Blue Chip Pick wear

Gear
#1

I tried a looooot of picks over the years, but since i use a Blue Chip pick there’s no going back.
Besides the great tone and feel of the material it just does not wear out!
I have this TAD 40 and 60 for about 4 years now and play a lot every day as a pro musician, but they are still like new.
And even if one side would wear this model has 3 exact the same tips.

So, they look very expensive, but If you consider they just don’t wear they are actually the cheapest picks you can buy!
Highly recommended!!!

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#2

I have two similar picks. One is blue with “NYLPRO USA made” text, another one is black with JOYO text (chinese brand). They are almost in the same condition now though I’ve been using first pick for 2 months, and second one - for couple of hours…

#3

I’ve always been curious about these picks, as I have tried quite a few different picks myself. I hear a lot of people touting the feel and longevity of the picks. But, at $35 bucks a pop, I think what’s missing from my calculation above is that I, like many other players, tend to misplace and/or lose picks quite frequently (has anyone NOT found a guitar pick in the lint trap of the dryer?). Let’s say you buy only 3 picks. That’s $115 bucks. That could buy a LOT of much cheaper picks that also have a long life. After many years of using Dunlop Tortex and loving the feel, I was not thrilled with the way they wear and I found myself frequently ‘resharpening’ the picks by swiping them across the carpet at the right angle a few times because the tip had rounded over from wear. Also, if you do a few ‘pick scrapes’ on the strings, the edge would get rough rather quickly. Then I discovered the Dunlop Ultrex. Totally different feel, but I quickly got used to them and they last WAAAAYY longer than the regular Tortex picks. Then I discovered the Dunlop Flow. Same Ultrex material (as far as I can tell) with more rounded, less-pointy shape. A 24 pack costs me $13.99 on Amazon. How long do they last? I don’t know because I have yet to wear one out and , having 24 of them, I’m sure I’m not using the same pick every day. So, my question is, do you feel like $35 per pick is justifiable based on your experience with them, considering that other long-wearing, cheaper options are available? What about fear of losing a Blue Chip pick? I would be completely neurotic about keeping track of them at that price. I suppose if I were a highly successful, touring musician with loads of disposable income or corporate sponsorship I might have a go at them. Thoughts?

#4

I’ve lost one. It’s probably still here in the house somewhere! But that was maybe three years ago. I’m not rich by any stretch, but I can’t really say I feel that dollar loss in any real way, especially years later. The “cost” of an expensive guitar pick is kind of overblown in my mind. It’s a precision tool. For example, I bought this to install tuners:

I use it maybe once every two years if I’m lucky. But I smile every time. It’s amazingly sharp and takes only three turns to cut the peg hole bigger for the Planet Waves tuners I use. Great tool.

Imagine you don’t like the sound of an abraded scratchy edge on your tone. A nylon pick will never feel or sound right. A celluloid pick sounds fine at first but as soon as it scratches, feels awful. Doesn’t matter how cheap those picks are if they basically don’t work for you.

Now imagine a guitar pick that will never, ever, develop a rough edge. The hundredth note sounds the same as the thousandth note. How much would you pay for that tool? Well if no other pick even does that, I guess you’d pay a fair amount!

We’ve been accustomed to thinking of a guitar pick as a cheap disposable item. So some people have it in their minds that nobody should ever pay more for them than whatever the cheapest possible price is. But with the emergence of these specialized materials we’ve realized that there is a lot of pent up spending power there for the better mousetrap.

Personally, for something like high gain guitar, if someone could figure out a material that feels and sounds like Tortex but never wears out, I’d probably pay BlueChip money for it.

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#5

That would be my dream pick. But I wonder if the wearing out is an essential part of the Tortex tone, so that this may be unattainable for fundamental reasons.

#6

Once Tortex begins to abrade, the surface texture and sound stay the same from that point on. It’s just the shape that eventually wears away where it becomes too round. And it happens really quickly.

So basically someone would have to mimic the surface texture of Tortex when it’s abraded, but in a material that doesn’t actually abrade. Who knows if it’s possible.

#7

Continuing the discussion from Blue Chip Pick wear:

The fear of loosing them is there for sure; so far I did not.
It is not only that they don’t wear, but the sound they produce and how the material feels is just perfect for me.
So the pricing for me is justified.
I tried so many, also the Flow, but always come back to the Blue Chip.

#8

What has this to do with Blue Chip picks?
These picks are made of a complete different material.
NYLPRO are nylon picks that for sure won’t last for years. They also have a complet different sound and feel.

#9

Almost 4 years old. Just amazing!

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#10

I have zero issue paying $35 for a pick if its ‘the’ pick and especially if it lasts. But I have only really got on with 2 picks - jazz 3 and my favourite Dava pink jazz type (‘gel’ Ithink). I suck with most other picks. So $35, to try one out is not so great. I was hoping to have the same experience as Troy and others have where the type of pick becomes less of a concern the more accomplished with picking you get, but no luck so far!

#11

I can get along with other picks, played the Jazz 3 for years and I also have some Dava picks.
It’s not about that, it is about that bit extra it gives me in what I was looking for in sound and feel.
The unbelievable durability is something that justifies the price even more.

#12

Not about what? (Sorry, if I’m being dense! :see_no_evil:)

Does the Blue Chip have a lot of ‘chirp’?

#13

Every few years I buy a lot of different picks and try them all out. I’m actually in the middle of the process right now, I should have the last few picks from this round coming in the next few days.

For more than a decade now, I primarily use Dunlop Eric Johnson Jazz IIIs. I also use the amber coloured Ultex Jazz III’s for some things, and I have some standard orange Tortex 0.60mm which I use for some rhythm styles.

Pick wear really hasn’t been much of an issue for me. The EJ’s have a mould seam when they’re fresh from the packet, but I just run the edge of the pick along my jeans and it’s gone. The matte nylon doesn’t get scratchy for me, and I don’t wear bevels onto the edge. The only wear I get is a very subtle rounding of the point. It makes the attack feel and sound a little smoother, but the sight rounding also makes my fastest picking less defined.

I haven’t tried any really expensive picks like Blue Chip or Red Bear. I thought about ordering a couple this time around, but I just can’t justify the idea of spending €35-70 to try a single pick.

With the Blue Chips, it seems to me that they would be very chirpy. I don’t like a lot of chirp.

I tried a few Gravity picks in this last run, I remember not liking acrylic picks when I had tried them before, but they weren’t so expensive that I felt it wasn’t worth trying the material with different pick styles. I still don’t like them.

I think my technique is also very pick specific. One of the things I find most impressive about @Troy’s playing is how comfortable he seems to be switching between different types of picks.

I did try some Dunlop Flow picks this time, and I did find it a little easier to “lean” into sweeps with the bigger pick and softer curve, just like Gambale says in his interview. I’ll keep a few of them for that type of playing, but they still feel awkward for other things. Also, they’re a lot more chirpy than I’d like.

Has anybody used Blue Chip’s return policy? I wouldn’t mind losing out on shipping to try one if the returns process is easy enough.

#14

Good point - interesting to know

Also, with so e of the ‘boutique’ pick companies, they may sell b-stock picks on the odd occasion. For example IIRC, I bought a Red Bear pick discounted as it had an aesthetic imperfection. Might be a good thing to check out.

#15

Troy,
Thanks for the reponse! Have you tried the Ultrex Jazz XL’s. Not saying they sound or feel the same as Tortex (Which I love, except for the wear factor), but they last a loooong time and, as I mentioned, you can get a 24 pack for $13.99 on Amazon. 24 Blue Chip picks would be $840.00. Given that the Ultrex don’t wear out nearly as fast as Tortex (no sign of wear at all, actually, after a couple months), is a Blue Chip pick, in your estimation, THAT much better to warrant the extra cost? Also, do you use the Blue Chip picks all the time, or often? How would you rate their ‘chirpiness’? I will say that the Ultrex, at least the Jazz XLs that I use, are a bit chirpier than I would like. Thanks again!

#16

Yes we’ve got pretty much every pick here, including just about every Ultex. It doesn’t do what BlueChip’s material does. Ultex will abrade for sure, and when it does it’s scratchy. It also doesn’t sound like the polyamide material BlueChip uses, which is not only abrasion-resistant but also slippery. It’s a so-called “self lubricating” material used in industrial bearings. And it’s super expensive, a block of it costs thousands of dollars. That’s why BlueChip picks cost what they do.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying I love BlueChip and use them for everything. I don’t really think this is a question of “is it really that much better”. I’m just providing what I think is the actual answer to your question. People pay what they do because if someone wants the specific characteristics that the BlueChip picks have, those characteristics are simply not available elsewhere. FYI it’s mainly bluegrass players that use BC picks because of the need to plow through 13 gauge strings while still remaining glassy smooth.

Re: cost, you don’t need dozens of them. I don’t know any bluegrass player who buys packs of 24. Tony Rice used to use real tortoise shell picks and babied them one at a time to last as long as possilble, which was about six months or so for him if I recall. You just need one and you treat it like any valuable tool so you don’t lose it. I keep ours in a case and as soon as you’re done that’s back where they go. Haven’t had any issues since my dummy move with the first one.

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#17

Once again, thanks so much for the response and for great information and perspective. I’ve always been curious about these and will have to try one out. To Troy and anyone else who has used these, just 2 quick questions. Do you find them as chirpy as Ultrex and some other picks? I like Ultrex Jazz XL but they are definitely chirpy on an AxeFx III with a Big Muff Pi in front of the amp and a lot of down-picking. It’s almost unbearable and I can’t seem to EQ out. Secondly, what model Blue Chip would you recommend for my first foray into Blue Chip? (Hard Rock/Metal Player here, fond of the size and ‘pointy-but-not-too-pointy’ Jazz XL picks) Thanks in advance!

#18

They will chirp a bit, like all stiff material picks wiil do, but not in a way it becomes unbearable to me; I have had much worse chirpers.

I choose the TAD model because the have 3 exact the same tips. So, even if one side would show some wear you have 2 more to go :slight_smile: They are a bit big, but I got used to that pretty quick.

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#19

For those in the UK Hawk Picks are great if you want to go into the slightly more expensive pick market without jumping all the way to a Blue Chip.

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