Guitar Pick You Choose Has A Big Impact On Your Playing Sound
One mistake we definitely don't want to make is to overlook
the importance that the tiny but mighty guitar pick has on our playing style, and on our overall sound.
Things about a pick that can affect the electric guitar sound that ends up being produced include: the material the guitar pick is made from, the thickness of the guitar pick, the texture of the guitar pick, the size of the guitar pick, etc.
What kind of playability differences will you notice across the gamut of different picks on the market. Well, for one thing, when you do your fast alternate picking, you'll notice a total difference when using a thick pick (around a 1 millimeter thickness or more) as compared to when you are playing a fast alternate picking with a thinner pick (having a thickness of around the neighborhood of a .58 millimeter size). The amount of deflection from the pick as it touches the
strings is definitely a factor in how the playing feels and goes. Much of it may be personal preference, but it's worth experimenting in this area. Here's a photo with a look at some of the different kinds of guitar picks that are available from manufacturers Dunlop and Fender. Many, many other companies make picks like these and other varieties so you'll want to have fun and try out as many as you can before you settle in on one that fits your personal playing style.
Just as playing guitar with your fingers will have a huge influence on the overall tone you produce on the guitar, qualities of the guitar pick you use such as material and texture will also have an important effect on the music you make.
While some guitar picks on the market have a very smooth texture, others will have a rougher texture that will influence the sound made as the pick is dragged across the strings.
Be aware of how picks change with use. They get used up as a lot of playing gets done with them. Thinner picks especially will have their ends chip away as they are used and the pick edge will become uneven and effect the sound they produce.
Picks also wear and lose their stiffness with use and so a thicker and stiffer feeling guitar pick will eventually with some amount of playing get more flimsier.
Maybe you won't play guitar with a pick all the time. Perhaps you will choose to not play with a pick ever. This is a rare case. So it's worth taking some time and trying as many different types of guitar picks as you can get your hands on. And even when you've found the picks you like and are satisfied with the sound you have, don't rest there. After a couple of years of playing with the picks you like a lot and feeling satisfied, the pick manufacturers and market will change on you and new developments in guitar picks will appear. It's still worth taking the time and effort to give these picks a try. They might give you a new sound you love, or they might happen to work out and give you something on a certain song that had been missing. Whatever the case, it's in our best interest to continuously pay a little attention to this most tiny, but important of guitar playing accessories.
