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Guitar Picks – Which Material and Thickness to Choose?

Generally, guitar picks are isosceles triangle-shaped ones made up of different materials to play guitars. Guitar picks are made up of various materials including, plastic, nylon, rubber, tortoiseshell, bone, wood, felt, stone, polycarbonate, Lexan and metal. Although different manufacturers use different shapes, the most common shape is isosceles triangle with highly rounded two equal corners and less rounded third corner. You can also go for customized guitar picks of your taste.

Customized Guitar Picks

Most of the guitar picks have a sort of imprint. This may range from imprinting manufacturers’ logos to fully customized guitar picks for artists. In addition, guitar picks come with signatures and logos of popular bands and musicians. For example, Rick Nielson mass-distributed customized guitar picks of “Cheap Trick,†a renowned rock band. Customized guitar picks evolved over time, as the printing technology evolved. Even many guitar enthusiasts started collecting various types of custom guitar picks, as guitar picks have become more colorful with attractive designs and look. You can get custom picks from music concerts, since at times many guitarists throw their used guitar picks on the crowd. You may even notice some celebrity guitarists selling their guitar picks.

Guitar Picks Made of Bone

Bone guitar picks in general and many in particular favor dinosaur bone guitar picks. These guitar picks made of bone come in natural colors and some of them are even transparent. Dinosaur bone guitar picks are hand-made and fully fossilized or agatized. Bone guitar picks are ideal for rock guitarists. However, these picks are relatively costlier than picks made up of other materials.

Types of Picks and Music Styles

Guitarists use different types of picks of different thickness to generate their desired sound. The thickness of the guitar also depends on the kind of strings and playing styles. Electric guitar players who play rock and metal music prefer thicker picks to produce more controllable, delicate and great music. Guitar players who play farthest genres, such as, black metal, death metal or punk rock prefer soft guitar picks. Many Jazz guitar players prefer to use very thick guitar picks, since they like heavy gauge strings. However, there is no written rule on selecting a particular pick. It is purely based on personal choice. Steel guitar picks are believed to be producing much brighter sounds than that of plastic picks. However, steel picks may damage the finish of the acoustic guitars.

Finding the Thickness of the Guitar Picks

Several of the manufacturers, including, Alicem Jim, Dunlop and Teckpick, imprint the thickness of their picks thousands or in mm on the pick itself. Popular guitar manufacturers like Fender, Gibson, Ibanez and Peavey sometimes used cryptic way of denoting the thickness of the picks.

Therefore, if you have the passion for guitar picks and want a celebrity signature, it is better to opt for customized guitar picks. You can claim you are a collector too.

About the Author

For more information and reviews on Acoustic, Electric and Bass Guitars, Amplifiers, Guitar Strings, Cases, Effect Pedals and other equipment visit GuitarHeadz.com, the complete guide for anything you want to know about guitars and related gear.

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