Pick question

cujo73 · Newbie Alert Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 2

Hi. I've got a dumb question about thumb picks & regular picks. I'm a beginner guitarist so please bear with me. In fact I've never played before. I just bought an Epiphone SG special guitar & amp at a yard sale and am going to mess around with it and maybe take some lessons. I know it's a cheapie guitar but I figured no need to break the bank on a beginner guitar. The guitar came with a few thumb picks. Every thing I read on the internet talks about playing with regular picks with hardly any mention of thumb picks except for use with finger playing (is it really finger playing if you're using a pick?) I guess my question is, do I need to buy some regular picks or will the thumb picks work just fine? Thanks for any advice.

sharring · Tiger Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 812 Location: Texas

There are no absolute rules about playing. However most use flatpicks with electric guitar. Some use bare fingers with electric guitar. The only ones i've ever heard of who used a thumbpick with the electric guitar have been Chet Adkins (Mr. Guitar-visit Youtube and enter his name...it's enough to make you wanna quit!) and the late great Freddie King who used a plastic thumbpick and a steel fingerpick to raucous effect. If i was beginning, i'd start with a flatpick.

PunkStar · Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:55 pm Post subject:

Ahh thumbpicks. Yes, these are a part of fingerpicking. You use them in fingerpicking to get a stronger note from your thumb. The pick creates a clearer and sometimes louder note.

I find that if you are just going to pick individual notes, using the thumb pick as a normal pick works fine. Light strumming works fine too. But for heavy strumming I'd use a normal pick. Keep in mind as well too that you can get different picks of different thicknesses and materials. My advice would be to head down to a music shop and buy a few different ones and see what you like best. They are fairly cheap too.

Sharring makes a good recommendation to have a listen to Chet Atkins. For a more modern player, have a listen to Tommy Emmanuel (who learned a lot from Chet).

Best of luck with the guitar, hope you have a good time with it.

cujo73 · Newbie Alert Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 2

I'll go buy some flat picks. Thanks to both of you for the advice.

music wasn't part of me · Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 2:19 am Post subject:

Speaking of picks, as a matter of fact i have been questioning some things about picks. i just broke 2 picks in one week, they're a bit different from the ones i usually use, i bought them at a small music store i bumped into they didn't have any other picks so i just took whatever they gave me...and they broke.

any explanations maybe my dear friends ?

George E · Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:33 am Post subject:

PunkStar · Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 7:05 pm Post subject:

What were they made of. I hate the stupidly thin plastic ones because they are easy enough to break. I tend to spend about $1 AUS per pick and haven't had any troubles.

If it helps, I play Jim Dunlop USA light picks on my acoustic for strumming and the heavy ones for picking notes on my electrics.

sharring · Tiger Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 812 Location: Texas

The ugly Jim Dunlop grey picks rule...they never break, you just lose them. Does anyone else play with the blunt end like me?

music wasn't part of me · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:14 pm Post subject:

PunkStar · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 7:32 pm Post subject:

I know the ones you mean, I've tried them and find them too thick for the way I like to play. The ones I use are just a flat piece of plastic basically.

These ones.

http://www.jimdunlop.com/index.php?page=products/pip&id=54&pmh=products/picks

music wasn't part of me · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:26 pm Post subject:

yeah exactly, the ones you're using are exactly what I need! unfortunately i can't seem to find 'em anywhere..... we have just like those but not dunlop, well i guess they're still plastic.

J Dan Brown · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 3:44 am Post subject:

I generally find that people use thumb and finger picks on acoustic guitar or dobro. I never could use them because I lost touch with the strings with my fingers, like caressing your wife's cheek with a spatula, so I use my bare fingers when I fingerpick, which I do on about half of the hundred or songs I play pretty regular. The other half I use Jim Dunlop picks, various thickneses, and use nothing else on my Guild and Norman acoustic and the grey ones that are about as thick as a Fender medium hard plastic pick. Hard plastic picks bounce off my strings and are pulled out of my fingers by their unnatural hardness and cause me to lose notes and mess up timing, but Dunlop picks are made of nylon and have just the right bit of flex and of backbone and are slightly soft and last virtually forever, or like was said they are lost much more than you can wear one out. I have several grey ones (52 mm?or 52 something) that I use most and one that I have had over 20 years and has most of the writing wore off, like a prisoner rubbing on a stone and eventually wearing it through and some thiner ones I use periodically. (Down to about 30 something)

I have seen some weird picks in my life that will never wear out, but too thick for me to play with, including one I still have made from a US Quarter (25 cents) and very thick that a guy sent me once and I have one made out of genuine tortoise shell that you can use a finger nail file on to make it as thin you want it and they seldom break, but who wants to file on a pick for several days? I have seen some made out of stainless steel of various thicknesses, but not for me. I highly endorse nylon and you can find a thickness that you like.
Blessed, by nylon picks, Dan