Okay, so it's been a long while since I've updated. Basically, I've done a lot of guitar stuff, then not much guitar stuff, and then more guitar stuff. So...here we go.
First, the end of Spring Break. On the very last day (a Saturday, for me), I went to South by Southwest, but more specifically the Guitar Trade Show and to see Neon Trees (twice). At said Guitar Trade Show, I salivated so much I was dehydrated for three days. There were plenty of electrics, acoustics, eletric and acoustic pickups, amps, picks, ukeleles, banjos, ukelele banjos (it's a thing), and guitar pedals of all sorts. I took too many pictures to post (but admittedly at some point I should really get around to posting some), nearly bought stuff I could not afford (mad props to my friend for pulling me away from that electric), and even entered into a few guitar winning contests, so fingers crossed on that. I'm pretty sure they would have already found the winners and contacted them by now, but still a guy can dream.
I also saw Neon Trees twice and got some autographs, but that's just too legit for this blog. My computer would implode at the effort of describing that. And that's my excuse for not typing out what would admittedly be the longest blog post ever written.
...*ahem*. So the picks! Today, I decided that I was going to experiment with a few different types of picks. I was curious to see which ones sounded best, which ones I could use best, and what sounded best in what styles.
I usually just use a medium pick, but I decided to branch out and try something different. I haven't tried anything out on my electric yet, but for my acoustic, here are my preferences.
.50mm pick = decent tone but too much give for how much I "muscle" the pick into the sound I want, and comparitively very little resonance to the others.
1mm pick "cool" = almost consistently one of my two favorites in terms of tone. Shaped just right for my massive hands to hold as well.
1mm pick Fender = same as the 1mm pick "cool" in terms of thickness, but seemed to provide a variance in resonance while similarity in tone. Playing solo, I would prefer this pick, but playing rhythm for someone else to play over, I would most definitely prefer the 1mm "cool"
Then I had a few different Dava picks of various sizes = Consistently, strumming was awkward because the picks were too small for my hands to grip properly (piano hands), there was not enough plastic and too much rubber showing wich gave me an inconsistent sound with how much pick I like to use, and all gauges seemed to have too much give to even dream of picking with.
Then I got the Pick of Destiny = this has no musical value whatsoever, but it looks freaking legit!
And finally the Agate stone pick = this pick was $12 so I was going to be ticked off if it didn't sound good. Thank God it sounded good. I would never dream of strumming with this pick on a guitar without a pick guard. Honestly, I don't like the sound of it whilst strumming at all, but the tone I get out of it when I pick is amazingly warm compared to the sound I get out of a normal plastic 1mm. Not only does this warm up my tone, my upper register (past the 10th fret, especially) actually sounds worth listening too! It's priced really high but the warm tone and the resonance is greatly improved making this pick well worth the money.
That's my nerdy self, in a nutshell. Thanks!
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