That is very helpful, thank you! I do indeed use the "pencil grip" on my pick when playing guitar, but did not even realize it (or at least hadn't given it any thought). From the little footage I've found that actually has a good shot of the picking hand, It seems like guitarists are all over the place. Molly Tuttle seems to very definitively use the "loose clamp" type grip, Sean Watkins looks like he uses two fingers but in a "pointier" kind of grip. There are some instructional tapes of Doc, Tony Rice, and Norman Blake out there that probably have some good picking hand shots to look at, I'll have to look into those more.
In any case, I tried to change my grip for guitar last night and it was maddening. Not to say I couldn't eventually, but I'd need to set aside some time off from gigging, etc to really rebuild from the ground up. Mandolin on the other hand, I might be catching myself early enough to just ingrain it now. I'll give it a try.
I actually notice quite a bit of difference between picks when I'm playing guitar, and I've heard other guitarists refer to pick selection as an acoustic guitar's "tone knob." When I did my big taste-test with about half a dozen BlueChip picks, there was noticeable impact to the attack and to my tone as I moved up in pick thickness. I ultimately settled on one pick for 90% of my playing because it started to feel like the equivalent of an overcrowded pedal board for an electric guitarist - too much brainpower tied up in worrying about the pick when I should just "shut up and play."
That being said, my mandolin playing is still at the stage where I am happy to produce anything that sounds like a mandolin at all. You've definitely given me something good to think about/chew on as I progress. If I hear/feel that much difference with guitar picks, I suspect I will eventually notice even more of a difference with mandolin.
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