What is your current pick of choice?

1st off: I wouldn't think you were nuts for that whatsoever... the pigments could well be different. I was just talking to someone else about this same sort of thing this past weekend, and I pointed out that, with all other factors, whatever is used as a pigment could well account for a difference....

2nd: the Tusq picks are in fact advertised and formulated for their specific tones, so that's by design. And the thicknesses and tone are separate things; they make various thicknesses of all 3 formulations.
Dropping one of those on a hard table is very enlightening; the Dunlop Tortex 1.14mm picks that I used to use are very 'dull' sounding on impact... the white/bright Tusq ones sound a good deal like glass.
A friend and I sat down with an acoustic guitar and samples of all 3 types of Tusq picks, and we would simply strum and then switch, and strum again in rapid succession. The difference with an acoustic guitar was quite startlingly evident.
With an electric, the differences are more subtle in comparison, but still quite notable.

Here's a link to the webpage for those picks for information's sake:

http://www.graphtech.com/products/brands/tusq-picks

 

My Gray Dunlop .88 Nylons.
They just seem to work the best for Ham-Fisted approach to playing Guitar.

 

How many Thumbs-Up is that?

 

The Clayton is for bass, The big Fender for mandolin and acoustic guitar and the little teardrop one for electric. I also use a "regular" sized Fender Heavy for electric guitar sometimes. I quit using them for years, but recently found that they work better for some things.

 

I wasn't talking about Tusq, but yeah, I'm familiar with the material. Not a fan.

Tusq nuts and saddles add a 'zing' that sounds unnatural to me, compared to bone. Instead of hearing the nuances of a fine acoustic, I hear the saddle composition.

The picks are too stiff for my taste. They don't have the right feel, and they can't develop the 'snap' I get with a thin celluloid. They're bright, but again, it's like an added ingredient, not just brightness from string attack.

Finally, I don't feel there's necessarily a correlation between how a thing sounds when dropped on a table, vs used in context.

To each their own...

 

whats in my pocket:


hash em up with a razor blade, tip of the hat to John McLaughlin...

 

Fender or Dunlop thin picks for acoustic. V picks venom or razer for electric. I just can't stand the extra sound the thin picks give me.

 

The red Jazz IIIs are slick nylon and the black ones are "stiffo" nylon and have more texture. They sound different to me, too.

I use red Jazz IIIs on electric guitar, Wegen bluegrass flatpicks on acoustic, and John Pearse thumbpicks on both.

 

That's the test I like. A tortoiseshell pick (a good "standard" I think, but it's morally and legally important that we spare the tortoises) makes a kind of "poker chip" sound when you drop it on a wooden tabletop. There are other materials that do that, with variations in timbre and tone. The closer a pick comes to making that sound, the better the pick, I think.

 

BlueChips are where its at! Dunlop Primetones are a close second (much more affordable) for me. Acoustic, telecaster, mandolin...all of them get played with my BlueChips.

 

I've been using Dunlop Jazz II for years and I am happy with them. I use the red ones so I can find them if I drop it.

 

Ultex for electric, nylon for steel string acoustic and d'andrea for when I want to use a pick on a nylon string, although much prefer nails on nylon, if I use a pick the d'andrea sounds the most natural