago :S

then again i am using 9s/10s i imagine you are using far heavier strings
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Roobubba

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #13 on: October 27, 2011, 07:23:42 PM »
Quote from: Toe-Knee on October 27, 2011, 03:22:56 PM
im only one my second one since getting them months ago :S

then again i am using 9s/10s i imagine you are using far heavier strings
Yeah 14-70 and I play like a monkey.
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psy

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Re: metal picks on the way
« Reply #14 on: October 28, 2011, 12:45:11 PM »
So a brass pick with an aluminium tip should make a good pick then?  Quick let's get on to those Dragon's Den folk. :)
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