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

[ErikH]

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

I've noticed a difference with different pick gauge and material. For the longest time I used thin picks, either Fenders or Tortex. Then I went to heavy, either Fender or Tortex. These days I'm pretty well set on the .73 yellow Tortex or the .88 green Tortex. I have some Jazz III picks and they are nice to use when practicing as they force me to clean up my picking style a little bit. Majority of the time, it's the medium Tortex. They have the right amount of bite and warmth for what I like.

 

[Edgecrusher]

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

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

Before you said "thin" and i guess we have different ideas of thin... to me 1.00 is not thin.. thin are .45-.60, .88 and 1.00 are mediums to me, so we're on the same page just using different terms.

 

[Nacho8807]

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

About a year ago I went on a long soul-searching journey to find the right pick for me. A lot of it had to do with finding a material and thickness that gave the me the right attack, least ammount of "click", and balance between warmth and brightness. I ended up with JazzIII XL style picks made of Tortex/Delrin material at .88mm. It's just the right amount of resistance before bending, and combined with the sharp end I can really dig in, or back off for lighter stuff very easily. I think the material has a lot more to do with the brightness than the thickness though. The same pick in a celluloid or nylon material is much brighter and noisier (more click when it hits the string).

 

[Archer250]

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

Before you said "thin" and i guess we have different ideas of thin... to me 1.00 is not thin.. thin are .45-.60, .88 and 1.00 are mediums to me, so we're on the same page just using different terms.

'Thin' here refers to the gauges I'm using now: .60 and .73

 

[Edgecrusher]

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

'Thin' here refers to the gauges I'm using now: .60 and .73

Yeah im lost cause you just said .88 to 1.00 so heres a in bread cat

 

[Archer250]

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

Yeah im lost cause you just said .88 to 1.00 so heres a in bread cat

Well, allow me to rephrase; a year ago or so, I used .88 and 1.00 picks; I now use lighter gauges, which have saved my strings.

 

[El Supremo]

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

The tiny Jazz type picks never felt right for me. I've used Ultex Sharp 1.14 for a long time (since they came out I think). Great clear attack when playing leads and riffing, but a bit awkward feeling when comping chords. I've gone back to .88 Tortex and it's a better allround tool for me. I do have to grip tighter and work harder to get a similar attack with fast lines, though the attack is still not as clear as with the Ultex picks.

 

[Evan Skopp]

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

For electric, I like the precision of a small, thick pick. For me, it's the Jazz Stubby 3.0mm. However, for acoustic guitar, it's a whole nuther ballgame: thick Fender-shape real tortoise shell. Tortoise gives a certain "clickiness" on the string that I've yet to hear with any other material, shape or thickness--but only for acoustic guitar. For electric, I can't hear a big difference between tortoise and most plastic picks.

 

[koshikas]

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

as for getting chime and roundness and nice balance specially for the clean stuff, I think fender California clears are real game. I've only found the medium gauge useful, both the light and heavy gauges are nowhere.

Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

 

[evh_slash]

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

I was shocked when I found this out too ! I was wondering why my clean chorus sounds were a little dull and flat. It turns out I was using a blunt and heavily used Purple 1mm tortex !! I tried a brand new red tortex which was very thin and bendy, and all of a sudden I had found all the sparkle and my clean sounds were 80s it was lovely ! I now use thin picks for cleans and arpeggiated 80s style cleans, and the green tortex for dirty stuff. works great.

 

[El Supremo]

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

I do find though, that thicker/heavier guitars sound better when using heavy picks. Using lighter picks on Les Pauls feels like starting a b*tch slapping contest during a K1 fight.

 

[80's_Metal]

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

 

[idsnowdog]

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

Simple physics. It takes greater amplitude to deliver a bass signal than a treble signal. So lighter playing, less amplitude = more treble. This is why bass amps are commonly rated in 100's of watts and guitar amps are normally 100 watts or less.