What are you looking for in a guitar pick? What pick do you use for general riffing and soloing and what made you choose that pick?
Good question! some stuff to consider:
- it shouldn't slip (stuff like nylon or v-picks is very slippy for me, on the other hand Tortex and Max-Grip Dunlops are perfect)
- shouldn't get stuck in the strings (pick too big or too pointy like the Tortex Sharps)
- good tone of course (not too small, not too big, good material, not too thick, not too thin, shouldn't sound too "clicky" or lacking certain frequencies).
With all these aspects taken into consideration, I basically tried every boutique manufacturer out there - V picks, Red Bear, Hufschmid, Winspear, you name it. Some of these were awful and some of these were actually pretty interesting with cool concepts, but still (to me) they don't sound or feel as good as tortex (the material).
With that being said, for a lot of time I've used Jazz III style picks (specifically the carbon fiber Max Grip), they helped me a lot during my practice hours to achieve faster speeds, but they're too small and because of this they sound a bit too "transparent" without adding that fierce attack that a bigger pick provides, especially on rhythms.
Then I switched to Tortex Sharps since they were sounding so brutal during riffing, but they were kinda hindering my speed since the tip was so pointy it was getting stuck in the strings sometimes.
I needed something with the same material but with less pointy-ness so I checked these Dunlop TIIIs which are basically the best pick ever: same size and material of a Tortex but with the tip of a JazzIII, so I can get faster on leads but still retaining all the tone a bigger pick provides. They sound INCREDIBLE on everything I'm doing, from rhythm to lead to bass.
I bought a bunch of these TIIIs in different gauges to check which one sounded the best, so I just recorded the same riff with all of them. The thicker the gauge the more low end power I had, but too thick and I was losing a bit of high end clarity. That's why I chose 0.88 that in my opinion has the perfect amount of low end and high end clarity. 0.73 and 1.0 are also very good, 0.73 for gigs is a bit thinner so doesn't detune the strings as much, and 1.0 has just a hair more low end if you pick like a pussy and need more power lol :)
Tortex sounds so precise and clear that even my sweep stuff retains an alternate picking-ish attack. On the other hand stuff like the Petrucci Jazz IIIs, or Red Bear or V-Picks stuff, has a very "clicky" overtone that I really don't like at all. Good if you're after warmer tones though.
So that pretty much sums my experience - I strongly suggest anyone to just buy a bunch of picks and do all your recording tests, because my hands surely differ a lot from yours and results may vary!
With that being said, which picks are you using? :)
- it shouldn't slip (stuff like nylon or v-picks is very slippy for me, on the other hand Tortex and Max-Grip Dunlops are perfect)
- shouldn't get stuck in the strings (pick too big or too pointy like the Tortex Sharps)
- good tone of course (not too small, not too big, good material, not too thick, not too thin, shouldn't sound too "clicky" or lacking certain frequencies).
With all these aspects taken into consideration, I basically tried every boutique manufacturer out there - V picks, Red Bear, Hufschmid, Winspear, you name it. Some of these were awful and some of these were actually pretty interesting with cool concepts, but still (to me) they don't sound or feel as good as tortex (the material).
With that being said, for a lot of time I've used Jazz III style picks (specifically the carbon fiber Max Grip), they helped me a lot during my practice hours to achieve faster speeds, but they're too small and because of this they sound a bit too "transparent" without adding that fierce attack that a bigger pick provides, especially on rhythms.
Then I switched to Tortex Sharps since they were sounding so brutal during riffing, but they were kinda hindering my speed since the tip was so pointy it was getting stuck in the strings sometimes.
I needed something with the same material but with less pointy-ness so I checked these Dunlop TIIIs which are basically the best pick ever: same size and material of a Tortex but with the tip of a JazzIII, so I can get faster on leads but still retaining all the tone a bigger pick provides. They sound INCREDIBLE on everything I'm doing, from rhythm to lead to bass.
I bought a bunch of these TIIIs in different gauges to check which one sounded the best, so I just recorded the same riff with all of them. The thicker the gauge the more low end power I had, but too thick and I was losing a bit of high end clarity. That's why I chose 0.88 that in my opinion has the perfect amount of low end and high end clarity. 0.73 and 1.0 are also very good, 0.73 for gigs is a bit thinner so doesn't detune the strings as much, and 1.0 has just a hair more low end if you pick like a pussy and need more power lol :)
Tortex sounds so precise and clear that even my sweep stuff retains an alternate picking-ish attack. On the other hand stuff like the Petrucci Jazz IIIs, or Red Bear or V-Picks stuff, has a very "clicky" overtone that I really don't like at all. Good if you're after warmer tones though.
So that pretty much sums my experience - I strongly suggest anyone to just buy a bunch of picks and do all your recording tests, because my hands surely differ a lot from yours and results may vary!
With that being said, which picks are you using? :)