Thumb picks

J

JimH

New member
I’ve been wanting to get used to using a thumb pick for playing acoustic but I’ve been have a bit of trouble. The only pick I have I bought at Guitar Center. They had only one type which was very thick, although it is marked as medium (National). I guess that’s fine for some things. But I have trouble using it to strum.

I want to do some Don McLean and Paul Simon songs and they both use thumb picks. (And I think McLean might use finger picks also. Not sure.) I noticed that in a song like Homeward Bound, Paul Simon will pick in the beginning and then do some strumming with the pick in the chorus. You can see this on the Central Park concert video. Unfortunately, the thumb pick I have is so thick and inflexible it gets caught on strings when I try to strum and plays way too loud. And since it’s secured on my thumb, I can’t really vary the pick angle to drag it across the strings like with a regular pick.

I’m thinking I need to find a more flexible pick. Is that my problem? Or it correct to use such a hard pick and it’s my technique that is the problem?

I don’t know where to get thinner picks though. A catalog like Musician’s Friend doesn’t seem to have any at all.
 
I make my own and they are similar to the bumble bee picks Fred Kelly sells. It's a Guy Clark creation where you take a Fender medium, and a National or Dobro thumbpick, punch a hole in them just big enough for a fat piece of solder you crimp in with pliers. Works great and I use it for everything since he showed me how to make them around 1970. Nanci Griffith has the Guy Clark pick curse too.
 
The idea behind using a thumb pick is to give you a really solid bass note. When you're playing on your own, the thumb part becomes the drums as well as the bass.
A thin pick isn't going to do that for you.

foo
 
Thanks, everyone, for the responses. By doing a search I also found ProPik. This Thumb-Flat is one possibility.

The Fred Kelly picks look good. But they want to sell you a bag of 24 for $25. Ouch! I don’t need that many, although a dollar-per-pick is a good price. I don’t want to have to spend $25 just to test each one out (and perhaps discover I can’t use it.) It might be better if they offered a sampler pack.

The bumble bee pick may be good also. I can’t tell from the picture how it’s supposed to work though. I suppose you slip your thumb through that band. But it doesn’t look big enough.

Philboyd:
That sounds like a neat idea I might try. I’m not sure I can picture it exactly though. You should make a web page describing it, with pictures of course. :) I would think solder is such a soft metal that it might be unreliable. How about using superglue instead? I may give that a try.

Foo:
Yeah, I was thinking of that. That’s why I mentioned maybe the pick was not to blame but rather my technique. I can see how a hard pick is good if all you’re doing is fingerpicking. But I want to strum also, which I can’t seem to do with a hard thumb pick and which Paul Simon seemed to do easily. I think I would be happy with the sound of a fender medium as a thumb pick. Consider Steve Howe’s style (which I have tried a bit but I’m totally inept at). He uses a regular pick between thumb and index finger. That serves as his “thumb pick”. Then he uses middle and ring fingers the pick the high strings. True, I guess he does use a thick pick, but I don’t think it’s nearly as rigid as a National thumb pick.
 
JimH said:
Philboyd:
That sounds like a neat idea I might try. I’m not sure I can picture it exactly though. You should make a web page describing it, with pictures of course. :) I would think solder is such a soft metal that it might be unreliable. How about using superglue instead? I may give that a try.


Bonding a flatpick to a thumb pick or other devices I've tried all sound like crap to me. The solder will loosen over time and the pick will move around a little but it's no big deal, and if it gets really loose you just crimp it again with pliers. A thumbpick will go through 6 to 10 Fender mediums before it dies of fatigue unless you play hard rhythm and then they go quicker.

Put your email address in my box and I'll send you some pics.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top