Squonk
It's always interesting to see what other guitarists use to pluck guitar strings.
What do you use?
For years I have been using my fingers when playing my Yamaha Nylon, I have tried so many times to grow my fingernails, but I just bite them off again. I have adapted my playing to using the fleshy parts of my fingers.
The acoustic is a different kettle of fish and mainly use a plectrum but will fingerpick with my fingers.
After watching Mark Knopfler use his fingers on his electric, I had a go and have noticed that I can get some unique sounds when using fingers over the plectrum. I noticed that Mark Knopfler would play certain lead patterns by using his thumb and first finger, almost plucking it.
I have tried and I get quite a good sound. I am a complete newbie when it come to an electric guitar, so please excuse me.
I have also found that being a Nylon player for so many years, it was quite difficult to adapt to a steel string. BUT I am finding the electric guitar quite easy to adapt to! I suppose it doesn't really make sense.
Spyke
CTBB inspired topic perchance? ?
I generally stick to my white sharkfins but will finger pick some of the more subtle pieces. The odd song here and there sees me using a hybrid picking technique.
I'm wanting to experiment now with different shapes and sizes plectrum as well as thumb picks etc...
FatBoy
I can't manage to get comfortable with a plectrum. I use my thumb, the side fleshy part to pick with (has hardened up quite a bit) and the back of the nail to strum with. I reckon I get a lot more "feel" like this, but mainly it's just because I hate plectrums.
Lethe
Mainly fingers on my nylon. Preferably with nails, but i cut them constantly cause it gets annoying. So either way, its finger...
Electric its mainly Pick with Hybrid picking.
I enjoy playing with fingers a lot more, cause I feel there is are more dynamics and feel that way. I just can't run very fast with my finger and maybe I'm not as precise with my fingers as with a pick. So for all rock and metal i'll stick to a pick, while classical and flamenco its mainly fingers...
Riaan
Teeth mostly, sometimes a bit of tongue.... ?...just kidding!
On electric, almost always a plectrum but I've also been experimenting with hybrid picking on electric lately - something which I find quite hard to do. Pure fingerpicking came relatively easy for me, but for some reason when I'm holding a pick, the rest of my fingers just lose coordination.
On acoustic, about half-half plectrum and fingerpicking.
I'm forever growing my nails and really like playing with long nails, but unfortunately I have a few incompatible hobbies...long nails and carpentry/welding etc. doesn't go well together and my nails unfortunately don't last very long. All in all a bit of a problem as my day job requires neat short nails and very clean hands...
On nylonstring, which I don't play too often, nails if I have them, otherwise fingers.
I've also tried fingerpicking with a thumbpick, like Tommy Emmanual and Chet Atkins, but I find the hand position very difficult as I'm more used to an almost classical guitar hand position when fingerpicking.
Lethe
lol, you could be using a vibrator like the mighty Mattias Eklundh. Now that's a monster guitarist right there!!!
Bob-Dubery
I play mostly fingerstyle at present. No thumb pick. I shape the nails on my right hand. But the "point" is not in the center, but slightly to the side.
I've been neglecting the plectrum! I don't have any religious aversion to it. My trouble is holding onto the things - though I suspect that's really about my right hand tensing up. When I use them they are on the heavy side. Teardrop (Fender) shape, and in the 1mm ball park. I prefer the more modern, easier to grip type materials than the classic celluloid.
When I play with a plectrum I am working on a hybrid technique - plectrum plus middle and ring fingers. Two players I admire a lot, Thompson and Donohue, play this way. In itself it's not that unusual, but these two guys really have it maxed out. If you've seen Thompson play you'll notice how his right hand is working in this way nearly all the time - even when he's taking a solo with the band. He'll set up a drone with the pick and play the solo with the fingers. Even when he plays acoustic he plays in this mode, only switching to thumb pick and freeing up an extra finger for one or two specific songs (notably his crowd pleaser "1952 Vincent Black Lightning").
No way offers it all. With the hybrid technique you get meatier bass notes from the plectrum than from the thumb, and you can do the fast upstroke that you can't do with the thumb, but you lose one finger. It's great for songs where you might want to pick some, strum some. I play Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage" in this way, picking the verse, strumming the chorus.
I think the hybrid technique I've described is the most versatile, but no one method covers all possible bases.
Especially at my skill level.
The last few months I've managed to not break any nails, darlings, so I have been able to shape them, but it's an ongoing process: They get too long so you file them back and then they're a little too short or you mess up the shape. You have to be careful and diligent.
Martin Carthy says he does as much as possible left-handed so as to protect the right-hand nails.
Richard Thompson says he likes doing things like gardening, hiking, playing cricket, carpentry and so he keeps his nails very short instead of worrying about breaking them and plays with the flesh of his fingertips.
I don't think you can use the text book right hand position for pick and fingers. There seems to be no single, right way of doing it. To me it seems that you'd want your thumb not parallel with the strings, more at an angle across them and meeting the index finger at the tip. But then your grip is not so tight. However Russ Barenberg plays this with his thumb pretty much running along the strings and the index finger bent under the pick - I can't figure out how he can have that grip on the pick AND play with fingers, but clearly it can be done.
Werner-Carstens
Since I chew my nails I have no option but to play with the fleshy part of my fingers. I actually grew my nails once to see how it will sound but I could not get used to it. I prefer hybrid picking on the electric, but have no problem with throwing the pick away - electric and acoustic.
I prefer the Dunlop Jazz 2 and 3 picks. They are nice for quick runs up and down the fretboard but for rhythm it takes some time getting use to.
Keira-WitherKay
yep for me too fingers with fleshy part..... i only play nylon .... flamenco/latin and jazz and also dont know how people play with nails...heheh and all that upkeep...
anyway it works for my style.... and i get a great tone and variation.
peace and light
Keira Witherkay
AlanRatcliffe
I use nails on all but my thumb. I anchor with my pinkie - mostly under the bridge pickup or on the bridge, but a lot of times I'll anchor with my thumb on the side of the neck while I strum with the fingers, playing right up on the neck. Occasionally I'll fake a plectrum by holding thumb and forefinger as if I had one, but use my forefinger's nail. I use harp harmonics a lot, grabbing the string between index finger's nail and my thumb - an incredibly accurate way of hitting harmonics which lets you get everything right up to about an inch away from the bridge.
Nails are an absolute cow to keep intact. I have strong nails, so it's fine if I don't play too much, but if I'm playing a lot I'll keep a layer of superglue (the real stuff, not the supermarket kind) on the surface of my index nail, and if I'm gigging, I'll have silk overlays fitted. Nail length and shape is critical. I often wear mine much too long, which is great for accurate fingerpicking, but gets in the way of left hand tapping, is more likely to break and doesn't let you alternate between nail and flesh the way a nail that just reaches the tip of your finger does. My nails get in the way when I play bass.
I'm also not really comfortable on a steel string acoustic, but prefer nylon and electric guitars. It does make sense - they are both relatively low tension when compared to a steel string.
Knopfler is interesting - he usually plays with thumb and first two fingers, in a kind of banjo clawhammer style. He also seems to use just a short nail (I think - sounds like it).
Riaan-Combrink
It's an interesting topic, because people tend to get set in their ways IMHO. I agree with most of the posts that what you use tends to be a function of both the style(s) you play and what you need to use your hands for when you're not playing.
I started off in the 80s with the red swedish sharkfins and have become compulsively fixated on it to the point that I can hardly use anything else! I moved to electric late on, and found that the red sharkfin clearly was too thin for playing anything but rythm, and even then gave a very soft attack. But still I persisted. I then got some white sharkfins, which I use on songs where I have to play a lead or riff or power chords. As soon as that song's done, back to the red one! I was amazed to hear how much bolder and better my rythm guitar playing sounds if I use the harder white one, but just don't feel confident doing it.
So force of habit is dangerous. In the last two months no one (Bothners, Marshall, smaller shops) have had any genuine swedish sharkfins. Local supplier out of stock, I'm told. I ran out of reds and have been living in a nightmare - my equilibrium is shot!!! I need a red sharkfin ... :-[
Riaan
Somewhat related to this topic: I don't know if it was due to beverages I may have consumed while watching some gigs, but I've seen some players play with a plectrum, and the next thing they're fingerpicking (not hybrid, full fingerpicking) apparently without putting the plectrum down somewhere. Then all of a sudden they're playing with the plectrum again, without visibly picking it up or taking it out from somewhere...it somehow just seems to appear inbetween their fingers when needed ???
Now was I imagining things or is there some kind of trick to hide the plectrum while fingerpicking? Or are these just very good hybrid pickers?
I usually hold the plectrum in my mouth while fingerpicking... :-[
AlanRatcliffe
Everyone has their own technique. Mostly they will simply drop the plectrum when changing to fingerpicking (or tapping) then grab another that's: stuck to the guitar, mic stand, under the pickguard, in the neck pocket ('70s Strats ?), or anywhere accessible. In fact Dunlop do a spring loaded plectrum dispenser jobbie that sticks on to the guitar (but may cause a light spot in the finish if you ever remove it).
Throwing them into the audience instead of just dropping them is popular rock star behaviour too, but has the disadvantage that you can't pick 'em up again at the end of the song or set. ?
Me? I grow my own, so keep them on hand at all times. ?
Bob-Dubery
Riaan wrote
Somewhat related to this topic: I don't know if it was due to beverages I may have consumed while watching some gigs, but I've seen some players play with a plectrum, and the next thing they're fingerpicking (not hybrid, full fingerpicking) apparently without putting the plectrum down somewhere. Then all of a sudden they're playing with the plectrum again, without visibly picking it up or taking it out from somewhere...it somehow just seems to appear inbetween their fingers when needed ???
Now was I imagining things or is there some kind of trick to hide the plectrum while fingerpicking? Or are these just very good hybrid pickers?
I think there are ways to "palm" a pick, though you'd have to use one finger to hold it in place whilst playing. I can get it palmed without too much trouble. "Unpalming" it is less smooth, but I think that if I worked on it I could make it work. But since you have to "lose" a finger, you might as well learn to play with pick and two fingers anyway.
Riaan-Combrink
Riaan C wrote
In the last two months no one (Bothners, Marshall, smaller shops) have had any genuine swedish sharkfins. Local supplier out of stock, I'm told. I ran out of reds and have been living in a nightmare - my equilibrium is shot!!! I need a red sharkfin
Glad to report I found another plectrum I love! Someone at Marshalls suggested I try a
Brain pick (0.60mm), and I love it ?
It has what they call the "
Cat Tongue Matrix", which is "
similar in feel to the abrasive surface of a cat's tongue". Doesn't get any cooler than that! ?
Check it out:
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Snarling-Dogs-Tin-Box-Brain-Picks?sku=110010
http://www.gtrheaven.com/accessories/parts2.asp?m=brainpik&t=Brain+Picks+%3Cbr%3E+with+the+Cat+Tongue+Matrix
Gearhead
Cat tongue? Does it also help to play licks? ?
Riaan-Combrink
Gearhead wrote
Cat tongue? Does it also help to play licks? ?
Lol ?
doc-phil
Spyke wrote
CTBB inspired topic perchance? ?
I generally stick to my white sharkfins
Me too, except i use the thicker blue ones. Sharkfins are the only picks i feel comfortable with, the more regular 'diamond' shaped ones just dont do it for me.
Dirk
It depends.. On acoustics, always fingers. That crappy red sharkfin just doesnt do it for me. On my electric, i like the Big stubby. Thick and smooth over my strings.. Love it ?
