What picks are you using?

I dig shape & bevel of the John Petrucci Trinity, but can’t live with the pick noise. Only Ultex picks of 1mm thickness & below have an acceptable level of chirp IMO. I have found a great middle ground between the feel of a flow bevel with the tone & size of a Jazz III Tortex = Gator Grip Jazz III. They have bevels, unlike the completely square edges of Tortex Jazz III.
I switch between these 3, preferring the Gator grip Jazz III

I’ve been using Chicken Picks Shredder as I love the feel and control it gives me

I’m using Dunlop Ultex Jazz III at the minute. I have one that I’ve been using on and off over the years and it has a nice bevel on it.

I picked up some Jazz III XL primetone picks for Christmas, I have a new favorite pick. I can do pick slides and other stuff much easier than with the nylon ones and the grip on them is next to none. They still get a nice chirp like the nylon but slightly more subdued. Bit expensive, but killer picks.

I use the John Petrucci Jazz III signature picks. They’re dope.

Dunlop Flow 1.5 ultex.

Jazz III Tortex 1.14mm.

Chomacast 1.3mm Michael Angelo Signature Picks.
Picked up a 30 pack for less than $7, a couple years ago.
I keep going back to these regardless of pick I compare them to.
Awesome grip. Like a gatorgrip jazz iii

My go to pick is whichever is closest to me when I sit down to play, lol. I got a gigantic pack of the purple dunlop tortex picks in 1.5mm and 2mm so that’s one I use pretty often. I prefer a stiff pick but I can get used to a .5 or .6mm one in a few minutes if it’s all I have, although I do find economy picking stuff to be more difficult with a flappy plectrum.

I mainly use the big triangular shaped ones now though - I have a 1.5mm Ernie Ball Prodigy pick that’s been in the rotation quite a bit lately. I also have some Bermuda III’s by ChickenPicks which have a much sharper tip than the Ernie Ball and brings out the high end a bit more which I like sometimes. I finally bit the bullet and ordered some BlueChips with my name on them to boot :joy: so I’ll update once those arrive.

I’m not a big fan of Jazz III type picks - just too small for my liking. Maybe I’ll try em again and change my mind down the road but I always seem to come back to a nice big plectrum.

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I randomly chose the Dunlop Flow 2.0mm pick, and that’s all I use, because I wanted to reduce as much variability as possible (e.g., eat only one kind of dog food). I’m not sure if this is a good idea, but I can say, anything other than a Flow 2.0mm seems to be really weird… I guess that means my idea is working, but is it dumb or not? :thinking:

One concept in motor learning science seems to be that variety can be good when you are trying to conquer unfamiliar motions.

So my layman extrapolation from that is the following:

  • for licks / techniques where you are already comfortable, there’s no harm in sticking with the flow pick
  • when you are stuck on a passage and it’s not getting better, trying it with a different pick can be one of the many ways to introduce new variables and give yourself more chances to discover the correct motions
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I have a dish full of picks of different shapes, sizes and materials and I swap between them regularly. Flow, Stubby, Delrin, Ultex, you name it. My go-to pick is a .88mm Tortex but I like to switch it up.
Ideally, I want to develop a technique with enough room for error that I don’t have to rely on a specific set of gear to achieve the results I want.

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Normally Dunlop tortex 1mm, however I have ordered some Dunlop flow picks recently as I seen someone recommend them. I’ve ordered the .88mm as that was the one that was recommended. No idea what it will be like. If I find I like them, I’ll post here.

So I have been sticking to Dunlop Flow 2.0mm picks because I concluded that I need to reduce variation in my life, but I noticed that they now have a variation of the 2.0mm Flow, so I ordered some of those, although I probably shouldn’t have done that! :rofl: I guess that one can teach with them, as they seem to be red…

I’d be interested to hear what they are like!
My Dunlop flow .88mm picks arrived today and I just had a practice with them. So far, I prefer them over the Dunlop tortex 1mm I was using. They are ever so slightly smaller and get through the strings a little easier, hence the name I guess!

So the 2.0mm Gloss version of the Flow seems totally different than what I’m used to (the stock 2.0mm). Gloss feels much thinner than 2.0mm, and it doesn’t have the same grip: Instead, it has a thumb/finger indentation, and this makes it difficult to choke up on the pick, etc. Right now I definitely prefer stock, but then I’ve only been eating that one flavor of dog food for a while, so I’ll try a Gloss off-and-on and see if I come to any other conclusion.

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Which size do you use? I have a variety pack and kind of jump around with the sizes, can’t decide what feels the best. They’re pretty cool.

I bought tons of them to see what I like best. I think I have at least one of everything that they offered on the site lol! I definitely don’t like the ones with the rounded tip. So it’s between these different sizes that I am digging most:

image

The smallest is the same size as the jazz iii and oddly my least favorite of the ones in the image above. I think I like the largest one the best overall. It’s like the same size as a “regular” guitar pick, but pointy and 1.10 mm.

My grip is slowly changing since my time with CtC. My whole life I’d always done a side pad grip, and sort of tightly held. It is looser and a little closer to a trigger grip now though. The swiss picks seem to feel better with this setup. I’m not sure if this is a result of the overall technique changes I’ve learned since finding the site, or the swiss picks or maybe a little of both? Either way, change and variety is good :slight_smile: I’d done the same thing for probably 25 years. No surprise that I hit a plateau and couldn’t break it.

Yeah sure give them a go for a while and see if it suits.
I just started using the flow .88mm. That’s usually a lot thinner than I go, but it doesn’t flop. So far I’m finding the flow’s much easier to control than the Tortex I had been using. Unfortunately, I just bought a bag of 72 Tortex’s which I may not need now!