Thicker primetone picks

[billkilpatrick]

Bill, I work for the USPS, and I cringe whenever a customer needs to send a package to Italy.
Italy has THE longest list of restrictions ever.

The only motive I can think of for these excessive restrictions is the massive immigration of Italian craftsmen to the States around the turn of the last century. Lots of initiative on their part, cheaper material in the New World and entrepreneurial spirit … must have sent established musical instrument makers in Italy into a protectionist tail spin.

[Ivan Kelsall]

A Cafe member with whom i'm in contact in Portugal,might disagree on Italy being the slowest country with the most restrictions.

A while back,the UK government passed a law that did away with paying tax on the 'postage' on items imported from 'abroad' (up to a certain amount),but the EU overruled it,saying that 'it wasn't fair' to the rest of the EU countries. Yet another UK rule brought in for the benefit of UK citizens overruled by folk who don't live here !. One of i believe about 80 or so similar 'overrules' by the EU imposed on the UK,in recent years,
Ivan

[billkilpatrick]

Brexit … let's not go there. But you've given me a solution, as my brother lives in dear ol' 'Blighty and won't mind forwarding picks from the States on to me.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Get him to order them via Amazon - they'll probably get processed as quickly as mine were. Go to the Amazon main page / type in 'Dunlop Primetone Picks'' & the required page will pop up,
Ivan
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...rimetone+picks

[billkilpatrick]

Grazie - I've already ordered these from amazon.uk. - waiting delivery, hopefully this week. I was thinking of ordering a Blue Chip pick from the States and have it sent on to me via my brother.

Dunlop 513P1.5 Primetone® Triangle Sculpted Plectra, 1.5mm, 3/Player's Pack

[Rob Beck]

I was thinking of ordering a Blue Chip pick from the States and have it sent on to me via my brother.

Bill, a word of warning from a satisfied but considerably poorer than expected UK Blue Chip owner. I ordered one from the US a few years ago, and was clobbered with import fees (VAT I think), including an £8.00 Royal Mail handling fee - all for an envelope with a plectrum in it!

ps I love the Blue Chip, and my local post office were quite apologetic, but apparently their hands were tied!
pps It was a while ago, and the expense could possibly have been only the handling fee and no VAT, I can't quite remember - it was still a shock to the system!

[billkilpatrick]

Bill, a word of warning from a satisfied but considerably poorer than expected UK Blue Chip owner. I ordered one from the US a few years ago, and was clobbered with import fees (VAT I think), including an £8.00 Royal Mail handling fee - all for an envelope with a plectrum in it!

ps I love the Blue Chip, and my local post office were quite apologetic, but apparently their hands were tied!
pps It was a while ago, and the expense could possibly have been only the handling fee and no VAT, I can't quite remember - it was still a shock to the system!

Thanks, Rob. Advice accepted and appreciated. Fast forward a couple of months to a pallid, furtive looking old boy approaching the "Nothing to Declare" section of Italian Customs after a fretful flight back from the States ...

[Ivan Kelsall]

Rob - That's pretty typical. The Royal Mail ''handling fee'',is of course what you pay them to keep it on a shelf until you collect it.
From Rob - "...and my local post office were quite apologetic..." If they didn't give you your money back they weren't that sorry. Crocodile tears !!.
Blue Chip picks are available in the UK. Of course the cost reflects tha fact that tax has already been paid on them.

Here's J P Guitars web page :- http://www.jp-guitars.co.uk/sales/pa..._and_picks.htm The BC picks are half way down,
Ivan

[billkilpatrick]

Dunlop 513P1.5 Primetone picks arrived at lunchtime … An awful lot of enjoyment from a small, thin piece of plastic. "Ultex" you say ...

[Ivan Kelsall]

Bill - 'Ultex' is the generic name for one variety of 'plastic',there might be several 'grades' which vary in their properties of hardness etc. Which one Dunlop uses is anybody's guess,as is the grade of material that Blue Chip uses for their picks.
On the other hand - there are these for the musicians who wish to stand out from the crowd !,
Ivan

[billkilpatrick]

Extreme "gut" Frisbie …

One downside to these space-age composite picks is the marks they make on the top of the mandolin. I'll have to be more "economical" with my picking.

[Rob Beck]

Rob - That's pretty typical. The Royal Mail ''handling fee'',is of course what you pay them to keep it on a shelf until you collect it.

Ha! That though had crossed my mind too!

[Ivan Kelsall]

Those are for the folks who 'really' need more 'cutting power' in their pickin'.

Rob - In the days even before the US postal charges went up dramatically,my US bought goods were held by our Royaly Mail until i picked them up - even sets of strings which would have passed easily through a standard letter box were held. It was 15 mile round trip on public transport to pick them up (i don't drive). It's nothing less than a 'scam'.

Re. ''Royal Mail' in general - i don't trust them at all. A couple of weeks back,a fairly expensive table lamp was delivered to my home by RM.It was a bedside lamp for a newly decorated/furnished spare room. The box containing the lamp was left outside my front door by RM with no attempt to alert me or my wife to the fact that it was even there. According to the store that i purchased it from - i should have signed for it as it was sent by ''registered/recorded mail'' !!. So what's that all about ?. I contacted the store & told them about it, & they told me that they'd had a lot of problems with RM. They took my advice & are now using DPD as their courier.

I know that folks in the US have had their own horror stories with some couriers - FedEx are possibly the worst that i ever encountered in the UK. They had around $400 US worth of goods of mine,bought from First Quality in the USA. After close to 4 weeks of 'no show',FQ sent me a tracking number - i used it & found that my goods were being held at a FedEx depot in Manchester. FedEx hadn't been near my home & were on the brink of sending my goods back to the USA. The courier i mentioned,DPD send an e-mail the day before the delivery day to let you know that the goods are on their way. On the day of delivery,they send an e-mail & give you the one hour time slot between which the goods will be delivered ie between 10am & 11am - they've never failed yet.

Sorry to ramble on about this,but many fine stores selling the goods we wish to buy,get a bad name because of lousy courier services.,
Ivan

[Ivan Kelsall]

My 2.0 mm thick Primetone ''grippy'' picks arrived an hour ago,so i've spent most of that time comparing the 2.0 mm to the 1.5 mm one that i've been using for quite a while now. I was playing my Lebeda when they arrived,so that's what i tried it out on,especially as i bought the thicker ones for that very mandolin.

Firstly,possibly because of the Tendonitis generated stiffness in my fingers,it felt more positive in my grip. The 'point' on the 2.0 mm picks is identical to the 'point' on the 1.5 mm ones,but because of the extra thickness,the bevel is of course, wider.

My first impression of the 'sound' was of more volume for the same picking power - or was it just added brightness ?. It's hard to tell because turning up the treble a tad, can sound like added volume. They certainly work on the Lebeda,but i have a feeling that they'll sound way too 'hard' on my Weber & Ellis - i'll see (hear !).

Trying anything new takes time. Mostly we fool ourselves into thinking that the change is ''all good'',but i'm begining to hear something that i haven't heard before on any of my mandolins - 'pick click'. It's only on the G strings & a touch on the D strings. The A & E Strings ring as clearly as ever. I was however, playing ''Northern White Clouds'',the 3rd part of which really digs in on the G & D strings,so maybe it's no wonder i got some 'click' going on !.

Tomorrow,i'll try 'em out on the Weber & Ellis - but i will say that they are the ONLY 2.0 mm thick picks i've used that sound good (to me). The 2 others i've tried were far too rounded - these 'pointed' ones sound very good,
Ivan

[Ryk Loske]

Thanks Ivan for reinforcing what i thought i "heard". I bought a three-pack each of the 2.0 and 2.5. But when they came they were the "grippy" ones instead of the planer Primetones. I just flat out don't like the over brightness and click of the grip picks on either mandolin or, more importantly for me acoustic arch top guitars. I've sent them back to Elderly for exchange. Hopefully the difference i hear in the thinner versions will hold true for their chunky cousins.

Ryk

[Chughes423]

No large triangles???

[Ivan Kelsall]

I played my Lebeda mandolin after posting my last post on here for a couple of hours & my overall impression was that the 2.0 mm picks are fine on 'that' mandolin. I'm hoping to try them on my Weber & Ellis sometime today if i get the chance. Knowing how those 2 sound with the 1.5 mm ones doesn't fill me with optimism.

To 'my ears',the smooth Primetones sound a tad 'softer' in tone,& i've gone over to using one of those on my Ellis. I use a 1.5 mm 'grippy' Primetone on my Weber. I think that the 2.0 mm Primetones are going to sound too hard on either,but i might be surprised - maybe !!,
Ivan

[Paul Busman]

No large triangles???

Alas, no. I wrote to the Dunlop asking if that was possible and suggest that you and any other large triangle fans do the same. Let them know there's market for them out here in mandoland.

[Ivan Kelsall]

I just spent close to 2 hours comparing Primetone picks on my Weber & Ellis. Weber = DR MD 11 strings / Ellis = GHS A270's.
I use a 1.5 mm Primetone 'smooth' pick on the Ellis & a 1.5 mm Primetone 'grippy' on my Weber.

On the Weber - The 2.0 mm Primetone was 'harder' in tone,but not as much as i expected. For the picking effort put in,i thought that it was louder than the 1.5 mm thick one. However,DR strings are brighter than most other strings & have more of a 'punch' with them,so maybe the 2.0 mm pick is boosting the trebles a bit too much. But,they weren't as cutting as i thought that they might be.

On the Ellis - Much the same,but with less 'treble boost'. Basic impression = just louder maybe. A lot of that is down to the quality of the Ellis (IMHO). You could play it with a half brick & it would still sound good !!.

After having tried the 2.0 mm pick on all 3 mandolins - it's a thumbs up for the 2.0 mm on the Lebeda,i'll use it a bit more on the Weber,but maybe with EJ74's for a change to see how that pans out in a few months time. The Ellis sounds fine with it,but it does
sound a tad brighter. Using the 1.5 mm Primetone ''smoothie'',it's as perfect as i'll ever need.

So - all told,good results but it'll take a bit more evaluation to really make my mind up. At least i've found a 2.0 mm thick pick that suits my Lebeda,just as i'd hoped,
Ivan

[Willie Poole]

I have been using the Prime Tone 1.5 picks and last year a fellow gave me one of the 2.0 Prime Tones and I cannot stand it, to me it doesn`t have any more loudness, less actually....And the tone of my mandolin just isn`t the same with it, I know all picks aren`t the same with every mandolin but just wanted to throw in my 2 cents worth, I do however like the Dawg pick which is heavier than 1.5 and it sounds great on my mandolins...It would be interesting to know what material each is being made of...

Willie

[MediumMando5722]

Are you talking about the current Dawgs being thicker than 1.5? They feel just like a Proplec 1.5 to me.

[Ivan Kelsall]

The Dawg picks are currently 1,5 mm thick. I have to admit that i always thought that they were thicker. It's the very rounded edges that kill any tone on my mandolins. They don't 'push' the string enough,the edge simply slides over them.

Willie - The 2.0 mm Primetones have only just come out. The pick that somebody gave you wasn't a Primetone - unless the OP of this thread had totally wrong info. I certainly never saw them,& i've seen almost every seller on the i/net looking for the best deal. The 2.0 mm ones are so new,that Dunlop have only made the one shape as yet,
Ivan

[billkilpatrick]

The 1.5 Primetone and the Blue Chip(s) I'll buy when my boat comes in are about a thick as I want to go. Curious to know if there's any increase in the "click" noise with a 2.0 ...

[doublestoptremolo]

The pick that somebody gave you wasn't a Primetone - unless the OP of this thread had totally wrong info.

Which is totally within the realm of possibility I end up looking at picks every 3 or so months and I don't remember Primetones coming in thicker sizes than 1.5 until recently.

[MediumMando5722]

Dunlop has another series of picks called Primetones that have been around for years. They're super thick, black, and I think have a grip indentation in the middle. No resemblance whatsoever to what we're typically referring to when we say Primetone on here.