exotic picks

Flatpicks: collection so far

‡ bone, ebony, ivory, horn (and a few wooden ones which don't sound so good. The bone picks, as i recall, sound nice on fretted bass/roundwounds, but I only have a fretless and they don't sound so good there.

‡ V-picks. These i like

‡ Wegens: also like

‡ casein from Papas and John Pearse: These are... interesting, very teflony. Intended use is mandolin or 12-string, they have a feel like Dawg mando picks. Like bone picks, interesting harmonic artifacts, nice rolled off neck p/u jazz tone, but 1/2 the volume of Wegens (the decibel king) and therefore not very gratifying

‡ Red Bear and Blue Chip: haven't whipped out the credit card yet.

‡ metal picks: also not purchased yet

‡ Dava, ditto

‡ not exotic: Dunlop jazz 3 red (softer than black), Tortex, ultex, jazztone. Clayton acetal for bass, not guitar

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tl;dr If i had to pick one, it would be the Wegen, Tortex and Dunlop jazztone!

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Fingerpicks, i can only classify 1 exotic, which I haven't tried http://www.saddlethumbpicks.com/home.html

Fretless Squier Strat

The Strat finally has a nut and strings and pretty much sounds like poop on the 3 treble, wound strings. Fortunately. I got wound G and B, making 4 solidly usable strings, 1 marginal and 1 sounds like broken toy piano or sitar. I never noticed that in the best fretless video, Guthrie Govan pretty much sticks to 4 bass strings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PyOZhgQnvU

You can see the wound G more clearly in this review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yshLWYjMijo#!

Jazz bass P/U cover, redux OR: Flat picking made easy

(More prior art for y'all)

You can pick single note lines more relaxed and a *lot* faster. I velcro'd the handle and a few picks on, so it goes away when not needed.

Admittedly, not one of the more scenic guitars of our time.

How is this different from an old Strat bridge cover or a Rickenbacker pickup cover? It's not, except it's put there explicitly to anchor your hand while picking.

Got idea @8:20 of this Rig Rundown

Silver cloud in my music career

In last 3 years, it's become obvious i don't have a lot of aptitude for playing all these i bought or obtained somehow:

♠ fretted and unfretted guitar,
♣ fretless bass guitar,
♥ clarinet,
♦ cello.

I *can* play piano and flute without inflicting pain (I might remember how to play marinba/xylophone if i bought one, also)

But: I must be one of the best pianists in Seattle area with long fingernails, I'll be announcing the First Seattle International Fingernail Piano Competition.  It'll be like racewalking, if judges don't hear constant clicking, you're DQ'd and immediately pulled from performing. Immediately, like instantaneously.

Pinch harmonics

1. upstroke with thumbnail.  Doesn't sound quite right, pretty scooped out mids

2. pick held in thumb and mid finger, damp with index finger (watch @1:10

http://www.ernieball.com/eb-tv/artists/steve-morse/steve-morse-play-tests-the-new-ernie-ball-cobalt-electric-guitar-strings

3. tip of pick held even with thumb and index tips.  When upstroking, turn pick down from perpendicular to guitar top.

blog posts in the pipeline

Hmm, I only have a couple more blogworthy topics as far as picks go:

- shaping the ultimate pick: Vrai t-shell point, tactilized Tortex grip  Unfort'ly, the shell hasn't got here yet.  Prolly Jan 2013

- shaping nails for fingerpicking (in a way where you can still play piano, cello, clarinet and flute.

Stay tuned.

custom shaped thumbpicks

The tricky things are sealing air bubbles after you cut to approximate shape (cigarette lighter or gas stove to seal air bubbles), and beveling the inside edge.