How To Choose A Guitar Pick – Plectrums Explained!
Choosing a guitar pick can be a little confusing, especially if you’re just starting out playing the guitar. In this beginner’s guide, Sam explains the differences between the most common types of guitar picks, so hopefully we can help find the right one for you!
Check out our full selection of plectrums and other accessories at your nearest Professional Music Technology store, ore at PMT Online: https://bit.ly/3CgTfRT
00:00 What is a guitar pick/plectrum?
01:18 What materials can picks be made from?
02:05 Tone demo – Felt vs plastic vs metal pick
02:43 Pick coatings & grips
03:25 Thumb & fingerpicks explained
04:20 Different plectrum sizes & shapes
05:26 What is a Shark Fin pick?
07:03 Guitar pick thicknesses & gauges
07:45 Tone demo – Thin vs thick pick
08:38 What plectrums do Sam, Dagan & Meg use?
09:31 How to hold a guitar pick
10:42 Where to try & buy guitar picks/plectrums
For the demos in this video, Sam is playing a Taylor GS-Mini E Koa acoustic, recorded using a Lewitt LCT-440 Pure Condenser Microphone…
Taylor GS-Mini E Koa: https://bit.ly/3irq9Hu
Lewitt LCT-440 Pure: https://bit.ly/2WSTrGy
Sam’s voice was recorded with a Rode Wav Go Clip-On Lavalier Microphone: https://bit.ly/3js5Fhc
There are literally thousands of different types of guitar pick out there to choose from, and plectrums come in all different shapes and sizes, so if you are a beginner, picking the right one for you can be a little tricky. With that in mind, we’ve made this plectrum buying guide to explain the differences between them all, offering advice on which would be most suitable for your particular playing style or the type of music you want to play.
We look at the materials that a pick can be made from and how this affects the tone, we compare their shapes and thicknesses and finally give you a few tips on how to hold a plectrum.
Hopefully you’ll find this guide helpful, you can try out any of the guitar picks you’ve seen here at your nearest Professional Music Technology store.
#guitarpicks #beginnersguide #howtochooseaplectrum
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Tortex 1.14 jazz III pitch black baby!
Jazz 3 gang
Tortex Jazz IIIs in 1.14 mm work for me the best. I don’t have the biggest hands so they fit me great.
I could never get they hang of picks. When I found some guitar hero’s where the same I felt better about it. You don’t need one.
Shark-pick is the biggest piece of Sht ever invented. completely worthless, unless you are an absolute beginner and just trying things out.
I like these 0.73mm others are too hard. Playing it with coin would wear down your strings, so don’t do that to your car if you are parked at the tunnel. Find me media, and have a dance in the square. There is some specific sound you can get with these to fool around, because that movie was your inspiration if you guitar was dusting in the corner for some time. I don[‘t want it falling from the hands or being too hard on a strings so it’s too loud, so 0.73 it is.
For different guitars, strings, and styles it is good to have at least a couple different gauges of your favorite pick brand/type. After many years of playing I’ve settled on Tortex yellow .73mm for acoustic and Tortex green .88mm for electric. Everyone is a little different, but these allow a lot of versatility for both strumming and leads without locking into anything that leans too far in one direction. It’s extremely important to learn to make adjustments to your grip as you transition between strumming and precision picking.
i started using tortex bcs it feels very good, the only problem is i feel it kinda slipping off my fingers? what do you recommend? do i just go back to the ones i used before?
Great video. I’m almost astonished that someone managed to make a video about guitar picks without arrogantly and yet idiotically claiming which one was "best".
Now that plectrums are 400% more than decades past, I ask again the age-old question: WHERE DO THEY ALL DISAPPEAR TO??? Only a fraction wind up in clothes-dryers!
I’ve been a die-hard Tortex Triangular user for years now… because I palm them so often, changing from pick to fingertips, often in a single phrase, altering timbre and volume dynamics
Very glad to have found this
Awhile ago I was gifted a guitar and it has always been a goal of mine to learn it.
Learned yesterday you needed a guitar pick to properly play, but living rural gives very few options.
So today I found an old bolt washer about 2" in diameter and grinded it down to the general shape I need Drilled a small hole at the top for keychain purposes, sandblasted and sanded it to smooth it out, and scored the top area for extra grip. Its fairly thick, but I think it will do the trick to get started.
I agree with this whole video. I like, NO, LOVE, the tortex .50mm
Jazz picks are the best
Great Video!! Thank you!
Thanks mate!
I dunno how guys play with picks that are thick as a toe nail lol 😂. Plus it makes guitar sound muddy and less volume.
Cheers. Very helpful.
Finally
Thought u was giving me the finger for a second on one of them bar chords😂😬 i thought we supposed to keep fingers curld on chords. But i’m litterly a noob! Like, youtube, couple weeks newb😬cool vid, thanks for the info👌
Ty!
I started learning guitar almost a year a go. I got a telecaster, and I’ve only recently noticed that I got 2mm picks. I went down to a .58 and wow, what a completely different world. I’ve recently started learning some creed songs, and I couldn’t figure out how to get that g string to ring more clearly than the other strings, but after switching to that lighter Guage, it all clicked
Sir what size of pick will be preferable for strumming ?
I’m new to guitar.. I bought lots of picks. Currently digging a .96 Fender pick..
Only bad thing about this video is you did not demo a bone or stone pick.
Excellent video, straight to the point, and very informative. Thank you.
I use the red for acoustic and electric when I need a full sound and not a metallic one
Is that a Taylor GS mini?
can you post a link to the fender felt pick you use?
My problem with plastic picks is that after some time they bend and I can’t use them 😅.
Thank you!
Those Shark fin picks look interesting.
I tend to switch between 2 picks depending on what I am playing. I use a Dunlop .60 Tortex for strumming and a Dunlop 1.5 Primetone for lead lines.
👍🏿🤘
So basically from what I gathered from this, I’d want to use a felt pick for my bass since in all honesty, fingerstyle scares me, and I’d want to use a jazz pick for guitar.
What about the taste? Never discussed!
*Unless you are James Hetfield. Then you hold the pick between your thumb and index + middle fingers.
What are you playing at 6:10? It is so beautiful. Is it part of a song or just a freestyle that came out of your brain??
I started playing over 35 years ago, and I tried a LOT of different picks. My biggest issue was keeping a grip on them, not only avoiding dropping them but also keeping them from sliding around in my fingers to a position where I couldn’t play effectively. A couple years ago I started playing mandolin as well, and discovered that I really like the larger pointed mandolin picks, like the ones available from Golden Gate. A lot more surface to grip onto. Now I use them for everything.
Jazz 3 best for me
such a generous video! thank you!
Excellent Video!
8:10 was so fun
Where can I purchase the shark fin picks?
Gibson Heavy ✅
why he wear the finger picks like that tho xdd
Was that chord progression from The Tourist by Radiohead?
I only know one tune on a guitar and I carry two guitar picks in my wallet. They came in handy a few times for other people. A Duniop .88mm and a Fender.
Really enjoying this vid! Great presenter and so talented!
idk, I started out recently with electric guitars and tested many gauges and my fav so far is the 2.0!
Big fan of that Pompey guitar, up the blues