Guitar pick

Various guitar picks. Clockwise from top: A standard nylon pick; An imitation tortoise-shell pick; A plastic pick with high friction coating (black areas); A stainless steel pick; A pick approximating a Reuleaux triangle; and a Tortex "shark's fin" pick

A guitar pick with a custom drawing

A guitar pick is a plectrum used for guitars. A pick is generally made of one uniform material; examples include plastic, nylon, rubber, felt, tortoiseshell, wood, metal, glass, tagua and stone. They are often shaped in an acute isosceles triangle with the two equal corners rounded and the third corner rounded to a lesser extent.

History

The use of a plectrum to play a stringed instrument has been in practice for thousands of years.^[1] Feather quills were likely the first standardized plectra and became widely used until the late 19th century. At that point, the shift towards what would become the superior plectrum material took place; the outer shell casing of an Atlantic hawksbill sea turtle, which would colloquially be referred to as tortoiseshell.^[1] Other alternatives had come and gone, but tortoiseshell provided the best combination of tonal sound and physical flexibility for plucking a taut string.^[2] Prior to the 1920s most guitar players used thumb and finger picks (used for the banjo or mandolin) when looking for something to play their guitar with, but with the rise of musician Nick Lucas, the use of a flat “plectrum style guitar pick” became popular.^[3]

There have been many innovations in the design of the guitar pick. Most of these were born out of the issue of guitar picks slipping and flying out of the hand of the player.^[4] In 1896, a Cincinnati man (Frederick Wahl) affixed 2 rubber disks to either side of a mandolin pick, which made it the first popular solution to the problem.^[5] Over the next 2 decades more innovations would be made, such as corrugating the rounded surface of the pick or drilling a hole through the center in which the pad of a player’s thumb would fit.^[6] A more notable improvement was attaching cork to the wide part of the pick, a solution first patented by Richard Carpenter and Thomas Towner of Oakland in 1917.^[6] Some of these new designs made picks undesirably expensive. Eventually pickers would realize that all they needed was something to sink their fingerprints into so the pick wouldn't go airborne, such as a high relief imprinted logo. Celluloid was a material on which this could be done very well.^[7]

Tony D’Andrea was the one of the first people to use celluloid to produce and sell guitar picks. In 1902 he came upon a sidewalk sale offering some sheets of tortoise shell colored cellulose nitrate plastic and dies, and eventually he would discover that the small pieces of celluloid he punched out with the dies were ideal for picking stringed instruments.^[8] From the 1920s through the 1950s, D’Andrea Manufacturing would dominate the world’s international pick market, providing to major businesses such as Gibson, Fender, and Martin.^[9] One of the main reasons celluloid was so popular as guitar pick material was that it very closely imitated the sound and flexibility of a tortoise shell guitar pick. The practice of using Hawksbill turtles for their shells would become illegal in 1973 as a provision of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), forcing musicians to find something else to pick with.^[2]

Musicians had been partial to shell picks, and when D’Andrea provided an alternative, D’Andrea Manufacturing became very successful and gained renown as the guitar pick of choice through the 1960s.^[10] Celluloid provided a good alternative in many ways. Tortoise shell was rare, expensive, and had a tendency to break. Celluloid was made from cellulose, one of the most abundant raw materials in the world, and nitrocellulose combined with camphor under heat and pressure produced celluloid. Though originally meant as a replacement for ivory billiard balls, celluloid began being used for many things for its flexibility, durability, and relative inexpensiveness, making it a natural candidate as a material for guitar picks.^[11] Later, other materials, such as nylon and less popularly wood, glass, or metal would become popular for making guitar picks for their increased grip, flexibility, or tonal qualities.^[12]

Styles

Pick shapes started with guitarists shaping bone, shell, wood, cuttlebone, metal, amber, stone or ivory to get the desired shape. Most of today's guitar pick shapes were created by the company that made the first plastic pick in 1922, D'Andrea Picks.

Sound

Playing guitar with a pick produces a bright sound compared to plucking with the fingertip. Picks also offer a greater contrast in tone across different plucking locations; for example, the difference in brightness between plucking close to the bridge and close to the neck is much greater when using a pick compared to a fingertip.^[13] Conversely, the many playing techniques that involve the fingers, such as those found in fingerstyle guitar, slapping, classical guitar, and flamenco guitar, can also yield an extremely broad variety of tones.

Thickness

An extra heavy pick 2 mm thick

All things being equal, a heavier pick will produce a darker sound than a lighter pick, but the shape of the tip has the most influence on the sound. A pointed tip will produce a brighter, more focused sound, while a rounded tip will produce a rounder, less defined sound. Heavier picks offer more control in all circumstances, but it requires more time and skill to learn to use one. Light picks are often used by beginners who don't have the skill to use a heavy pick.

Most pick manufacturers print the thickness in millimeters or thousandths of an inch on the pick. Some other brands use a system of letters or text designations to indicate thickness. Approximate guidelines to thickness ranges are presented in the following table:

While most pick manufacturers adhere to the above thickness schedule, one company, Red Bear Trading Co. makes their picks a bit thicker. For instance, RBTCO's "light gauge" starts at 1mm and extends up to 1.1mm or so.

Materials

Plastics

Most common picks are made out of various types of plastic. Most popular plastics include:

• Celluloid. Historically, this was the first plastic ever used to produce picks^{[citation needed]}, and it is still of some use today, especially for guitarists aiming for vintage tone.
• Nylon. A popular material, it has a smooth and slick surface, so most manufacturers add a high-friction coating to nylon picks to make them easier to grip. Nylon is flexible and can be produced in very thin sheets. Most thin and extra-thin picks are made out of nylon^{[citation needed]}. However, nylon loses its flexibility after 1–2 months of extensive use, becomes fragile and breaks^{[citation needed]}.
• Acetal. Acetal is a highly durable class of plastics. Delrin is DuPont's trademarked name for a type of acetal. Delrin is hard, glossy and durable, and can also be doped to produce a matte texture. The friction between a steel or nickel guitar string, and smooth, glossy acetal is very low. Glossy delrin picks literally glide across the string and therefore have a fast release, producing very little pick noise, while delivering a rounded tone emphasizing the lower order harmonics^{[citation needed]}.
• Ultem. This plastic has the highest stiffness of all plastic picks^{[citation needed]}. Produces a bright tone, popular among mandolin players.
• Lexan. Glossy, glass-like, very hard, but lacking durability^{[citation needed]}. Used for thick and extra-thick picks (> 1 mm). Usually has a high-friction grip coating.
• Acrylic. Tough, light, clear, seamless polymer with great resistance to impact and weathering. Acrylic is not brittle and does not yellow or crack. Can be molded and cut to almost any shape and thickness. It renders a very full spectrum tonal range when used as a plectrum on stringed instruments. Some grades of acrylic have a unique gripping characteristic, and when warmed to the touch, will become tacky or sticky feeling, causing the material to cling to your fingers. Acrylic can be heat tempered for strength and longevity. V-Picks are the first noted company to make acrylic guitar picks, dating as early as 1980, and are the only guitar pick manufacturer to utilize this option of heat tempering on acrylic picks.

• Delrex. This is a plastic that is used to replace tortoiseshell since the trade of tortoiseshell was banned in the late 1970s. Delrex is used as the material for Dunlop's "gator" picks. It is a variation of Tortex, which is by itself Delrin.

Metal

Picks made out of steel produce a much brighter sound than plastic. They do however wear the strings quickly^{[citation needed]} and can easily damage the finish on the guitar if used for strumming, especially on acoustic guitars. Some metal picks are even made from coins, which give players a unique tone as the alloys used in various coinage from around the world will vary greatly.

Wood

Each guitar pick made of wood has its own unique properties and signature sound as a result of differences in density, hardness and cellular structure. Most wood picks will produce a warmer tone than plastics or metals. In order to withstand the rigors of picking and strumming only the hardest woods are used for picks, including hardwoods like African Blackwood, Bocote, Cocobolo, Lignum vitae, Rosewood, and Zebrawood. While the thick and sometimes rough edge of a wooden pick may create a fair amount of drag at first, wooden picks are generally easy to break in and may even do so quicker than plastic picks. After a couple hundred strokes, the metal guitar strings will wear down the edge and create a smoother pass over the strings.

Glass

Glass is relatively hard and heavy in comparison to metal or plastic and therefore produces a greater range of tone^{[citation needed]} than these materials. Glass can be polished to a smooth or rough texture depending on the grit of sandpaper used. Likewise, factors such as size, shape, and weight have a much more dramatic effect on the overall tone making each individual glass pick sound and feel unique.

Other

• Agate picks range in thickness from 1mm (very rare) up to 5mm, and are extremely inflexible. As they are harder than the metal guitar strings, they resonate the strings more completely^{[citation needed]}.
• Carbon Fiber is also used by Dunlop and RJL guitars to make guitar picks. These picks are extremely durable^[14] and have an extremely high stiffness-to-weight ratio.
• Felt picks are mainly used with the ukulele.
• New Tortis is an alternative to natural tortoise^{[citation needed]}, made of polymerized animal protein. It is hard, smooth, thick, and has only slight tip flexibility.
• Tagua is a nut from South America grown on a Tagua Palm Tree. They have similar properties to animal ivory so it's also known as Vegetable Ivory. Tagua produces a very smooth clear tone as the material slides off the strings easily. Tagua guitar picks are generally hand made.
• PHD is a "kind of" high-pressure laminate material consisting of layers of cellulose fibers impregnated with thermosetting resins and bonded under high pressure. This material is extremely tough and durable^{[citation needed]} and is currently being used by luthier Patrick Hufschmid (Hufschmid Guitars) who introduced it in 2008. In July 2012, Patrick Hufschmid also introduced the very first plectrums entirely made from high performance thermoplastics TIVAR (UHMWPE), TECHTRON (PPS) and KETRON (PEEK).

Shapes

Some picks have small protrusions to make them easier to keep hold if the fingers start to sweat, which is very common on stage due to the hot lights. Some picks have a high-friction coating to help the player hold on to them. The small perforations in the stainless steel pick serve the same function. Many players will often have spare picks attached to a microphone stand or slotted in the guitar's pickguard.

The equilateral pick can be easier for beginners to hold and use since each corner may be used as a playing edge.^{[citation needed]}.

The shark's fin pick can be used in two ways - normally employing the blunt end or the small perturbations can be raked across the strings producing a much fuller chord or used to employ a "pick scrape" down the strings producing a very harsh, scratching noise.

The sharp edged pick is used to create an easier motion^{[citation needed]} of picking across the strings.

Some guitar pick shapes are patented. Usually those patents claim ornamental design.

Innovations

Some picks are made of semi-precious gemstones including jasper, tiger eye, jade, quartz, and others^{[citation needed]}.

Some picks are constructed of compound layers of plastic, connected to form a flexible central section^{[citation needed]}, allowing the guitarist to adjust the pick tip's flexibility by applying various pressure to this central section: a hard grip yields hard pick (thicker one) to play lead, a soft grip yields soft pick (thinner one) to play rhythm.

A few picks are constructed of a handblown borosilicate glass that can double as a guitar slide^{[citation needed]}.

D'Andrea Picks was the first company to create custom pick imprinting in 1938, allowing customers to order imprinting up to 12 block letters. One of the first to make the player imprint popular was guitarist Nick Lucas in the early 1930s.^[15]

Jellifish Picks are a unique innovation to guitar picks that add a plucked, bowed, or chorus like sound to picking by using multiple metal tines that strike the strings at different times.^[16]

Guthrie Thomas Picks was the first to introduce multicolor imprinting on guitar picks.

Pykmax is an innovative type of comfortable guitar pick that's designed to fit perfectly in the players hand.

Technique

Picks are usually gripped with two fingers—thumb and index—and are played with pointed end facing the strings. However, it's a matter of personal preference and many notable musicians use different grips. For example, Eddie Van Halen holds the pick between his thumb and middle finger (leaving his first finger free for his tapping technique); James Hetfield, Jeff Hanneman and Steve Morse hold a pick using 3 fingers—thumb, middle and index; Pat Metheny and The Edge also hold their picks with three fingers but play using the rounded side of the plectrum. George Lynch also uses the rounded side of the pick. Stevie Ray Vaughan also played with the rounded edge of the pick, citing the fact that the edge allowed more string attack than the tip. His manic, aggressive picking style would wear through pickguards in short order, and wore a groove in his Fender Stratocaster, Number One, over his years of playing. Jimmy Rogers and Freddie King had a special kind of technique utilizing two picks at once^{[citation needed]}. Noted 80's session guitarist David Persons is known for using old credit cards, cut to the correct size, angle, and thickness and using them without a tip.^[17]

The motion of the pick against the string is also a personal choice. George Benson and Dave Mustaine, for example, hold the pick very stiffly between the thumb and index finger, locking the thumb joint and striking with the surface of the pick nearly parallel to the string, for a very positive, articulate, consistent tone^{[citation needed]}. Other guitarists have developed a technique known as circle picking, where the thumb joint is bent on the downstroke, and straightened on the upstroke, causing the tip of the pick to move in a circular pattern, which can allow speed and fluidity. The angle of the pick against the string is also very personal and has a broad range of effects on tone and articulation. Many rock guitarists will use a flourish (called a pick slide or pick scrape) that involves scraping the pick along the length of a round wound string (a round wound string is a string with a coil of round wire wrapped around the outside, used for the heaviest three or four strings on a guitar). The first use of the pick slide is attributed to Bo Diddley and can be heard in the opening of his song "Road Runner."

The two chief approaches to fast picking are alternate picking and economy picking. Alternate picking is when the player strictly alternates each stroke between downstrokes and upstrokes, regardless of changing strings. In economy picking, the player will use the most economical stroke on each note. For example, if the first note is on the fifth string, and the next note is on the fourth string, the pick will use a downstroke on the fifth string, and continue in the same direction to execute a downstroke on the fourth string. Some guitarists learn economy picking intuitively and find it an effort to use alternate picking.^{[citation needed]} Conversely, some guitarists maintain that the down-up "twitch" motion of alternate picking lends itself to momentum, and hence trumps economy picking at high speeds.^{[citation needed]}

References

• Hoover, Will (November 1995). Picks!: The Colorful Saga of Vintage Celluloid Guitar Plectrums. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-377-8. 

External links

• Pick Collecting Quarterly – An online periodic magazine for guitar pick collectors.
• D'Andrea Picks The History of the Plastic Pick
• Guitar Plectrums – A brief article discussing the various aspects of guitar plectrums.
• OldPicks.com – A vintage guitar pick website including articles, catalogs, and many photos depicting the oldest and rarest of picks.
• Glorbz Pick Sheet - A colelctor's page & Pick Sheet, a proper long term storage for pick collectors.
• Tina's Picks – a very comprehensive pick collection site including picks from 1907 to present day
• Surfpick.com – The History of the Guitar Pick
• Tuck Andress - Pick and Finger Techniques, Tuck Andress - Pick and Finger Techniques
• Learn all the Techniques on how to build your picking speed. Shred Guitar School.com
• Tina's Picks Tagua Guitar Picks by Howling Monkey, Tina's Picks Tagua Guitar Picks by Howling Monkey
• Pykmax guitar pick corporate website, All the details on these innovative guitar picks