Re: Why do you like the picks you like?
Comfort, volume, and tone are the big criteria for me. Long life is another aspect of tone - I don’t want to suffer from a raspy tone as picks get worn out. I also don’t want to have to worry about continually polishing picks.
I’ve bought a lot of different kinds of mandolin picks just to see what they do for any particular instrument. I moved to thick picks pretty quickly in my mandolin life because the thin picks sounded too shrill on already bright instruments. I like a bit of a point, though, because the more rounded Dawg style pick sound TOO muted to me. I moved to large triangle because my skin on other fingers was brushing across the mandolin strings too much and that hurt, lol.
I’m currently using Blue Chip CT55 (expensive but long life and seem to stay smooth) and Dunlop Primetone large triangle 1.5mm (wear out faster than Blue Chip, but mucho cheaper and to me the tone and performance is close enough. I just bought a bag of 12 for $26, and that will last me for a while!).
The nice thing is that compared to the price of the instruments, picks are cheap and it’s easy to build up a good variety to test for yourself.
Doug Brock
2018 Kimble 2 point (#259), Eastman MD315, Eastman MDA315, some guitars, banjos, and fiddles
Bookmarks