Choosing The Right Guitar Pick

Whilst the most common picks you’ll see on the guitar shop counter will be some sort of plastic - with their own depth of choices such as Tortex, Delrin and Ultex - many players buck the trend with metal, wood and even stone. For a truly unique tone with flat wound strings, many players also go all in for picks made from felt!

As a rough guide, picks are generally sorted into 3 thicknesses:

Thin : up to 0.60 mm

Medium: 0.60 mm - 0.80 mm

Heavy: Over 0.80 mm

Leaving the weird and wacky designs to one side and focusing on the traditional tear drop type picks; our options come down to the size of the pick and the roundness or sharpness of the picking tip.

Well, much like your fingers, whatever we use to make any contact with the vibrating length of the string is going to have some impact on the tonal quality.

From a material perspective Nylon picks are generally the warmer sounding of the plastic variety. If you are looking for a little more ‘zing’ then Celluloid could be the way to go. You’ll recognise the latter by their often tortoise shell finishes - these served as a replacement for actual tortoise shell picks which were banned during the 1970’s.

It is no surprise that wooden picks will satisfy your ears if you are looking for the warmest impact on your tone; hence the reason many jazzers swear by them! These are worth experimenting with but, much like the tone woods which make up the sound of your guitar body, there is another tier of choices including Rosewood, Mahogany etc. But hey, why not explore that plectrum rabbit hole?!

Metal & Stone come in at the less common end of things. As you can imagine - metal picks will give a harsher attack. Stone picks are prized for their even tone and attack, plus they won’t wear away quickly like their plastic counterparts. They are a little on the pricey side though so losing one down the back of the couch could be costly!

The thickness and flexibility of your pick will add more bass and mid range as the gauge increases, with the heaviest picks delivering a more thick defined tone.

With your tonal preferences aside, it is widely thought that some picks perform certain tasks better than others:

If you are sitting down by the campfire to delicately strum your way through an acoustic set, then a heavy gauge pick is likely to give your strumming too much authority and volume. This is fine if you are going for some angrier angsty acoustic hits though! As a rule the thinner picks are best for light strumming work. Your medium variety are a good fit for most rhythm and lead electric playing with enough give and mailability to fit both tasks nicely; if you tend not to specialise, this could be the best fit.

The heavy picks are perfect for styles where you need a more direct attack and inflexibility, such as hard rock/metal and shred. They are also perfect for delivering faster licks and lines; gaining favour from shredders worldwide.

On the subject of the latter point, this is where shape becomes a consideration. A sharper point will help you make your way through the more speedy lead work, particularly when alternate picking. But pointy picks are also great for playing styles in which clarity and consistency are key (and thus the Jazz III pick was born!). You will find the direct attack of a sharper pick great for economy of motion when tackling fast & intricate or aggressive metal riffs and fretboard acrobatics. Equally, if you want more dynamic range and a variety of volume in your playing; such as used with low gain blues tones, then a rounder edge is going to help you give your audience ‘the feels’.

For the more active strumming styles, a larger bodied pick works great! So if you want to dabble in a little gypsy jazz or drop some funk loops, then go for something larger.