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Different picks for electric vs. acoustic?


DeepEnd

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I'm primarily an acoustic player and I've been using Dunlop .60mm nylon picks for years. But they're too thin for my electric, presumably due to the lighter strings (.009 vs. .012). Yesterday, I went to a local mom and pop and bought, in no particular order, a Herco Flex 75 nylon, a store brand celluloid medium (comparable to a Fender medium), a store brand celluloid heavy (comparable to Fender heavy), a Dava Control Pick in what appears to be nylon, a Dunlop Tortex .73mm, and an Everly .73mm Star Pick. So far, I'm leaning toward the Herco and the Dava.

The guy who sold me the picks said it's fairly common to use different picks for acoustic and electric. If you play both, do you also use different picks? Thanks.

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Yup, I do. I use tortex 60mm and higher depending on what mood I am in. Acoustic, if strumming I need something with a bit of flex. Like nylon sub 50 mm. Usually brain picks.

I also play the acoustic ( rhythm) much nearer the neck.

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Well,nylon which tends to be softer. I don't care for them at all on guitar because they deaden the pinch harmonics you get on an electric.

If you haven't tried celluloid or Tortex, you may want to try them. Tortex is pretty stiff material and wears well and you can use thinner picks

and still not them flab out on you.

 

I use the Dunlop Blues 1.0 most of the time even with light strings. I've used all the other gauges all the way down to the reds, but they are just to flexible for playing really fast leads.

The purples are a bit too thick for my playing styles.

 

I do like Fender cellulose mediums (not the white or colored picks) They have a nice string snap to them.

I used them for years but my playing style must have gotten harder over the years (or the picks got cheaper) because I can barely get more than one song

before those picks are toast. They wear too quick and either crack or snag on the strings and I wind up dropping them.

 

At least with the Tortex you can take a piece of fine sandpaper and reshape the ends when they get worn.

 

 

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I play acoustic almost exclusively fingerstyle but use a pick 90% of the time on electric. I think it sounds better that way. When I play acoustic it is always solo, so I also feel the need to fill out the sound with alternating bass and arpeggios (pima) - one man band so to speak. Actually hate those guys at open mic that insist on playing their acoustic like an electric.

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Well,nylon which tends to be softer. I don't care for them at all on guitar because they deaden the pinch harmonics you get on an electric.

If you haven't tried celluloid or Tortex, you may want to try them. Tortex is pretty stiff material and wears well and you can use thinner picks

and still not them flab out on you. . . .

I mentioned in my original post that I'd tried both celluloid and Tortex plus whatever Everly Star Picks are made of (seems similar to Tortex but I can't say for sure). I may have to try a thinner Tortex (I currently have a .73mm) but I really like nylon picks. BTW, my Dava Control Pick is blue and seems to be nylon, although they also make picks in Delrin. What's the difference, if any, between nylon and Delrin in terms of playing?

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Delrin is softer and more slippery then nylon. I've used it mainly for nuts where you want better string slippage.

I wasn't impressed with its tone/string sustain myself, but it may be good for someone who uses the whammy allot.

 

I probably tried picks made of it too, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like its feel. Its got high resistance to friction

which isn't what I'd want or need when picking notes, but it may be something you like. I'd just try them all and see if its something you like.

 

With my style I like More friction so there's less chance of having volume dropouts. When I rake strings I like having some friction to give a

violin bow type effect. I've even applied violin bow resin to the edge of picks to increase this effect.

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