I think it might have been just one specific one that I tried and it had a dip in the centre for the side of your index finger. It was many years ago now so I may be remembering wrong
I’ve come to realize that in general, I don’t much care what pick I use. As long as it’s roughly the same physical size of a 351-style.
Right now, I’m enjoying Dunlop Flow standards in 1.0mm. The material (Dunlop calls it Ultex) is very durable. The Flow Tortex isn’t bad, either. I have regular Tortex or Delrin 500s lying around but don’t use them much right now. Jazz III max picks do well for me also.
I prefer the Flow standard presently, but I’m sure that’ll change at some point.
OK now I get it! Those are the “Control” ones, I’d forgotten about them. That weird accordion-texture thing in the centre of the pick is (IMO) a stupid gimmick, the idea is that if you hold the pick farther from the tip it’s more flexible. As with most “best of both worlds!” gimmicks it’s just a terrible compromise; if I want a more flexible pick I’ll just grab one, then I can hold it any way I want.
The one I posted a picture of doesn’t do that, it’s just basically a slightly larger Jazz 3 with rubberized texture for grip. It’s just too bad that they disappeared from shelves where you can just try them; Long and McQuade (biggest Canadian retailer) has them listed for sale but in reality there isn’t a single one in stock from sea to sea; ugh.
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That’s the one! Felt horrible, I didn’t even feel comfortable strumming with it, and ironically, very difficult to control 
I only use the Andy James flow picks. I play rock and metal, with occasional dabbling in r&b. Haven’t found anything that cuts through strings as easily as them, and I’ve tried seemingly every variety of jazz iii and flow under the sun. Haven’t looked into expensive picks but I can tremolo at 14-15 notes/second with my given setup with relative ease, which is about as fast as what I’d like to play entails.
I’ve been dabbling in bluegrass flatpicking recently due to a recent obsession with Bryan Sutton, though, and I’ve been using the Flow for that, too, but every flatpicker seems to use BlueChip picks, and I wonder if they’re on to something. They’re 35 bucks, which is exactly how much my first (actually, my only) acoustic set me back, so I’m actually intrigued because of their price, considering their popularity.
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For what it’s worth, Andy Wood has expressed his affection for BlueChip, but has said in interviews that due to the hefty pricetag for BlueChip, he uses Planet Waves Black Ice on stage. Not sure if that’s still true, but he seems pretty active on social media if you want to investigate further.
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-I started with 1.0 mm dunlops tortex
-Played jazz III’s (1.3 i bilieve they are ? ) for like 2 years i think ( i started to get pain in my finger from it)
-I played Alice aliexpress picks ( 2.0mm and 3.0mm) went back and fort with both but now only use 3.0s for more than 2 years
-I use Bigstubby 3.0 mm now, they have a bit better grip and sound better than Alices, but u can buy like 100s for 4$ ( alices).
I use 3.0s for everything, blues , rock, strumming, funk, everything. I also played 8s on start now 9s on everything, 11s On drop guitar and slide. If u didn’t try 2/3s mm picks u are missing out. Even my music teacher switched from tortex 1.0 to 3.0s mm alice picks “full time” after 20 years. 
They help me changed everything and hear better my attack. I can play on anything now but i can let my hand be very relaxed and still have a lot of force with thicker picks
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I typically favor larger size picks like a Jim Dunlop flow or the Andy James flow, but I do enjoy messing around with smaller picks like a red jazz 3. I also have a jazz 3 in Grey but I forget which brand it is. I don’t like the material on either of the jazz 3 picks I have. Do they sell them in any better material? It feels like a scratchy plastic
@Tom_Gilroy i know you like the typical red Jazz iii’s alot; do they make them in any other material?
The Dava Control pick is definitely not for me.
But I like the one more like a Jazz III.
I add silicone grips to both sides of these and offset them slightly and that suits the DSX angle I am using now.
Jazz IIIs come in a huge variety of materials.
I used to use the standard red and black Jazz IIIs when I was a teenager, but they changed the materials. They went to glossier plastics which also feel and sound scratchy to me.
Here are a few options:
Ultex is hard and wears very smooth, it’s the same material as the Andy James Flow. The Ultex Jazz III is just ever so slightly larger in every dimension than a standard Jazz III, which I prefer. I’ve found it to be less chirpy than the ultex Flow picks too.
I hate this one. I think it’s easily the worst sounding pick in the Jazz III line, but some people love it.
My pick of choice for the last 13 or 14 years. It’s the same size as the Ultex Jazz III. The material is a soft matte nylon which wears smooth. They need to be broken in just a little bit, but you can buff off the mould seam by rubbing the edge on your jeans to hurry up the process. I like them better than the last few old standard red Jazz IIIs I have.
Gator Grip. The only Jazz III variant I have not tried.
Tortex Flex (various gauges)
White Tortex (various gauges)
Pitch Black Tortex.
All Tortex Jazz III’s will take a little breaking in to lesson some of the scratch if you use a lot of edge picking. The Pitch Blacks have the worst quality control of any Jazz III variant I’ve tried.
Primetone, with hand beveled edge. Same size as a standard Jazz III, same material as the amber ultex, with a hand beveled edge. For right handed leading edge pickers or left handed trailing edge pickers only.
Carbon Fiber, with Max Grip pattern. The Max Grip pattern is also available with the standard red and black plastics, but carbon fiber is Max Grip only. I find the grip makes it actually much harder to hold onto.
I’d recommend trying the Ultex, the White Tortex and the EJs.
Ive tried the Eric Johnson one and carbon fiber one, and dont like the material too much. Theyre too scratchy for me. The primetone one looks VERY similar to one of the main picks I use but mine is a Jim Dunlop 1.5mm Flow pick, but love the material. Would love to try it in a jazz iii size, not jazz iii xl. Tortex and Ultex i am hit or miss on, depends on my mood I guess hah.
These are the 2 picks I use most:
Second one says it’s ultex, but when I use my dunlop ultex sharp pick it doesnt feel as good. Which is this one: ULTEX® SHARP PICK 1.4MM - Dunlop
It’s available in standard Jazz III size, I just copied the wrong link.
Also totally worth trying a JP Trinity if you haven’t yet:
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Just got some Dava picks called “Jazz grip control gels” and they are awesome. Now I understand that’s an opinion, not a fact, so to clarify: these aren’t their gimmicky BS picks that get more flexible when you hold them closer to the middle. It’s pretty much a Jazz 3 with rubberized grip but the edge making contact with the strings is soft in comparison with most picks, zero annoying “click” on the attack especially when playing hard.
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Just a few days ago I started experimenting more with the yellow ultex jazz III. I’m quite liking the sound and how it feels now, and ironically, it feels more stable than the max grip carbon fibre jazz III I usually use. It might replace my carbon fibre one now. I guess my pic story is not over yet!
I’ve made some changes recently. The EJ Jazz IIIs are still my overall favourite pick, but the others have lost their spots.
I’ve replaced the Ultex Jazz III with the JP Trinity. I just like the Trinity’s Flow geometry better for the types of things where I would have used the Ultex Jazz III in the past.
The Standard 0.60mm Tortex was for acoustic strumming and crosspicking. I was never very happy with it, it was just a little too flappy for crosspicking and a Yellow 0.73mm Tortex always felt a little too stiff for strumming. I’ve never been the biggest fan of the standard 351 shape, but the Tortex Flows were a little too scratchy and bright in the lighter gauges. I’ve actually always preferred playing an acoustic guitar fingerstyle, but sometimes a pick is necessary; the Orange Tortex was just the best compromise I had found.
I had tried the D’Addario 1mm Duralin Wide (346 shape) and I really liked it for acoustic crosspicking, but it’s too heavy for strumming. I thought one of the lighter gauges might be the ideal acoustic pick for me, and it was.
The D’Addario 0.70mm Duralin Wide is my new favourite pick for acoustic guitars. It just feels and sounds “right” to me.
Being triangles, the new pick choices should last 3 times longer. That wasn’t a factor in my decision, but it’s a nice bonus.
How much bigger are the JPetrucci Trinity picks vs standard Jazz iii’s?
Picture for comparison.
I’ve moved up to 0.85mm with the D’Addario Duralin Wide for acoustic guitar.
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Is that EJ jazz iii the same size as the standard jazz iii?
The EJ is very slightly larger.
I’m at work and I only have the picks in my keyring pouch with me. I’ll take another picture when I’m home. Any other pucks you’d like for comparison?
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Not at the moment. Surprisingly, my
Hands have been reaching for the smaller size of the normal red jazz iii whereas I used to primarily
Use larger picks like the Andy James dunlop flow ones. So I just wanted to see the normal
Jazz iii vs trinity
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