Guitar Picks - What Kind Should You Use?

My Favorite Guitar + Filming Gear at Sweetwater

[jstnn.v]

It's all fun and games until your pick falls into the void...

[corybaxter]

“What kind of pick should you use?”
The one with Guitar Center’s phone number that you stole from the top of an amp.

[folkfingerstylefreddy]

Thin picks for strumming, thick for lead. Basically all you need to know!

[bongcrosby]

I want to know which pick is easier to get out of my guitar when I accidentally drop it into the sound hole.

[rayross]

Will there be a "Marty" pick? With hat & beard?
Drilling a small hole in the centre of a pick makes it much easier to hold & control.

[davidwoods]

I love the different sounds various picks can impart to the tone of the guitar. I used plastic picks for years but have been using metal picks from Zenfire for the past 5 years. I love the dedicated grip pads, and the materials make the notes really sound articulate, clear and punchy. I play mostly electric, on acoustic I use fingers only. They're fantastic picks.

[nate]

Begginers, listen to what this man is saying about starting early using pick!

I did not use a pick for my first year of playing and it was hell to try to pick up after practicing without one.

[christopherbartlett]

Marty is one of the few people that can make a discussion on guitar picks cool and interesting.

[eljefeguapobarbon]

Hold the pick up to your ear and you'll hear the ocean ;)

[tcoudi]

best acoustic pickers ( grass, jazz) usually center between 1, 5 - 2 mm. no flex. and the gator 1.5 is one one the best cheap picks around.

[JamesGowan]

Brian May plays with a British metal coin

[randomnobody]

I've found that playing with a Quarter (US currency) helps me play pinch harmonics much easier, and pick slides sound better (in my opinion) because the ridges on the quarter seems to help "lock" the string into places and make a more consistent sounding scrape decent down the fretboard

[johndennis]

I use to play with a guy who was a great guitar player, he was self taught like most great guitar players, and he could strum real well and also play solo and your traditional flat picking style, and he played with a very thin pick, after playing with him for about 6 mo. I grabed one of his picks cause I forgot my bag of new ones that I just bought, and I was shocked when I picked up one of his picks. I said to him HOW IN THE HELL CAN YOU PLAY THE WAY YOU DO WITH THIS VERY PAPER THIN PICK? I could not believe he could get all the sound that he could get with such a VERY thin pick. but he could, so to each his own I guess. I have been playing for about 30 years and have tried many picks over the years, and the one that works well for me is my Dunlop nylon .60 mid pick, not to thin and not to hard, I can strum very well with it, and its also hard enough to get some good loud sound when I want to dig in and pick, and I play a Martin HD28 in a neil young and blues style of playing. that is my 2 cents worth to anyone who interested in knowing...ps I also believe neil plays with a Med. pick also.

[Minty.Fresh.Tunes.]

The blue Tortex pick you were holding before the gator pick is actually a 1.0mm. Best pick ever.

[itsjroses]

I've been playing for about two years now and my favorite pick is the Dunlop Tortex 60 mm. It's perfect! I use it on my acoustic and electric and have no trouble. So to anyone who wants a good pick which you can use whenever, this is your friend:)

[EM-dfmo]

Marty, just a little hint sir. If you like that "Dust" which helps the grip on your pick. Try this sir, I use a little bit of Rosin meant for violin bows on my index and middle finger and the thumb. I rub it into the tips of my thumb and fingers. not sticky but it sure makes that pick easy to hold onto.  Just wanted to share that with you.

[Joelmsk]

I always switch out my light and heavy picks depending on what I’m playing (soft songs/lots of strumming= light | less strumming/ hard strums= heavy)

[munuborah]

you are the best..making confident a beginner, strumming, choosing picks till now...hoping for the best in coming sections of my guitar life..thank you.

[IronMagus]

My favorite picks are the Dunlop nylons, .73 (grey) for strumming and 1.0mm (black) for more precise picking.

[paulsimmons]

Marty, I've seen many different types of picks over the years and I'd like to mention a few that I've found to be useful.

Martin used to sell a hard plastic pick that had a molded grip on the large end and a thin, pliable end to actually pick the strings, had some of these in red and later ordered some in a brown shell color. They have the advantages of a thin pick but the plastic gives them some stiffness, one of my faves.
Another great pick is the basic thin type but I always seemed to send them soaring off the stage... One day I took my pocket knife and twisted a hole in the center of my pick, problem dealt with! I later found that an old fashioned paper hole punch works perfectly without exposing my fingers to a razor edged knife!
US Quarters work well for the Brian May serrated edge technique but pay attention or you'll scuff your guitar's finish to Hades and back. You can also kill strings pretty quick too. If a quarter is too big, try a dime. Brian uses a Six-pence, hard to find here in the US.
I've also encountered a number of WTF picks... This worst pick I ever used was the orange Gibson Tri-Pick, which had three pick tips molded to a center so that the guitarist could choose either a thin, medium, or thick pick. Great idea on paper, disaster for me! My buddies and I bought a few of these but after a few weeks passed we started leaving them in each other's guitar cases, like a game of hot-potato!

Marty, I enjoyed this video as it was full of old memories!