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Take Your Pick
As guitar players, we have it great. There are so many options with quality gear that it’s easier than ever to hone in on the sound you hear in your head and play the guitar how you want to play it. Most of us have explored the various possibilities of different guitars, maybe researched amplifiers and pedals as part of the electric guitar crowd, and some of us have even dug deeper into the world of accessories. Yet, there’s one rabbit hole that seems to mystify many and ensnare others like no other… the Guitar Pick rabbit hole.
I wrote an article titled “Picking a Winner” back in August of 2020 all about finding the perfect pick and, to this day, it’s still one of the most fun articles I’ve written. It also prompted an unusually high number of comments from customers! So many players seem to overlook the effect that a simple thing like a pick can have on your tone and touch. It’s been close to 4 years since I wrote that article and, while I don’t want to rehash the previous article, you’d be surprised at how far my personal Pick Journey took me in that time.
When we left off, I’d discussed the 3 primary factors that should determine one’s pick selection: Shape, Thickness, and Material. Different shaped picks will affect primarily the “attack” of the pick, which will change how the right hand hits the strings and plays a role in shaping tone. Different thicknesses will yield more or less flexibility, which will affect how the pick displaces and rebounds off of the string. Additionally, thinner picks typically result in a brighter sound with more dynamic compression while thicker picks generally create a warmer sound with a wider dynamic range. Lastly, different materials will vary in durability and stiffness while also affecting the overall tone. All 3 matter and all 3 are entirely subjective when it comes to personal preference.
Since writing the article, my Pick Journey has gotten a little… let’s just say, excessive. John’s Blue Chip recommendation opened the floodgates to all kinds of new “Boutique” pick companies. Now that I’d spent $35 on a Blue Chip of my own, suddenly spending anything around that price or less seemed much more palatable. After all, who can put a price on great tone?! I began exploring the “Plectrum-verse” on Instagram and discovered that loads of people were making really cool products. At the store, for example, we’ve long carried Wegen picks, so I gave some of those a shot to great results. But I wanted another alternative for us and it turned out what we were looking for was closer than we were expecting…
While traversing the Plectrum-verse, I found the usual suspects like Gravity Picks, V Picks, and Red Bear. These companies have been making picks for a long, long time with different materials like Acrylic and Galalith (more on this later). Each material has very different properties than the usual celluloid Fender picks or delrin Tortex picks. They last longer and offer distinct tonal variations. Of course, I had to try them! I grabbed a Guthrie Govan signature pick from Red Bear as he’s long been one of my favorite players to scratch the Galalith itch. On the acrylic front, I found out about Honey Picks right away and tried a few of their offerings. I was blown away by how much a difference these new picks made! I still loved my old Dunlop Jazz III varieties, but soon discovered that these other picks also offered something that I didn’t have in my toolbox.
Along the way, I discovered Blue Bird picks on Instagram and to my surprise… they were locally made in Avondale Estates, GA! I dug into the brand a bit and learned that these were Galalith picks, just like Red Bear’s offerings. Galalith comes from the milk protein, Casein, that has been cured in formaldehyde for additional hardness and durability. Many folks cite Galalith as being the closest alternative to the classic (and now illegal) Tortoiseshell pick. Blue Bird sticks out from the rest of the pack because they are made out of vintage Brazilian Poker Chips, a much more fun and colorful source of Galalith. So I reached out and it turned out that Matt Phillips, the brainchild behind Blue Bird Picks, was a longtime customer of the store! He brought by some samples and we’ve been selling his picks ever since. Every time that I order a new batch for the store, I’m sure to grab another one for myself with a different color or thickness to experiment further. In this time, I got an opportunity to try a real Tortoiseshell pick and I absolutely see why picks like Blue Birds are an excellent substitution both financially and ethically.
So yeah, by now I think that my pick selection has ballooned to an absurd degree. I suspect that, given how durable some of these are and how little I actually get to play these days, that I have somewhere between 6 and 7 lifetimes worth of picks. After all, I have to make sure that I’m set for life in case any of the ones I love ever become discontinued. Each unique pick represents a new opportunity for exploration and expression, highlighting a slightly varied tonal color that had been previously unknown. In many ways, this extended palette at my disposal represents all of the different shades of MY voice on the guitar. So, take some time to check out some new picks and see what direction they might take you! And if you haven’t yet ventured into the Plectrum-verse, there’s never been a better time than the present. We’ve been waiting for you.
Chris Capitanio 2024
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