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Thread: Steffey inspired Revelation

  1. #1
    Donnie Stevens
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    Default Steffey inspired Revelation

    I had the great pleasure of attending the Acoustic Music Week at Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee last week. I am primarily a mandolin player, so, out of absolute "no-brainer-ism" I selected to take Adam Steffey's mandolin class for the week. As a mandolin player, it was the most awesome experience ever! A full week of learning licks, getting ideas and talking mando with one of the all-time greats. (my favorite BTW) As we were discussing the topic of pics., I had noticed that Adam was playing with a rather thin pick. I was sitting right in front of him and his power and tone was more than impressive....but his pick was a Dunlop Ultex .90! I play with a good ole Dunlop 2.0 purple pick...I was aware that at one point in time Adam used the same. After a few moments of discussion, Adam whips out a can full of picks and informed me that he could possibly change picks by the end of the week, LOL, because he is experimenting constantly. As I tried out several picks from his collection, I began to wonder....am I crazy for playing with a pick twice as thick as Adam Steffey? I had several picks of my own, so, when I got home from camp, I began trying out picks from my stock. I've decided that the D'andrea Pro-plec 1.5 was just as "tone-pleasing" for me as Big Purple, which led to my using it up to this point this week. I tried one of the Gravity picks that Adam had, and I think I'll be ordering one...a 1.5 Striker Gold. Steffey does prefer a sharp tip, as opposed to, a rounded or blunt tip. Back to my original point, though, I have learned that if a guy like Adam Steffey can change picks frequently and maintain his signature tone, then maybe I was making way too much out of this stuff. Maybe the player is the secret. My mandolin is a Silverangel Distressed F that is as deep and dark as you're gonna find....why do I need a thick pick to make it more so? I do have to admit, and I told Adam, that a .90 seems to be a step above paper for me, ....so, I know I can't go that thin...but for the time being, I'm going to give this 1.5 thing a go. Also, the mandolin he was playing was crazy. It had a scalloped fingerboard with a neck width of approx. 1 5/16". Both of mine are 1 3/16", therefore, his mandolin felt great to me.
    Donnie Stevens

    2016 Silverangel Distressed F #363 (Adirondack Top)
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    Registered User fredfrank's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    I have struggled for years with the pick conundrum. My musical cohorts make fun of me when I switch between songs. Seems like I always have to find what suits the feel on any given day. A lot of times when I'm fooling with different picks at home by myself, I go through many, many picks thinking with each one: "This is the one!" Then at the end of my session I end up with the one I started with as being the best of the bunch. Arghhh!

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    Constantly In Search Of.. Michael Bridges's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    I've played a BC TPR60 for the past 1 1/2 yrs. Played and sounded the best of any pick I'd tried. I recently had a CA bridge and GHS Silk 'n' Bronze strings installed. The BC still sounds good, all of a sudden, my Primetone 1.3 round tip is my go-to. I get pretty much the same bottom with it, but the top end seems to "sparkle" more. Not positive if it's the pick or the thickness making the difference. Thinking of ordering a BC TAD50 3R (1.25mm) to see how that works. It's amazing how big a difference picks make on these things!
    Music speaks to us all. And to each of us, she speaks with a different voice.

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    Registered User sblock's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    The real "revelation," I'd contend, is that a great mandolin player manages to maintain most of his (or her) characteristic tone with a great many different picks, and on a great many different mandolins. It's been pointed out time and again. As aspiring musicians, we seem to place too much stock in the equipment, which is easier to change, and too little in our technique, which is harder to change.
    Last edited by sblock; Jul-04-2015 at 12:17pm.

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    Registered User mandobassman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Quote Originally Posted by fredfrank View Post
    I have struggled for years with the pick conundrum. My musical cohorts make fun of me when I switch between songs. Seems like I always have to find what suits the feel on any given day. A lot of times when I'm fooling with different picks at home by myself, I go through many, many picks thinking with each one: "This is the one!" Then at the end of my session I end up with the one I started with as being the best of the bunch. Arghhh!
    I do the same thing all the time, although on stage I often stick with the same pick throughout a show. At home, however, I am constantly changing.
    The OP mentioned he had a very dark sounding Silverangel, which I'm surprised sounds good with the ProPlec, which is one of the darkest sounding picks available.

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  9. #6
    Donnie Stevens
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Quote Originally Posted by sblock View Post
    The real "revelation," I'd contend, is that a great mandolin player manages to maintain most of his (or her) characteristic tone with a great many different picks, and on a great many different mandolins. It's been pointed out time and again. As aspiring musicians, we seem to place too much stock in the equipment, which is easier to change, and too little in our technique, which is harder to change.
    You got it. Just amazing to listen to a picker like Steffey, from three feet away, and have the luxury to azk questions. He's a great feller and defies all debate about whether or not it can be done with this or that. Always sounds like Steffey.
    Donnie Stevens

    2016 Silverangel Distressed F #363 (Adirondack Top)
    2015 Silverangel Distressed F #359(Redwood Top)

  10. #7
    Donnie Stevens
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Quote Originally Posted by mandobassman View Post
    I do the same thing all the time, although on stage I often stick with the same pick throughout a show. At home, however, I am constantly changing.
    The OP mentioned he had a very dark sounding Silverangel, which I'm surprised sounds good with the ProPlec, which is one of the darkest sounding picks available.
    I'll try to post a vid of me playing with Proplec....I think the 1.5mm keeps it in check, but I'm definitely looking into th Gravity.
    Donnie Stevens

    2016 Silverangel Distressed F #363 (Adirondack Top)
    2015 Silverangel Distressed F #359(Redwood Top)

  11. #8
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Needing to change pick thickness/material might very well be to offset any change in the tone of the mandolin at any single point in time. Those changes may very well be due to temp. & humidity changes. Also,when performing in venues of different sizes & acoustics, & also for recording,a change of pick might be necessary to bring more clarity & 'punch' to the tone.
    For my part,since i began using my Dunlop Primetone 1.5mm 'teardrop' shaped picks,any change to a thinner one,results in a 'thinner' tone. Before using the Primetone picks,i used 1.4mm thick Wegen 'Bluegrass'' picks which now seem very dull by comparison. Using those,i did change to other picks quite often, even on a day to day basis, to bring out the full 'sound' of my mandolin. The Primetones do it 'all day everyday' - on my mandolins,
    Ivan
    PS - I have one pick so thin that when i use it,it bends,flips back on itself & i get a second note right after the struck one - weird !
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    Registered User Randy Linam's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    It's the archer.....not the arrow.
    Be vewy, vewy kwiet. I'm hunting fo wabbits!

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    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Quote Originally Posted by eastKYmando View Post
    As we were discussing the topic of pics., I had noticed that Adam was playing with a rather thin pick. I was sitting right in front of him and his power and tone was more than impressive....but his pick was a Dunlop Ultex .90!
    Quote Originally Posted by sblock View Post
    The real "revelation," I'd contend, is that a great mandolin player manages to maintain most of his (or her) characteristic tone with a great many different picks, and on a great many different mandolins. It's been pointed out time and again. As aspiring musicians, we seem to place too much stock in the equipment, which is easier to change, and too little in our technique, which is harder to change.
    I have never understood the need for really thick (much less rounded) picks for mandolin; .90 is plenty thick enough, .73 of ultex is stiff and thin enough, like real tortoiseshell.

    We're dealing with a pair of small strings, using 2-3mm picks seems like using a hammer to insert a pin, in other words, overkill. Add that to the typical use of a round pick and there's a real challenge to get clean articulations and a good tone - which has brilliance, and to my ear better served with thinner, stiff, pointed picks.

    However, I seem to be in the current minority in mandolinworld, most everyone takes it for granted that mandolin players use big thick rounded picks - often very expensive ones, too.

    Anyway, if you like the tone of a thinner pick, use it!

  15. #11
    Registered User Atlanta Mando Mike's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    I just can't seem to get the tone I want out of a thin pick with a point. Steffey has always been such a mystery to me because his tone is so prestine but he uses what he uses. Every time I try thinner and pointier I get so much pick noise and treble.

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  17. #12
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Most of us have a mental sound picture of how we want our mandolins to sound. To that end,we experiment with brands & gauges of string / pick thicknesses,shape & material until we find the combination that comes closest to that sound picture.
    I arrived at my 'perfect' combo.when i began to use DR MD11 strings & 1.5mm thick Dunlop Primetone picks. I've tried several other combos. in the past,but nothing came close to the punch & clarity of the DR / Primetone combo.,& realistically,i can't think that i need any more,
    Ivan
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    It's encouraging to learn that a great player like Adam Steffey shares one characteristic with me - a liking for constantly changing picks. The Cafe obsession with the idea that it's the pick that makes the player is rather boring. If some here are to be believed, if it's not a Gibson and you're not using a 'BC' (nobody in the know refers to it by its full name any more, y'unnerstand), you'll never sound like the masters. Complete nonsense - as ably demonstrated by Mr Steffey (and underlined by Mike Marshall, who in one video clip I saw said he liked a $1 pick, a Pro-Plec, I think.)

  19. #14
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    I've been experimenting with recording myself. I'm finding that what I hear sitting above/behind my mandolin isn't even close to what the recording picks up. My pick noise is awful and very clangy. I'm now on the search for a smoother sound. The white Wegens seem ok for this, but they're not what I'm used to (Dunlop Primetone).
    ...

  20. #15
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Caleb. Have you tried changing the mic location in relationship to your mandolin, no matter what pick you use if the mic is close right in front of your picking hand you will get a lot of pick noise, at least that has been my experience.

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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandoplumb View Post
    Caleb. Have you tried changing the mic location in relationship to your mandolin, no matter what pick you use if the mic is close right in front of your picking hand you will get a lot of pick noise, at least that has been my experience.
    Good call. I'm going to experiment with mic placement, or I should say iPhone placement, since that is my recording device. Not high tech by any stretch but I just use it to capture ideas. Surprisingly good quality though.
    ...

  22. #17
    Registered Muser dang's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Quote Originally Posted by Caleb View Post
    I've been experimenting with recording myself. I'm finding that what I hear sitting above/behind my mandolin isn't even close to what the recording picks up.
    I think it was Spruce who said something like, when a player keeps complaining over and over that they don't sound right despite many attempts at mic placement, try putting a microphone up over their right shoulder (by their ears).

    It is shocking to think we don't sound like we think we sound like! Recording reveals as much as a mirror...
    I should be pickin' rather than postin'

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    Registered User mandobassman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidKOS View Post
    I have never understood the need for really thick (much less rounded) picks for mandolin; .90 is plenty thick enough, .73 of ultex is stiff and thin enough, like real tortoiseshell.
    I guess it all depends what tone you are seeking. For myself, I feel the mandolin is a rather bright sounding instrument by nature of its' small scale and steel strings. I am a bit sensitive to higher frequencies and therefore the brighter tone irritates me a lot. That's why I can't stand the sound of bronze strings and that's the main reason I use a thicker pick. I agree there is a point where it becomes a bit absurd. V-Picks offers a 11mm pick!!! Who uses that? I think it also depends on material. Some material sounds just fine at 1mm or 1.25, while with others 1.5 might sound good. I used a Wegen 1.4mm 346 shape and it sounded too bright and harsh to me so I tried a 1.8mm and eliminated the bevel and the tone it just right.
    Everyone has different tastes and opinions. I really don't like a pick that is too rounded, but also I don't like it too pointed either. I know someone who uses a pick that is a perfect circle. I don't know how anyone gets any tone out of that. I tried playing with it and got nothing but a scraping noise from it. But, like I said every player is different.
    Lots of people like to use thinner picks in the .73 to .90 range as you pointed out. It seems that most Bluegrass or Jazz players like a darker tone that is much more difficult to achieve with thin picks.
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Steffey inspired Revelation

    Quote Originally Posted by sblock View Post
    The real "revelation," I'd contend, is that a great mandolin player manages to maintain most of his (or her) characteristic tone with a great many different picks, and on a great many different mandolins..
    Not being a great mandolin player, I need a certain pick on a certain mandolin to sound a certain way. What l learn watching the greats is that they are great.
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