Guitar Picks

The durability of a guitar pick is largely dictated by its material – and guitarists today have never had such a wide range of plastic compounds to choose from. Celluloid revolutionized the guitar pick landscape in the 1920s and 1930s and, while the material remains popular, Tortex, Nylon, Delrin, and Ultem have gained ground. But the differences between these materials … [Read more...] about Guitar pick durability: comparing plastics

The flexibility of nylon guitar picks allows for moderately faster picking but Tortex guitar picks produce a more defined attack and sustain, according to tests by the Victoria University of Wellington. The tests were conducted by the Engineering department as part of an experiment to build a robotic bass playing arm that involved testing seven Dunlop Tortex and Dunlop … [Read more...] about Nylon versus Tortex guitar picks: faster picking speed versus attack

Guitar picks may be small, but they play an outsized role in sculpting a guitarist’s tone. The thickness and material, as well as technique, all contribute to the guitar’s unique sound. The choice of material is almost limitless, from the earliest days of stringed instruments when quills were used to pluck the strings, which led to tortoise shell and the first plastic, … [Read more...] about The ultimate guitar pick guide: material, thickness and tone

Some of the world’s best guitarists make an unorthodox choice: they prefer to use a humble coin to strike the strings rather than a traditional guitar pick. While it makes an undeniable contribution to their unique tone, not any coin will work. In fact, the extreme thickness and inflexibility of coins might make the guitar unplayable. Queen guitarist Brian May is the most … [Read more...] about Coin guitar picks: why not all is as it seems

Guitar picks come in all shapes and sizes but there is one that stands above all others: the 1-inch triangular-shaped No. 351 plectrum. The No. 351 pick is today often associated with Fender but it was D’Andrea that first used celluloid to design the famous guitar pick in the 1920s. Their innovative pick designs using celluloid plastic helped usher in a new era for the … [Read more...] about How the guitar pick got its triangle shape

Doctors have found some strange items in people's airways: a leech (alive), tinfoil capsule, Chinese herbal medicine, a tooth, whistle, nasal ring and part of a tin can among them. So perhaps it's no surprise that a makeshift guitar pick should join that peculiar list given guitarists unfortunate habit of holding them between their teeth. Doctors at Nepal's Manmohan … [Read more...] about A jam session gone wrong: why guitar picks and mouths don’t mix

Guitar picks come in a wide variety of shapes, materials, and thicknesses, which affects the way a guitarist strikes the strings. But a pick (or plectrum) does more than change feel of the instrument, it also changes the tone. While many guitarists use subjective terms such as ‘warm’ or ‘bright’ to describe the impact of different picks, one scientific study has quantified … [Read more...] about How the thickness of a guitar pick affects tone