ACOUSTIC POLL: pick, fingers, nails, fingerpicks.

Tannin · July 2022

Simple poll carrying on from the thread @TheMadMick started.All acoustic players please say what you use. Example answers:

* Pick, brand X, medium
* Fingerstyle, flesh not nails
* Alaska picks
* fingers, mix of fleshy and nails
* flatpick or metal fingerpicks

I'm interested to see how many of us are pick users, how many fingerstylists, and so on.

(You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be taken down in evidence and used against you.)

VimFuego · July 2022

let's see, fingerstyle with nails and flesh. I also occasionally use a thumb pick, depending on what I'm doing.

For strummy strummy stuff I just use a dunlop .75mm (or whatever it is, the dark grey one).

For more flatpicking stuff, I use a brand whose name totally escapes me, supposed to be a poor mans bluechip. It's all white, if that helps.

Cryptid · July 2022

Picks of varying thickness and material
Fingerstyle with a little nail
Fingerstlye with thumb pick

Completely depends on what the music/style demands, and whether I'm amplified or not.

ronnyb · July 2022

Finger style flesh not nails. Can’t use a pick. Strum with side of thumb.

Tannin · July 2022

Fingerstyle, mix of flesh and nail, mostly flesh. Hopeless with a pick. Strum with difficulty.

Dave_Mc · July 2022

I'm not really an acoustic player, more electric, so I mainly use a pick (usually thin celluloid, or medium when I'm doing slightly rockier stuff- I use heavy celluloid for electric). I'm trying to learn fingerstyle too.

jellyroll · July 2022

100% pick and trying to develop a hybrid technique. For a long time I tried to find “the one” ….a single pick that would do for everything. I liked the simplicity of the idea. But I’ve since moved over to having a few preferred which I dip in and out of.

I also think I’ve tried every pick ever made including the Booteek makers…..Blue Chip, Charmed Life, Wegen, wooden picks, bone picks, celluloid picks, metal picks, you name it…..

My current go to selection is the Dunlop Flex Triangle 1.14, and the D’Andea Celluloid Heavy (& sometimes Medium Heavy).

Roland · July 2022

All of the above at various times. Generally I prefer flesh and nail.

bertie · July 2022

99.99% fingers with nails for everything (picking strumming what ever) , but only about 5mm, 8mm ish max.

If I lose the thumbnail, I use a thumbpick, (worn high on the thumb nearly on the knuckle)

If I lose a finger nail, I tend not to play (acoustic) at all until it has grown a couple of mm

I cannot and do not like, playing with "fleshy bits"

Lewy · July 2022

VimFuego said:

For more flatpicking stuff, I use a brand whose name totally escapes me, supposed to be a poor mans bluechip. It's all white, if that helps.

Wegen?

tomjax · July 2022

Fingerpicking with flesh.
Strum using thumb and first finger.

VimFuego · July 2022

Lewy said:

VimFuego said:

For more flatpicking stuff, I use a brand whose name totally escapes me, supposed to be a poor mans bluechip. It's all white, if that helps.

Wegen?

bingo, that's it.

drofluf · July 2022

bertie said:

99.99% fingers with nails for everything (picking strumming what ever) , but only about 5mm, 8mm ish max.

If I lose the thumbnail, I use a thumbpick, (worn high on the thumb about 1/2 way to the knuckle)

If I lose a finger nail, I tend not to play (acoustic) at all until it has grown a couple of mm

I cannot and do not like, playing with "fleshy bits"

Just remember that @bertie's definition of fleshy bits may be different

bertie · July 2022

drofluf said:
Just remember that @bertie's definition of fleshy bits may be different

only when I hit a bum note

Gandalph · July 2022

Good thread @Tannin ;

Pretty much only fingerpicking, using a Dunlop tortoiseshell thumb pick size large and bare fingers. Sometimes use a black mountain and slickpick white.

If I do need to strum, 'Moving To Kansas City', 'Sally, Where'd You Get Liquor From', etc, I'll use the thumb pick on the down strokes and fingers on the up.

GoFish · July 2022

bertie said:

drofluf said:
Just remember that @bertie's definition of fleshy bits may be different

only when I hit a bum note

Bollocks!

GoFish · July 2022

All flesh and nail for me. Used to be all plectrum many years ago. Learned to fingerpick and I can't go back. Why would I, it's awesome

Tannin · July 2022

Gandalph said:

If I do need to strum ... I'll use the thumb pick on the down strokes and fingers on the up.

Now that is interesting! I don't want to derail the thread, but I can't let that pass. I'd really like to watch you playing something @Gandalph ; because it's practically the opposite of what I do! When I have to strum I use my fingers on the downstrokes (any single finger, or all three, or more often both ring and middle as the mood takes me) on the down, using nails, and I struggle with the upstrokes. Thumb doesn't have enough oomph (I don't have a thumbpick, just a big callus) and upstrokes with the fingers seem to lack attack. I've tried growing my thumbnail but never really got the hang of that. Sometimes I do a bit of the old double-flick picking (like a mandolin player) with the tip of my index finger, but only when I'm in my best form and getting a bit carried away 'coz it's hard to do without a plectrum.

I do keep my nails at a particular length, just barely extending beyond the fingertip so that (when picking single notes) I can use all-flesh, or rotate my wrist a bit for some nail, or - a party-trick effect that I over-use shamelessly - flesh and nail with the tip of the finger and the nail, being a few mm apart, sounding separately but very close together. It sounds a bit like using a shark-tooth pick, sort of the acoustic equivalent of stepping on the overdrive pedal. Purists would be horrified. Classical players would probably shoot me. (It's the sort of silly thing that flamenco players do all the time and make work. Who knows? Maybe it's an actual proper technique with a fancy Spanish name!)

VimFuego · July 2022

I'm the same re fingernail length, never more than 1mm, just a hint of white showing really. I see a lot of classical guitarists and they have talon like fingernails. Even without the practicalities of everyday life with nails like that, I can't play guitar with nails that length.

Kilgore · July 2022

Fingerstyle. Mostly flesh.

Strumming varies depending on what I'm playing. Either thumb or back of the hand for downstrokes and a brush up with fingers for the up stroke.

None of the above is set in stone and can vary depending on the song and can in fact be a a combination of the above in the same song.

BahHumbug · July 2022

Fingerstyle with nails. Sometimes a small Fred Kelly thumbpick, depending on the piece. Having got used to nails some years ago, I find the tone I get from skin is just too dull. I’m not very careful about nail maintenance, so they are usually a bit too long.

Picking and strumming with a Herco flex 75.

I sometimes strum with the back of my finger nails (down) and back of my thumbnail (up).

ronnyb · July 2022

I find it difficult to alternate between picking and strumming in the same song. As an example the Paul Simon song 'Homeward bound' is mainly fingerpicked apart from the chorus where he sings "home where my thoughts escaping etc" with 3 chord changes. I play this by pinching 2 strings at a time on the d g and b strings.

CHRISB50 · July 2022

Fingerstyle, nail and flesh.

I taper my nails from shorter on the bass side, to longer on the treble side. It looks pretty horrendous but produces the best sound for me. You can angle your fingers to get more or less nail, which in turn gives more room to vary the tone you produce.

I saw a video ages ago where Michael Watts (who posts here from time to time) explained it. It's not on his channel anymore but this one is quite similar.

I found polishing them as he suggests also made a huge difference.

artiebear · July 2022

Dunlop medium thumbpick and acrylic nails. ( I only use a conventional pick on acoustic for the odd recorded track these days, never because I really want to )

TheBigDipper · July 2022

Finger style when the music requires it. Nails if I have them, flesh if I don't. Classical right hand, so muting the bridge requires a change to "side on, thumbpick-style" angles.

Strumming with a thin flatpick.

Hybrid picking with a thick flatpick and ima fingers.

Never use a thumbpick.

Stuckfast · July 2022

Fingerstyle with a thumbpick (Fred Kelly Bumblebee are my favourites).

Mellish · July 2022

Picks, either Dunlop Tortex, Ultex or Wegen.

Mostly I favour light or medium gauge

bertie · July 2022

oh right, yeah forgot - thumbpick

Dunlop or EB "tortoiseshell" - I file the "blade" down to a symmetrical point - just find it better, not explanation just do
If I find em a bit tight, I drop em in hot water for a few seconds, get em a bit malleable and "fit"

stufisher · July 2022

About a 50/50 split between flat picking and fingerpicking.

Preferred pick is a Jim Dunlop (0.88mm, grey dimpled one) but recently been using a range of smooth, smaller, thinner ones acquired as freebies.

Fingerpicking typically with flesh of thumb and nails of fingers or with a pick and fingernails, depending on style of music.

Mellish · July 2022

@bertie ; - try the Fred Kelly Speedpick. They don't break and a nice fit on the thumb

bertie · July 2022

Mellish said:

@bertie ; - try the Fred Kelly Speedpick. They don't break and a nice fit on the thumb

now that's a weird looking thing.................

I'll order one up

I was "worried" you were recommending those "pick/thumbpick" hybrid things - bloody awful

EDIT

HOW MUCH ??

ah there's 8 in a pack........................ somebody must to smaller packs

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ACOUSTIC POLL: pick, fingers, nails, fingerpicks.

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