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.
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.
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.
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
I’ve been switching between the JP Jazz III, EJ Jazz III, JP Trinity and a Flow Standard Ultex (which is gigantic to any of the others).
As time goes on…I’m caring less and less about which one I grab. But I’m also practicing my picking mechanics better and more often than ever before. I’m not sure what that says…but there it is.
Various flows, tortex/ultex, swiss picks, trinity etc. I don’t seem to care too much about which one I use and if I rotate in a ‘new’ one, it often seems better, probably just because it’s new. In the olden days, that ‘new’ feeling would have thrown a major monkey wrench into things. I’m getting much less ‘picky’ about my picks
I’m currently using Dunlop Tortex Sharp and Tortex III picks, mostly 1.5 gauge. Used to go back and forth betweeen Jazz IIIs and regular-sized pointy picks based on what type of pick felt more comfortable.
Lately, I’ve been looking into Jim Root Signature Custom Nylon picks 'cause they seem to have the best of both worlds, but I don’t like the fact that they come in packs. If anyone’s got any experience with those picks, I’d really appreciate any insight.
Just wanted to shout out to @Frylock , the tackle box has been genius!!! This is a MUCH better way of storing my picks than what I was doing before (this thread in post #6)
I also organize my picks using plastic boxes that I bought from Amazon and a D’Andrea tin that I use to keep the picks that I’ve been using more recently:
Throughout the 30 years I’ve been playing guitar, I’ve gone through so many picks changes. It’s that thing like everyone says, that it seems you’ll never find the Holy Grail. One day, I’m convinced that pick A is the one, the next day, I change my mind very easily and think it’s pick B. However, along the years, I’ve been settling more on pointier picks, although I still use sometimes the more traditional Fender 351. I’ve spend a good amount of years using smaller Jazz III (red and black), but I stopped once I started realizing that playing them live is a bit hard, with all the sweat and sometimes you just need a bit more pick to hold on in the heat of the moment. I’ve set in a more traditional size pick (351), but with pointier tip.
In the picture above, the bottom line are the ones that I’ve been using daily. I usually swap between each, specially when I’m doing some exercise or trying to play a line that is giving me some trouble. My main one is currently the Dunlop Ultex Sharp 1.0, but I must say that I was impressed by the Pos-a-grip Pickboy of 1.0 and 1.2mm. I like to use picks that are more standard and not hard to find (although these days you can buy everything online), to avoid being stuck on a single type of pick that I might not have in the future.
What I’ve realised is i gravitate between extreme playing styles. Malmsteen to country and Stevie Ray in between, etc. No one pick is going to be the one. I like the kozik 1 mm for country, blues and jazz even. The purple 1.5 for higher gain. Interestingly the D’Andrras 1mm Plek seems to tonally work in any situation, lasts longer as well, but is a tad harder to play with, one it’s slightly smaller, and it offers a bit more resistance with friction, which is great for practice as well.
