How to choose a pick, like everything, depends on several things:
- Style of music
- Type of guitar
- String Gauge
- Your style of playing
You can use finger picks, finger nails or flat picks. For now, let’s concentrate on flatpicks and tackle the others at another time. I use any of the above depending on the circumstance but flatpicks are where most people start.
Style of music
This might be one of those, “Yeah, obviously” for most but hear me out on this. I have a long time friend who plays blues guitar and grew up using the ol’ standard Fender medium picks you can get at any music store. A few years ago, he was looking over some of his favorite guitarists and realized they all had one thing in common – none of them used a pick. With that knowledge, he gave up picks and has never looked back.
Do a survey of your favorite guitarists. What do they use? If you want to get the kind of sound they get, you need to use what they use. Tone is all in the fingers but what is in between or on your fingers can make all of the difference.
Let’s assume your guitarists are all using picks for the moment. The next aspect to consider in style is strumming or picking (arpeggios). I do a combination depending on the need. With that, I need a good general purpose pick that is flexible but stiff enough to minimize the flapping noise when I strum. Flapping can be distracting and a thin pick does not allow me to dig in as much as I would like.
Gypsy jazz guitarists seem to prefer heavy picks, almost like poker chips. This allows for great attack against the nylon strings typically used in this genre. When I have tried to use a thicker pick, the thing usually ends up flying out of my hand and everyone ducks as it flies out toward them. Lol!
Type of guitar
Acoustic versus electric time! I mentioned the flapping sound earlier. Well, you are not likely to hear it with an electric guitar. Many electric players I know, choose a pick that is thin. I have also moved toward a thinner pick on my electric. Why? Speed. The pick will give more on the, typically, thinner gauge strings and allow for greater speed.
Another consideration on electrics is the sound of the pick against the strings. As you dig in, the edge of the pick can provide a bit of scraping that works for a more aggressive tone. I don’t find that as noticeable on my acoustic or as pleasing. Add some distortion on an electric and let the pick edge scrape to add growl to the note. Scrape the pick down the wound strings to get that wild swirl so common in Boston’s Tom Sholz solos.
Your acoustic may need a heavier pick. I lead music often at my church and need volume. Thinner picks don’t do the trick in a room with fifty people all singing along. I’m not playing a solo in the middle of the song, I need to make sure the others hear my rhythm and keep in time with me. That pick needs to move the strings but also give me some percussive attack. We’ll go into this more with my rhythm guitar course. Sign up now!
String gauge
As mentioned above, your acoustic and electric guitars usually have different gauge strings. Acoustics tend to be heavier than electrics. As string bending and whammy bars became more popular in the 60’s, the demand for lighter strings increased. However if you are like Stevie Ray Vaughn, you will go with strings that are more like cables 😉
This can be more of a preference thing but just realize that light strings and heavy picks may not be your best choice. The opposite is true, also. Getting heavy strings to ring with a light pick can be a challenge.
Having said that, how you hold the pick and the shape can influence this choice. Using just the tip on a heavy pick on light strings can work well as the touch can be adjusted to get just the right attack. Brian May of Queen uses a coin of all things. Absolutely no give in that!
Choose a pick for your style of playing
It all boils down to this: your style. When you choose a pick, it will become part of your style. No reason to stress about it but try a few things before you settle down on a specific pick. There are also many styles to choose from. I found I had to switch from the Fender standard types to Dunlop Tortex to avoid an annoying chirp I would get when I played arpeggios. I tend to run against the edge of the pick and it squeals on my acoustic. There are also Nylon, shell, metal and wood picks to choose from.
Check out this Five Watt World video on the Blue Chip pick. Interesting how much money can be spent on a pick! I wear my cheap picks out all the time and go through them frequently when playing acoustic. Not being much of a purist for tone, I cannot appreciate the subtleties of such things but you might. I would consider myself more of a practical player and if I get in the ballpark with my tone, that’s good enough for me. I’ve probably spent the equivalent of the Blue Chip cost several times over but there we are 😉