Thumb Picks...Anyone Use One on their Mando?

[Nalapombu]

Hey all,

I am curious about this. When I was taking lessons the guy that was my teacher was at one time the West Virginia State Banjo Champion. He was a great teacher and an even better guy.

I would fool around and try any and all picks I could get my hands on. In fact right now I have a small case that probably has 100 picks in it that I have collected over the years. One day as I was leaving I saw his jar of picks that he sold to players. It had a bunch of thumb picks in it that banjo players use. I put one on and thought "why not?" So I got 4 or 5 of them in different styles and took them home to try. To my surprise I really liked them and I still do.

The pic is always in the perfect position. You don't have to worry about how hard or soft to hold the pick, you can "customize" them to just about any way you want them and they're cheap. I really like the tone they produce, it's nice and bright on my Weber F. I found them to be brighter than just about all other picks I have tried.

I just wondered if I am some kind of weirdo by using these "banjo" picks to play my mandolin.
Has anyone else tried them and decided to stay with using them? What do you think about them and the sound they produced from your mandolin?

I'd like to hear your thoughts and experience with Thumb Picks...if you have any.

Thanks

nalajr

[Marty Jacobson]

I use thumb picks for several instruments. But not for mandolin. The grip and style of pick does affect tone, and what I consider good tone comes from a well-beveled dense flatpick held between the fingers. Thumbpicks do great on the downstroke, but for fast passages and tremolo, they are not as good as your entire wrist, fingers, and flatpick working together.

[bart mcneil]

When I initially started on the mando I too had only guitar thumb picks (and metal finger picks). I think if you are making a decision you might want to give a flat pick a chance. There are reasons for the flat pick most mando players use. Much of mando playing normally involves very rapid up and down picking for which the flat pick is perfect but the thumb bick will, in my opinion, be problematic and difficult.

That being said, I don't think there are any hard and fast rules saying you can't use a thumb pick.

[mandroid]

Herco's Thumb-flatpick may be useful,

Thickness-wise, they're rather light, even the heavy one , may order some extra heavy.

but being a Thermo-plastic body heat seems to soften the loop over your thumb,
but at least you wont be dropping it.

I have been using it mostly on my GDAE tuned Ukejo, 'Kawlija' named for its Wooden 'Head'..

[bigskygirl]

I've seen people use thumb picks and they played and sounded great, thought about trying it myself sometime but I've never bought one.

[pops1]

I have used a BC thumb pick that i had made really short, but only used it a few times. These old hands sometimes have a hard time holding onto picks. It works ok for mandolin, but better for guitar.

[darylcrisp]

cool video showing wayne Henderson using fingerpicks-around 7:22

[Bertram Henze]

I have a thumbpick for playing fingerstyle on the OM, but for fast down/up-stroke melody picking it's too cumbersome, like Marty said.

[pops1]

The blue chip i had make had the same bevel as a flat pick, a normal thumb pick would not be very good for picking up and down. Works well with the bevel as it is easier to hold onto if, like me, your hands are old and tired. Still using a flat pick, but thinking of making another thumb pick a little longer than the last one.

[Ellen T]

I've been wanting to get a thumb pick for a while. I noticed a tendency in my playing (just melody, don't do chords) to not play both strings in a course except when doing tremolo, so I intentionally, on slower tunes, started just doing a single downstroke strum to get both strings. For very old folk-type melodies (think Greensleeves, Barbara Allen, etc.) it gives a very cool, almost harp-like effect, and I think using a thumb pick would work well for this.

[EdSherry]

In my experience (I've used thumbpicks on 5-string banjo for years), most thumbpicks are too stiff and not flexible enough for back-and-forth playing. One possible exception is the Kelly Speedpick, which has a thin-enough tang that one can grab it between the index and middle finger and use it as a flatpick.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acces...picks-24-picks

(NI, just a longtime satisfied user.)

[Varin]

For a few years now I have been playing lap steel. It occurred to me that if I use my electric lap steel with legs, I can sling my electric mandolin and actually play both on the same song, using the lap steel for rhythm and the mandolin for lead. Since there's no time to change picks, I'm left with two choices - use a flatpick and two fingers on the lap steel (hybrid picking) or use the thumbpick on the mandolin. I'm tending toward the latter. I find that the most difficult part of using the thumbpick on the mandolin is getting a good sounding strum, but since I'm using the lap steel for most of the backup, that's not much of an issue. What would be crosspicking with a flatpick becomes a lot easier with thumbpick and fingers. I've never been able to crosspick fast. (I know, you've got to use correct rest strokes, which thus far I haven't gotten the hang of.) When I do fast crosspicking with a flatpick, I tend to actually use the flatpick and two fingers, so the thumbpick is actually easier.
I'm told that John Hartford played Bluegrass guitar with a thumbpick. Anything is possible with sufficient practice.

[montana]

I use a herco thumb pick. Also use it to flatpick guitar,fingerpick guitar and play bluegrass banjo. Only time I don't use it for clawhammer banjo.

[Phil Vinyard]

Radim Zenkl uses a thumb pick a lot for his more intricate stuff. But, dang, it's intricate.