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John Botofte


From:
Denmark
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 12:32 am    
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My ordinary Dunlop thumb pick that I have used for several years on lap steels and pedal steel broke after a few hours playing a Gretsch Jim Dandy acoustic guitar with steel strings. Can anyone recommend a thumb pick that is good for both steel guitar and ordinary guitar?
Thanks in advance
John
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Scott Duckworth


From:
Etowah, TN Western Foothills of the Smokies
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 2:58 am    
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Blue Herco
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Tom Quinn


Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 3:53 am    
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New Hercos are not the same as the old ones...
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Erv Niehaus


From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 7:16 am    
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I really like the Golden Gate thumb picks.
I started using them after my grandson broke my old pick.
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Mike Wheeler


From:
Delaware, Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 7:19 am    
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I like the Golden Gates also.
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George Macdonald

 

From:
Vancouver Island BC Canada
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 10:36 am     Thumb picks
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What size Golden Gate would you recommend for the "average" size thumb? The blue Hercos fit my average size thumb. ha
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Jerry Berger


From:
Nampa, Idaho USA
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 12:11 pm    
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I would like to give Golden Gate thumb picks a "Thumbs up" for their quality thumb picks!

Last edited by Jerry Berger on 14 Jul 2015 3:34 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Ray Montee


From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 12:11 pm     Golden Gate for sure.............
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After experiencing one such pick, I've never looked back.

"Compared" to what? I use a medium size clown puke I believe they called it.
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richard burton


From:
Britain
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 1:50 pm    
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I got fed up of my thumbpicks breaking, so now I use a Jim Dunlop metal thumbpick.

It took a bit of tweaking to get the angle right (where it connects with the string) and also to get it to grip tight to my thumb without hurting (too much)
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Gary Cooper

 

From:
Atmore, Alabama
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 6:08 pm     Picks
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BLUE HERCO
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Richard Sinkler


From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
Post  Posted 14 Jul 2015 6:42 pm    
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I don't play guitar, but I have an acoustic I use for learning songs. I use a John Pearse thumb pick. I also like Golden Gate picks. But... The Golden Gates come in different types. In a catalog or online, they look the same. I found that I have to go to a music store here in the bay area and try them out. The band and the tongues are different.
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Dale Rottacker


From:
Walla Walla Washington, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jul 2015 1:35 am    
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I go back and forth between the Blue Herco, and the Red Dunlop, which looks identical to the Blue Herco only different color... My only complaint is I wish they’d stay tighter longer.
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Lane Gray


From:
Topeka, KS
Post  Posted 15 Jul 2015 3:29 am    
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Dale, I keep three. One on my thumb, one ready to go, and one cooling. Rotate every 6 minutes or so.
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Dale Rottacker


From:
Walla Walla Washington, USA
Post  Posted 15 Jul 2015 4:01 am    
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Lane Gray wrote:
Dale, I keep three. One on my thumb, one ready to go, and one cooling. Rotate every 6 minutes or so.


I don't rotate quite that often Lane, but do rotate... I've got picks EVERYWHERE!!!... I'll try your method.
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*2021 Rittenberry, "The Concord" D10 9x9
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Bob Mainwaring

 

From:
Qualicum Beach Vancouver Island B.C. Canada
Post  Posted 17 Jul 2015 5:23 am     Thumb Pick Question
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Like Richard Burton,
I've been using metal thumb picks for many years - also for my old five string.
I've mentioned in the past, our finger picks are metal, why bother with plastic for a thumb pick when the actual sound/tone can be equalised by including a metal thumbpick.

All Z.B.est.

Bob.
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Mike Will

 

From:
Missouri, USA
Post  Posted 19 Jul 2015 6:51 am     metal thumb pick
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for a metal thumb pick, try these "geipel" thumb picks from banjogbridge.com
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Bob Hoffnar


From:
Austin, Tx
Post  Posted 19 Jul 2015 7:27 am    
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I have been using Fred Kelly "regular" white picks for years. They are delrin of some sort. I don't have a problem with slipping even in the Texas heat. I am very happy with them.
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Georg Sørtun


From:
Mandal, Agder, Norway
Post  Posted 19 Jul 2015 8:36 am     Re: Thumb Pick Question
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Bob Mainwaring wrote:
[...] why bother with plastic for a thumb pick when the actual sound/tone can be equalised by including a metal thumbpick.

I use a metal (steel) thumbpick 95% of the time for that very reason.
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John Booth


From:
Columbus Ohio, USA
Post  Posted 19 Jul 2015 8:41 am    
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I;m very fond of the Propik hybrid thumbpick.


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Stephen Williams

 

From:
from Wales now in Berkeley,Ca, USA
Post  Posted 19 Jul 2015 6:19 pm    
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Fred Kelley speed picks are absolutely great. Way more sensitive feel and more attack for me
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Lee Dassow


From:
Jefferson, Georgia USA
Post  Posted 20 Jul 2015 3:17 pm    
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I just bought a whole bunch of Fred Kelly large thumb picks,Delron and Poly. Musicians Friend packs 24 in each order which is a ridiculous amount in my estimation. I usually use the large national picks, but they have never fit well on my wide thumb. I hope the Fred Kelly's are OK. If not I'll be selling em cheap on the Forum. Tenn.Lee
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Last edited by Lee Dassow on 24 Jul 2015 5:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Larry Moore


From:
Hampton, Ga. USA
Post  Posted 22 Jul 2015 8:22 pm     Thumb Pic
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I must agree with John Booth. I have been playing with the same Thumb Pick for about 5 yrs.

It was well worth the cost. It is the Pro-Pick, Metal body with a Plastic tip.

I found a supplier In the Atlanta area, bought several more to go with my other steels.

No more slipping off or getting loose.

Larry Very Happy
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Tom Gorr

 

From:
Three Hills, Alberta
Post  Posted 22 Jul 2015 8:28 pm    
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John Booth wrote:
I;m very fond of the Propik hybrid thumbpick.



I used a blue herco for 15 years and they're not even close to the propik hybrid...I went with the long blade version because it rotated my wrist slightly into better hand posture. .. also. .. I find I can pick more accurately.

Tommy Dodd.. steel guru. .. sells them at steel shows with the metal parts covered in heat shrink or something. They wear more comfortably like that.
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David Mason


From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
Post  Posted 23 Jul 2015 3:04 am    
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In thirty years I got as far as I could get playing slide guitar; and a pedal steel was the next/only door to kick on. So I stopped playing slide and played only steel for another decade. Fingers & thumbpicks. I did settle on the all-metal ProPiks, far better than the folded-tip Dunlops - Easley recc'd for tone matching. THEN: Sonny Landreth ambushed me, I had to slide again, thence play UPstrokes with the thumbpick. Ups on metal picks was way punk for me and I couldn't NOT do it on the steel too.

SO: Eventually I found the normal large Golden Gate was mi amore. Available in "Linen", "Pearloid" or, as mentioned... who wouldn't want to sport "Clown Barf" on their thumb? Very Happy They DO spread a bit with heat, so as mentioned... And the Planet Waves (made by Dunlop) are just as good as Dunlops! Imagine! Adequate Tier 2 emergency picks.
http://www.elderly.com/accessories/names/golden-gate-thumbpick-multi-colored--PK49.htm

Golden Gate also makes the pterodactylish X-Heavy thumbpicks, they're really strong and braced eve more against the thump with a flap - that you have to file off because it hits the strings on upstrokes. They're like 3/32" thick so they click some through a bit of gain, but they're the best if you need to kill something. Shocked
https://reverb.com/item/179238-golden-gate-pearl-thumbpick-x-heavy-1-dozen?_aid=pla&pla=1&gclid=CMiBlsX58MYCFYyQHwod5n4I1g Though that price is criminal.Devil

All the really thin picks like Herco bugaboo, red Dunlops, Jim Kelly work if you push them up way high, to the joint, feels freaky to me. And any pick, I have to shorten the blade and file it into a sharkfin angle so that the upstrokes match the down. Like, if an upside-down shark is eating your thumb.

You will eventually end up trying out everything imaginable anyway, it's almost like you might as well just head to Elderly Music or Janet Davis's and order up the bucketful, get it over with. Although/except, if anyone tries to sell you one of the Secret Magic Precious-Resin picks handcarved by 500-year-old Tibetan monks from plans handed down from the last Pharaoh - i.e., anything over five bucks - ask them to point out all the blindfolded tone tests proving they sound better than the 95c goobs. A deafening response...
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Georg Sørtun


From:
Mandal, Agder, Norway
Post  Posted 23 Jul 2015 5:23 am    
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David Mason wrote:
Although/except, if anyone tries to sell you one of the Secret Magic Precious-Resin picks handcarved by 500-year-old Tibetan monks from plans handed down from the last Pharaoh - i.e., anything over five bucks - ask them to point out all the blindfolded tone tests proving they sound better than the 95c goobs. A deafening response...
Very Happy

My (steel) thumbpick came along for free when I bought an autoharp sometime back in the -70s. It was the cheapest stamped-out pick one can imagine, and not even stainless.
Never used it but had it laying around when some time early in the -90s I broke the latest in a whole series of plastic/nylon thumbpicks. So I filed off half the blade, and shaped and polished what was left to what felt and sounded right when practicing. I mute with the side of my thumb so long blades don't work well for me.

Have bought and tried out a number of thumbpicks since then, included the Propik hybrid, various metal variants, and all the other suggested. The old steel thumbpick still works best, and it holds up just fine and only needs light polishing (using toothpaste and paper) now and then.

Along with a shortened blue herco from way back in time, the old steel thumbpick and a couple of equally old and cheap steel fingerpicks that are shaped and polished to my liking, let me play without worrying about wear and tear.



I have tried shaping various plastic and soft metal thumb and fingerpicks to my liking in later years, but they don't hold up for more than a few hours playing at best - they're simply too soft ... or I'm playing too hard.
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