Picks & Bevels

[Terry W. Harvey]

I've noticed there are many pick manufacturing companies or boutique pick makers who make either a right or left hand bevel on their picks.
What is the advantage to having this option say as opposed to beveling both edges since we are using tremolo and down/up picking motions? Or no bevel at all on the pick edge?

[Kevin K]

It's not the top vs bottom on concerning the bevel but left and right of the point of contact.

[mandroid]

It's as If someone else played a thick pick for a long time and the edge wore down in the angle
they held the pick to the strings,
as said, the up bevel would be on the other side of the pick's 'point'.

it's something you can try on a 3 for a $ XHeavy pick with a fingernail file.

[JeffD]

A person who picks right handed will wear in a pick differently than a person who picks left handed. Some of the high end picks are made of such tough stuff they will not wear in, not in your life time anyway. So they make them "pre war" with the bevel it would have had. But if you get the wrong one, left for a righty or right for a lefty, the pick will not sound all that good.

[Paul Hostetter]

A person who picks right handed will wear in a pick differently than a person who picks left handed. Some of the high end picks are made of such tough stuff they will not wear in, not in your life time anyway.

The pre-beveling deliberately mimics actual wear, but none of the "high end picks" is immune to wear, believe me. Players are burning through everything on the market.


So they make them "pre war" with the bevel it would have had.

Pre-war?? Eh? You must mean "pre-worn." There's nothing "pre-war" about beveled superthick flatpicks. They're like stone-washed jeans.


But if you get the wrong one, left for a righty or right for a lefty, the pick will not sound all that good.

Unless you're really into playing, which means you'll just play on it for a day or so until it's worn to a point of cooperation.

[Wayne Stuvick]

It's like mandroid said or in other words the beveling mimics the wear from playing. At least that's the way my picks wear, one side on the downstroke and the opposite side on the upstroke. Just like the way the BlueChip guy makes them. I'm accelerating that wear somewhat by occasionally touching up the bevel side with 360 grit sandpaper as I think it helps me get a better tone from my mando.

Maybe if someones hand position and the angle they attack the strings is more from the E string side of the bridge they might need the bevels on the opposite sides, but does anyone play from that angle?

[JeffD]

The pre-beveling deliberately mimics actual wear, but none of the "high end picks" is immune to wear, believe me. Players are burning through everything on the market.
.

My primary pick, the RedBear Tortis Heavy C style never seems to wear. I play a lot and I play heavy enough. I am convinved that RedBear material won't wear out in my life time of playing. YMMV of course. It is not indestructable, certainly, but the oldest (several years) look out of the box brand new. I don't use my Wegen or BlueChip enough to wear them out.

Not that wearing them out is the point of course, but rather that, at least on the Red Bear, I don't think I could wear a bevel into them.