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Topic: finger pick settings |
Lee Jeffriess
From:
Vallejo California
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Posted 13 Oct 2002 11:20 pm |
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About 8 years ago Andy volk turned me on to
Ralph Kolisano ( excuse spelling ).
He lived about three miles away from me at the time, so i went and hung out with him on a couple of occasions.
As anyone who ever met ralph knows he was an
amazing human being, acomplished in many feilds, and i was no doubt too young and stupid to have retained everything that he told me.
But the one thing that i got, that was practical, and usefull was the way he set his
finger picks.
He said look at your hand its sitting at about a 72 degree angle, when your pickin, get a pair of plyers and twist the ends of your picks so when you set your picks on the
strings there more flush.
It worked for me, i found i was not mispickin as much and it seemed like my hand
was more relaxed.
Ralph told me that was the way the hawain
players back in the day did it.
Do any of you guys twist your picks like this?.
Lee |
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patrick donovan
From:
orange, texas, usa
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Posted 14 Oct 2002 3:04 am
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I have been doing that for 30 years. Just seemed like the logicial thing to do.
Regards, Patrick |
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Ian McLatchie
From:
Sechelt, British Columbia
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Posted 14 Oct 2002 5:39 am
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| Lee: Propik "reso" finger picks are angled in the way you describe, and angled vertically as well, a few degrees to the left. When I discovered them a few years ago they not only vastly improved my tone, but also eliminated the tendonitis I'd periodically experienced 'til then. I tried a set of regular, non-angled picks a while ago and couldn't believe how uncomfortable they made my hand feel, and what a thin, scratchy tone I produced. |
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Bill Leff
From:
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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Posted 14 Oct 2002 5:52 am
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| I'm having a hard time visualizing this... |
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Ian McLatchie
From:
Sechelt, British Columbia
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Posted 14 Oct 2002 10:15 am
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...probably because you're still blissed out from the HSGA convention, Bill (how did that go, anyway?).
To understand what Lee's refering to, look directly at the tip of your forefinger with a pick attached, then give the tip of the finger a slight clockwise twist. Twisting the blades of the fingerpicks that amount compensates for the angle at which the fingertips contact the strings for most people. Compared to a normal pick, on which the blade sits perpendicular to the band, the band on a Propik is also tilted a few degrees to the left. These differences are very small, but they made all the difference for me, at least. I can't imagine using anything else after playing with the Propiks for a few years. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 14 Oct 2002 11:05 am
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Yeah, Ralph was quite a guy. He taught me that there can be a fifty year difference in age but musicians are the same under the skin and can make a deep connection regardless of age.
He also taught me to imitate a chicken on a steel guitar. I haven't found a use for that one yet. |
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Gary Slabaugh
From:
Scottsdale, AZ
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Posted 14 Oct 2002 1:50 pm
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| Those pro-piks look interesting. Does anyone use a metal thumb pick though? |
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Lee Jeffriess
From:
Vallejo California
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Posted 14 Oct 2002 10:24 pm
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I figured there would be a few people doing
this, but i was wondering if it was common knowledge or just a forgotten trick that no uses any more.
Ralph is the only person i had ever heard talk about it.
Ian those picks look interesting, thanks for the tip.
Herb how are you doing? the E9 your asking
about is the non chromatic (low to high)
EG#BDF#G#BE, i still use that tuning but
the second string is tuned to C# and i have a pedal that drops it to B.
Its kind of Bud isaacs deal but backwards.
Lee |
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Ian Finlay
From:
Kenton, UK
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Posted 15 Oct 2002 12:24 am
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Hey Lee! Nice to see another Brit here!
Bob Hoffnar whowed me the angled pick thing when I was in New York a couple of months back. Wish I'd found it years ago.
Ian
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Bill Leff
From:
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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Posted 15 Oct 2002 6:11 am
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I ran out yesterday after work and picked up a couple of "Propik Reso" fingerpicks. These are angled towards the pinky. Played around with them last night and compared them to my usual Dunlops. I found that using the Propiks that I tended to get a rougher sound, probably because I was catching an edge a bit. I'm so used to playing with the standard picks that I'll probably have to do a bit of adjustment on my hand angle to make the Propiks work better.
I also picked up a couple of "Zookie" thumbpicks (Dunlop makes these). They are angled in a way to make the pick hit the string more straight on (thanks Gerald Ross for turning me on to these). They work well. I'm partial to the Golden Gate thumbpicks but like these Zookies too.
Speaking of E13, I've tuned my D8 Stringmaster to E13 and B11 and am able to get some really nice fat Hawaiian, Duke Ching-style sounds with those tunings.
I've got the E13 tuned thusly (low to high):
E C# B G# F# D B E
The above makes for one very high cholesterol chord. Combine with B11 tuning for one extremely rich steel guitar dessert.  |
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Bill Leff
From:
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
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Posted 15 Oct 2002 6:12 am
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| Oops - that E13 tuning is high to low, which is the opposite of what I said. |
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Lee Jeffriess
From:
Vallejo California
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Posted 16 Oct 2002 6:41 pm
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Here are the string gauges you asked for Herb.
From top to bottom. (top three are plain, wound are semi flat) 15 20 26 30 36 44 50 68.
GOOD LUCK
Lee |
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