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Topic: There are ways, and then there are ways to pick |
ed packard
From:
Show Low AZ
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Posted 11 Nov 2010 11:43 am |
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What fret(s) do you pick over the most?
How bent are your picks?
What gauge are your picks?
What type of sound are you after? |
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Brett Day
From:
Pickens, SC
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Posted 11 Nov 2010 12:31 pm
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I usually pick past the 24th fret near the pickup.
Brett |
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Wayne Franco
From:
silverdale, WA. USA
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Posted 11 Nov 2010 12:48 pm I use Pearce finger picks
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| The blades are a bit longer on Pearce picks. I bend them back to about 80 degrees except for my ring finger. Its not bent up quite as far. |
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Randy Brown
From:
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 11 Nov 2010 12:59 pm
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To get bright twangy tone I pick closer to the pickup. To get a deeper, more mellow tone, I aim to pick closer to wherever the octave is (e.g. if I'm playing at 8th fret, I'll pick somewhere close to the 20th to get a deeper tone).
Also I believe the bend angle of the picks makes a slight difference. Seems like straighter picks result in twangier tone (at least with my hands). However, I generally adjust the picks for what feels best over how it sounds. |
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Barry Hyman
From:
upstate New York, USA
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Posted 11 Nov 2010 6:12 pm
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I move my right hand a lot to get different tonal nuances, but am usually far from the pickup. Halfway between the bar and the changer gets the mellowest tone, and that might be my default. I aspire to a great variety of tones, to shape the waveform of each note much as we shape each word to add emotiveness to our speech. As for picks -- none -- hard thick fingernails...
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I give music lessons on several different instruments in Cambridge, NY (between Bennington, VT and Albany, NY). But my true love is pedal steel. I've been obsessed with steel since 1972; don't know anything I'd rather talk about... www.barryhyman.com |
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Georg Sørtun
From:
Mandal, Agder, Norway
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Posted 11 Nov 2010 6:12 pm
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Hmmm... 
• I normally pick from just left of the PU down to around the 20. fret - for tone and attack sound. At times I pick close to the bar - wherever the bar happens to be - to get a very light, round and slightly "chimy" sound.
• I use straight picks.
• My picks are .025 - or thicker. Don't know for sure, as my preferred picks still are some unmarked no-brand I got hold of by accident about 22 years ago.
• Usually I want a very clear string-sound with a touch of in-sync natural harmonics, with no "effects/sounds" beyond what I can do on the strings. |
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Mickey Adams
From:
Bandera Texas
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Posted 11 Nov 2010 6:59 pm Great Thread
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I can really appreciate the focus of this thread..
All steel players seem to eventually find their own answers to "how to bend the picks"...how to hold the right hand, how to block...etc..
Last year I had this big idea to interview every steel player I could reach, and in the videos show exactly how they address the neck, and shape their picks...But alas, the time constraints have sent that idea to the sidelines...So ill start a thread with the first, and if everyone will chime in with pics...maybe this will spread some insight....
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ed packard
From:
Show Low AZ
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Posted 12 Nov 2010 11:57 am styles of picking
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| Mickey...There seem to be two extremes in picking style = The claw, thumb extended...and the classical guitarist style. dissecting those would be nice. |
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Bent Romnes
From:
London,Ontario, Canada
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Posted 12 Nov 2010 12:33 pm
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My starting location is with the edge of my hand over the pickup. It might go left with the picks ending up at the 24th fret.
I use the original National picks. They are curved quite a bit so that if I hold the hand straight out, the tips of the picks point almost straight up.The curve of the pick is about 1/8th inch away from the fingertip.
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Bent Romnes
From:
London,Ontario, Canada
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Bent Romnes
From:
London,Ontario, Canada
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 12 Nov 2010 12:47 pm
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But where's your starting location?  |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 12 Nov 2010 12:47 pm
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| But where's your starting location? |
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 12 Nov 2010 12:48 pm
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| But where's your starting location? |
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Bent Romnes
From:
London,Ontario, Canada
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Bill Ford
From:
Graniteville SC Aiken
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Posted 12 Nov 2010 3:46 pm
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18/20th fret, picks shaped really close the my fingers barely past the nail. .020 Dunlop fingerpick, FRED KELLY delrin "SPEED PICK" medium gauge thumbpick, BJS bar.
My starting location is with the edge of my hand over the pickup too.
Hey Bent, you knew that was comin didn't you...
Bill
_________________
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Steeling for Jesus now!!! |
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Bent Romnes
From:
London,Ontario, Canada
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ed packard
From:
Show Low AZ
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Posted 12 Nov 2010 5:54 pm thumb pick location = ?
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| Do you wear the thumb pick on the end of the thumb, or up on/by the knuckle? |
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Bent Romnes
From:
London,Ontario, Canada
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Elton Smith
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 12 Nov 2010 8:40 pm
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Ur joking right!
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Old Peavy Amps |
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Jim Palenscar
From:
Oceanside, Calif, USA
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Posted 13 Nov 2010 6:44 am
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| Generally I wear the picks so that the center of the wrap is over the quicks of my fingers and usually start with the bar over about the 20th fret (usually that places the back of my hand just in front of the pickup. The picks are bent to about a 60 degree angle and I keep my thumb out of the way of the index finger by kind of setting it as though I was hitch-hiking. My picking hand will vary depending on where the bar is and what I'm trying to achieve tonally. Everyones mileage will vary. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 13 Nov 2010 10:50 am
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I'll pick anywhere I need to. My picks are weird! Double-sided on the index.
Sorry the pic is fuzzy. Old camera!
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