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Topic: bending finger picks vs. straight |
Jim Hoke
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2007 7:27 pm |
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| Most players I see have their picks bent close around the tips of their fingers. When I try this, I can't pick the right string because I accidently hit the one above it. So I have them sticking out straight like long claws. Does anybody else do it this way? I seem to get the tone I'm looking for, but I keep feeling that I'm doing it wrong. Thoughts? |
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Michael Douchette
From:
Gallatin, TN (deceased)
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2007 8:26 pm
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After years of banjo and dobro, I have to have them in between - at about a 45-degree angle with only 1/4" or so protruding beyond the tip of the finger. I've never been able to figure out how anyone could play with them bent all the way around, so that you'd have to almost use a yanking motion to pick - then you have to lift it to pull it back. Seems really counterintuitive, but like Michael said, whatever works.
The one thing I ALWAYS do is flatten out that ridiculous "comfort curve" and fit them flush. The curved band is a terrible idea IMO.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2007 8:56 pm
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| Jim S., what do you mean by "comfort curve" and "fit them flush"? I just can't picture what you're talking about. |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 13 Apr 2007 9:36 pm
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I assume Jim is talking about the fact that the bands that hold the pick on are bent up at the ends on recent picks by Dunlop and others. I hate it also - I suppose the thought is to bend the sharp edge out of the way so when you push them on hard, they don't dig into the finger as much. But I get the needlenose pliers out and flatten them right out so they fit tightly. I have pretty good callouses and I really like the picks to be tight on my fingers.
Not that I'm any model, but I don't bend the pick blade. I like them the way they come. But I push them way up on my finger so that there's no more than 1/4" of the blade protruding from the end of my finger. I think it's whatever you get used to. |
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Brint Hannay
From:
Maryland, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2007 9:54 pm
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| Quote: |
| I assume Jim is talking about the fact that the bands that hold the pick on are bent up at the ends on recent picks by Dunlop and others. |
I guess I haven't seen those. I like them tight as well. I use Nationals I still have from the Eighties, or the NP2 "reissues", or sometimes the Kyser "Old Style" with the knurling inside. For more than twenty years I am ceaselessly fussing with every aspect of the picks. When I'm lucky, a pair will feel right for a few weeks, but then while I sleep poltergeists get to them and I'm back at them with the needlenose pliers.  |
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Dan Beller-McKenna
From:
Durham, New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 14 Apr 2007 2:58 am
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Anyone else using ProPiks? I found these to be way more comfortable than Dunlops or Nationals. The also seem to hold their shape much longer. I bought some reso style with the blade angled towards the pinky and love them on pedal steel. Much softer tone.
Oh: and I don't have to bend them at all; I used to bend others a little bit.
Dan
_________________
Durham, NH
dbmCk mUSIC |
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Stan Paxton
From:
1/2 & 1/2 Florida and Tenn, USA (old Missouri boy gone South)
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Posted 14 Apr 2007 6:50 am
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Dan, I use the ProPiks also; and like you, the angled ones. They seem to work best for me, in trying to get the right wrist bend, and then the blade meets the strings better. I think. I have some Nationals, BJ's and others, but the ProPiks just suit me better. 
_________________
Mullen Lacquer SD 10, 3 & 5; Mullen Mica S 10 1/2 pad, 3 & 5; BJS Bars; LTD400, Nashville 112, DD-3, RV-3, Hilton VP . -- Gold Tone PBS sq neck; Wechter Scheerhorn sq neck. -- "Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone." -anon.- |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 14 Apr 2007 7:06 am
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Brint - Dave had it right. Dunlops (and every other I've found) has a "shaped" band, probably to avoid having it dig into the finger. Fr me, it does exactly the opposite and I have to squeeze them so tight they're really uncomfortable. So for years (on dobro, now steel) I've been taking new ones and flattening out the band - much more comfortable and don't slip.
_________________
No chops, but great tone
1930's/40's Rickenbacher/Rickenbacker 6&8 string lap steels
1921 Weissenborn Style 2; Hilo&Schireson hollownecks
Appalachian, Regal & Dobro squarenecks
1959 Fender 400 9+2 B6;1960's Fender 800 3+3+2; 1948 Fender Dual-8 Professional |
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Dan Beller-McKenna
From:
Durham, New Hampshire, USA
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Posted 14 Apr 2007 7:31 am
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| Quote: |
| When I'm lucky, a pair will feel right for a few weeks, but then while I sleep poltergeists get to them and I'm back at them with the needlenose pliers. |
Not sure about poltergeists, but I could swear that some days my fingers are fatter, some days thinner. I know it's not water retention at "that time of the month,"  but it sure seems like a real phenomenon.
Dan |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 14 Apr 2007 8:58 am
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| I'm an inbetweener too. A lot of really good players bend them way close to the fingertip and I tried that for a while, but it occurred to me that I was having to move my fingers further to pluck each note that way, and in the interest of long-term efficiency & speed development, I've bent them back out a bit straighter. I always have at least two sets done up, so I can fiddle with one while I'm watching TV or something and can spend all my practice time NOT fiddling with friggin' picks. I think people who pluck really hard like them closer, and plucking like that definitely does give a fuller tone - I have 1200 watts to say "Boo!" with, not a problem..... |
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Wayne D. Clark
From:
Montello Wisconsin, USA
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Posted 15 Apr 2007 9:07 am
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After reading this thread, I got my picks out and tried them on. My picks wrap up over the tips of my fingers but as I look down on them they sick out a little. If I rest a ruller on my finger nale the tip of the pick is level but is out from the tip of my finger about a 1/16 of an inch. Now that is probably more than you wanted to know. Decads ago when I started playing that is the way the picks that were given me fit. "what ever works"
On the mater of fitting, I am alway switching the picks until they fit confortably. I'll do this three or for times before I get ready to play. If they don't feel confortable it really effects my playing, so once they are on and comfortable I try to keep them on even when I am not playing, If I do thake them off it is one at a time never togethere until if finished playing for the evening.
Desert Rose S10 3/5
Goodrich Vol
Nashville 400 |
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Jim Hoke
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 18 Apr 2007 7:10 pm
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| ProPiks are nice. I just got out a pair of the kind with the two bands around the finger, with lots of holes in them - kinda wierd looking...they feel great, stay on good without pinching and seem to know which string I'm reaching for. Haven't heard it thru the amp yet; I'm afraid our downstairs tenant will move out if I do any more tonight.... |
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A. J. Schobert
From:
Cincinnati, Ohio,
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Posted 18 Apr 2007 8:14 pm
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| Jim I am glad to hear your are useing finger picks! I don't think there is any tone difference, I never really noticed, but why I bend my picks is to help me quickly block thus increase my speed picking. When the picks are bent my hand is closer to the strings. |
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