lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

[80's_Metal]

So lately I have been seriously head over heals in love with these jazz3 picks and jazz3 carbon picks! amazing accuracy and feel.

But the other day I grabbed an .88 maxgrip Dunlop nylon (my old favorite pick) and played with it for a bit... I noticed a brighter sound...
grabbed the jazz 3 ...darker sound...

It worked that way on the acoustic and electric....

Am I hearing things that aren't there??? anyone else find this to be true???

 

[gottalovethe80s]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

I used to use ultex 1.14's, but now that I play alot of clean stuffs I use tortex 0.60's as I find the sound to be brighter and the notes are much rounder

 

[Johtosotku]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

Both pick thickness and material have an effect on the tone.

I've been playing with a thin celluloid for cleaner stuff, but even then I like to turn the pick around for single note passages.

I like a 2 mm tortex when I need a lot of dirt.

 

[vinta9e]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

Thin, sharp, hard picks sound brighter. Trust your ears.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

There's formulas to great tone, and your pick is a bigger part of it than most people think.

I've kind of settled on green Tortex in conjunction with my hybrid picking style. That pick is like a punchy sounding thumb, so it's not too bright or dark to be used with fingers hitting other notes.

 

[jeremy]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

i have used the green .88 tortex since i started playing, just a great all around pick. a few years ago i started mixing it up with some ultex which definitely sound and feel different.

 

[Archer250]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

Well yeah. It's why I use .60-.73 nylon picks now.

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

I think we should use the thickest picks we feel comfortable with... I mean, who wants a thinner sound? My use of .73 tortex is a bit thinner sounding than the greens or even purples but I gotta have that thinness because I twist my pick around in my fingers to hit the strings from different angles when I play. Some notes get the flat edge, some get the tip, some get the pick coming sideways, slicing into the strings... these might all occur in the same measure. A thicker pick doesn't want to move around as quickly in my fingers.

But yeah, thicker the pick the thicker the sound.

 

[BluesGuyJ]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

I use thin picks that do not flex at all.... I go back and forth between soe vpicks and metal picks.... I always get a brighter tone with metal picks and love it

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

I think material makes a bigger difference than thickness, but it all contributes. I can't explain why, but I always gravitate toward yellow Tortex or Ultex.

 

[Psykel]

lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

The purple Dunlop Gels medium gauge both sounds and looks the best to me.
Basically same sound and feel as a standard Fender medium pick, but awesome purple see-throughness!

 

[Archer250]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

I think we should use the thickest picks we feel comfortable with... I mean, who wants a thinner sound? My use of .73 tortex is a bit thinner sounding than the greens or even purples but I gotta have that thinness because I twist my pick around in my fingers to hit the strings from different angles when I play. Some notes get the flat edge, some get the tip, some get the pick coming sideways, slicing into the strings... these might all occur in the same measure. A thicker pick doesn't want to move around as quickly in my fingers.

But yeah, thicker the pick the thicker the sound.

Thin picks make me have to dig in and explore my dynamics, and at the same time make me sound clearer and more cutting.

 

[blueman335]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

I think we should use the thickest picks we feel comfortable with... I mean, who wants a thinner sound?

Oh, it's far from being that simple. There's other factors at play, as in the string gauge, PU's, magnets, pots, amp EQ, tubes, etc. The final brightness or warmth is impacted by all of those, and picks are only one piece of the puzzle. You can use thinner picks to brighten a sound that's otherwise a little too warm/thick. A neck PU is going to be fuller sounding, and while a thick pick may be ideal for the bridge, it may work against you in the neck.

My picks, Dunlop .88's, have a beveled edge that give extra bite, which is very desirable for me. I can't get those tones from picks with rounded edges.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

Thin picks make me have to dig in and explore my dynamics, and at the same time make me sound clearer and more cutting.

Thing is, due to flex you can only dig so hard with a thin pick. I can always attack lighter with a thick pick though.

 

[BrianS.]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

I used the yellow .73mm Tortex for years and was happy with the tone. Then I started playing more clean/light OD tones and R&B stuff with chords on the high strings and I found my tone too thin and bright. Started trying out different things and read about the Herco Flex 75 picks. Found that the Herco warmed up my tone just enough and I've really come to like the feel and attack of them, too.

I still have the Tortex picks around and on the rare occasion that I'm messing around with higher gain sounds, I find that like the .73mm better than the Herco. For me the extra brightness is good for playing with more gain, but the warmth of the Herco is better for clean tones.

I think the tonal differences come from a combination of the thickness and material of the pick, as well as the shape of the edges. Material composition probably plays a bigger role than thickness, though. Jazz III and Herco picks are both nylon

 

[blueman335]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

Thing is, due to flex you can only dig so hard with a thin pick. I can always attack lighter with a thick pick though.

There's a relationship between string gauge and pick thickness. With 9's, I can 'dig in' with an .88 pick. With thicker strings, I couldn't.

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

There's a relationship between string gauge and pick thickness. With 9's, I can 'dig in' with an .88 pick. With thicker strings, I couldn't.

Doesnt hold true for me but could very well for you... thank god they make so many gauges of strings and picks... this world would be a really boring place if we were all the same.

 

[Archer250]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

Thing is, due to flex you can only dig so hard with a thin pick. I can always attack lighter with a thick pick though.

Usually, that's all I need. I used to use .88 and 1.00 and have no problems digging in a bit too hard.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

So lately I have been seriously head over heals in love with these jazz3 picks and jazz3 carbon picks! amazing accuracy and feel.

But the other day I grabbed an .88 maxgrip Dunlop nylon (my old favorite pick) and played with it for a bit... I noticed a brighter sound...
grabbed the jazz 3 ...darker sound...

It worked that way on the acoustic and electric....

Am I hearing things that aren't there??? anyone else find this to be true???

Like everything, there's a few factors. Your general experience is true, but other factors matter too, like the edge shape, pick material and weight of the strings vs weight of the pick. You can take a thin pick and turn it to the rounder edge/corner, strike at a 45 degree angle (similar to Jimmy Page did sometimes, having a low strung guitar angle) instead of straight on the string and get a mellower strike tone out of even a thin pick.

 

[koshikas]

Re: lighter pick equals brighter sound.... your thoughts?

totally off topic, thinner the pick better the scrape.

seriously those jazz III specially the carbons and stiffos are not warmest picks for their gauge