Picks

[John Bertotti]

I am looking for a source of the real small picks like RSW uses. I have carved some down but I'm just not getting what I'm looking for. I did make one out of ebony I like the action of but it tends to cut some of the upper over tones a bit. Anyone know an on line source? John

[Jim Garber]

I can't recall what Richard uses. Is it a Pettine style?

Jim

[Bob A]

Pettine picks are frequently available on ebay. They run $5-10 apiece, depending on who's looking for them at any given time. (I think they're what RSW uses. He sent me a couple a few years ago, with some sheet music I bought.) (Thanks again, Richard).

[onthefiddle]

I just make my own out of larger guitar style picks. This works well for me with the Pettine style plectrum, perhaps you could try picks made from a range of different materials, celluloid seems to sound best to me.
I haven't found a source for celluloid sheet of appropriate thickness in the UK yet, so have been solely using a Pettine style plectrum - other types now feel huge! I would like to try some different styles though.

Jon

[RSW]

I use Pettine style picks mostly but I also use some of the Japanese heart shape (made of celluloid) picks and the Dogal #2 or #3 gauge picks (made of some type of carbon based plastic). You can also make good picks from old celluloid piano keytops (ask your local piano repair shop for old scraps), my teacher made his own picks or used Pettine's. I also sort of like the Fender and Gibson teardrop medium and, for some purposes, the hard versions. I don't like nylon picks of any sort nor any of the thick Dawg style picks (makes no sense for what I do). I find the big triangular picks also too bulky to hold and balance. I am absolutely hopeless with the Ranieri picks but do all right with quills for the early period mandolins.

[Jim Garber]

I use the blue (heavy gauge) John Pearse jazz picks. I also had Bratsche make me a ivory one which also works nicely.

I am deathly afraid of falling in love with a hard-to-find pick since I tend to misplace them and would rather stick to readily available ones.

Jim

[Eugene]

I like the general shape, but the standard teardrop a la Gibson or Fender is just far too small for me. #Standard guitar picks are too broad for mandolin (I like them on archtop guitar) and "Dawg" and other bluegrass-like picks too thick, blunt, and soft-voiced (i.e., no brightness in the attack on light strings). #I have taken to buying Clayton's large triangles in 0.8 mm thick "Ultem Gold," roughing out a traditional Neapolitan shape (like the teardrop, only substantially longer) with shears, refining the shape with files, and buffing and beveling the edges with cosmetic fingernail buffers or very fine sandpaper. #Simply nobody is making this shape in the US, and the one importer of Dogal's plectra to the US has ceased because of lack of interest (I think I was the only guy who bought them).

[vkioulaphides]

Oh, the never-ending quest for THE pick... My current status —ought I rather call it my in motu status?— is as follows:

A. I have finally destroyed, broken the back of the fine, deer-antler Pettine picks that Peter Klima once made for me; their tips were absolutely wonderful but the porous matter in their middle (ye biologists, I'm sure there is some better term for this) is simply too fragile for extensive use.

B. I have a Pettine-type, and a Calace-type ivory pick by bratsche; they are both outstanding picks; they work best, however, against the stiffer Dogal strings I have gotten away from. Now in my (rediscovered) Bronze Age (read: Lenzner), I find that the total rigidity of ivory "bends" the pliant, thin bronze strings upon attack—#not in a good way. Obviously, no fault of either the strings or of bratsche's fine picks; I simply have not yet gotten the "cams-to-valves-to-pistons" timing and mechanism to work to my satisfaction.

C. In grossly iconoclastic fashion, I have coupled North and South in a most irreverend combination: the brilliance of Lenzner bronze-wound strings with the finger-pick-like softness of a gummy, Wolle pick! *blush* Somehow, the counteraction of opposites balances into a lovely, lyrical tone, one that enhances the aural effect of my playing far beyond the limitations of my clumsy technique.

Like a vintner, trying to find the right equilibrium of acids and residual sugars...

[etbarbaric]

Hmm... sounds like you need a weinlese mandolin! :-)

[margora]

I have hundreds of picks and no strong favorites among them; or rather, I try to match the pick to the piece and to the mandolin. For most PMO performances, I tend to use a triangular Wegen model, or something similar. I also like teardrop shaped picks. Generally, my preference is for thick over thin. I have been known to use a Pettine pick but have never really "bonded" with it, or with the Wolle.

[Jonathan Rudie]

I am a fan of the Fender small tear drop medium pick (they have a faux tortoise look, with gold Fender lettering) described above by RSW. They are cheap 20 to 30 cents a piece and work well for me. They usually can be found at the larger guitar mega-stores. I find the small Gibson tear drops wear out way to fast.

[Martin Jonas]

C. In grossly iconoclastic fashion, I have coupled North and South in a most irreverend combination: the brilliance of Lenzner bronze-wound strings with the finger-pick-like softness of a gummy, Wolle pick! *blush* Somehow, the counteraction of opposites balances into a lovely, lyrical tone, one that enhances the aural effect of my playing far beyond the limitations of my clumsy technique.

I guess my experience mirrors Victor's: on my other mandolins, d'Addario-strung, I use a fairly hard 1.0mm Wegen pick, but on the bowlback with bronze Lenzners, I also find that I get a more lyrical tone from a pick with some flexibility. Rather than the Wolle, I get along better with a Jim Dunlop nylon pick, 0.88mm.

I recently got hold of a batch of thick black German rubber mandolin picks through my mother. Not sure if they are Wolle (no name on them), but presumably a similar idea. I haven't got the knack of them yet, I have to say. Their edge seems very crude -- are they intended for personalised bevelling? Also, the texture on the two sides of the tip is different -- one rough and one smooth. I got four different shapes and thicknesses, but this is the same on all of them and I fail to see the purpose. It gives the upstrokes a distinctly different feel and tone from the downstroke, and not in a good way. What's the thinking behind that?

Martin

[etbarbaric]

Hi Martin,

If I remember the Wolle picks, yes, you are meant to bevel them yourself. As they come, one side has a rounded edge, while the other is quite sharp, which sounds like what you are describing. I didn't persue these for long myself...

Eric

[Martin Jonas]

Eric --

Thanks for that. I had a vague memory that something like that was said here before. What I said about the texture is not about the edge, though: the flat part of the pick is smooth on one side and heavily roughed up on the other over the area within about a centimetre of the tip.

Martin

[vkioulaphides]

[QUOTE]"Their edge seems very crude -- are they intended for personalised bevelling?"

Certainly! The ones I have were a gift from a German mandolinist friend, who ordered them for me from Trekel; she specified (with my ignorance in mind) that they be pre-filed. The folks at Trekel did so and well. *Phew!*

[Embergher]

Hello all,

For those who would like to try a Roman Embergher-Ranieri plectrum, here you can find the design. Originally they were made from tortoiseshell, but also celluloid or another similarly flexible material would work. I know they are not easy to master, but once you do, they have so many advantages, both technically and soundwise. When new, they are about 65mm, but they get smaller as you use (and sharpen) them, which is not a problem, though I don't like them getting smaller than 45mm. Especially if you appreciate the original full and clear mandolin sound and you play an Embergher or another good quality classical mandolin, this is the kind of plectrum to use! In my orchestra no ohther plectrums have been used since 1904. #
If you want to give it a try, goodluck!

(P.S. when trying plectrums, don't forget that the strings you use are at least as important for the sound as the plectrum. If I would put flatwound strings on my Embergher mandolin, it would be completely out of intonation and as dead as a dodo...) #

[John Bertotti]

Embergher, thanks, Alex actually posted the entire process he uses to make them in another thread. I'll post a link as soon as I find it. I imagine I could make them narrower also and give it a try. John

Found it here you go. John

Ranieri -- The Art of the Mandoline, Method book

[Embergher]

Thanks Reesaber, but I'm actually the person who taught Alex everything about these plectrums, plectrum technique and Embergher mandolins. When I first met him in 1998, he and his orchestra still used German mandolins and plectrums (as proves their first CD). I've been their concertmeister for a while, and they all switched to these plectrums and started looking for Embergher mandolins for the orchestra
(By the way, the mandolin Alex is playing on that picture is not an Embergher at all)

[John Bertotti]

Well I learn something new everyday. I haven't made one to the dimensions posted yet. I have made some small narrow ones they sound real clean but feel a bit awkward to hold. They are less then 3/4 inch long and 1/4 inch wide. Since I'm still searching and have plenty of material I should go ahead and make one it just might be what I'm looking for. Thanks john