Broken Picks

[Tymus]

Does anyone else have this problem?




Just broke my last one this afternoon, I don’t know if it’s my bad technique or just the nature of celluloid picks!

Since starting to learn to use thumb picks a few years ago I must have broken a dozen or more, various different types and makes and they have all broken in exactly the same place. The only one I haven’t broken is my nickel one!

Many years ago I would occasionally break plectrums but after changing to Tortex, as I preferred the grip and the tone, it never happened again. So can anyone recommend a good Delrin thumb pick?

Cheers Tymus.

[snakehips]

Hi there !

I've been using Dunlop (Large - and I have small fingers and thumb) plastic thumb and fingerpicks for maybe eight years, at least.
I was using metal fingerpicks before that, but for a thumb pick, I have always used the Dunlop Large thumbpicks - for maybe 20yrs.
Don't think I have ever broken them in the area you have broken yours, without excessively stretching them (on days when they have felt too tight).
Very few breakages in all those years - and I play fairly hard/aggressively (I think so, anyway !!)
What the hell are you doing to those thumbpicks ?

[Deleted]

Do your hands sweat while you're playing? If so perhaps you have high acid in your sweat as there appears to be breaking down of the plastic on the tortoiseshell pick around the area where it's broken. That's why the finish on Rory Gallagher's strat deteriorated.

[petej]

I have big thumbs so I have to use large pics,even so I still manage to make them last 2 or 3 years, I have half a dozen in my case so I never use the same one all the time. But its very rarely that I have broken one.
petej

[gaucho]

Do you maybe leave them on a windowsill or someplace else where they might be exposed to UV?

[Tymus]

Thanks for the replies but now I’m more baffled as nobody seems to have this problem.

Well I don’t play heavily with them ever, in fact I generally try to keep it soft and gentle to keep the noise down for my neighbours. Also I don’t have large thumbs or acid sweaty fingers (my strings last ages) and I keep the picks in a tin or guitar case away from any UV light.

When I put them on I just slide them into place so I don’t think that’s over stressing them. I do play very occasional upstrokes but only gently and I angle my thumb to do them so the pick doesn’t catch and fly off or move its position on my thumb, so I don’t think this is the cause, does anyone else use upstrokes?

[Pickers Ditch]

They do look like stress failure from what I can see from the photographs - i.e. the tiny cracks seen around the break indicate stress history.
Although you say you don't think you're over stressing them, the fact that you're playing upstrokes as well as down strokes means that the pick is going through a two way flexing moment.
Another possibility is, in addition to the above, the plasticizer is leaching out of the polymer and therefore the pick is becoming brittle.






However, my conclusion is:


You are Uri Geller and I claim my £10 finders fee.

[Tymus]

Yes I also think they look like stress fractures, I have another two broken ones here a Dunlop heavy and an unbranded black one but the only one that shows signs of this is the tortoiseshell one.

The upstrokes are only very occasional (like once or twice in a session) and a gentle strum mainly using the strap part that goes over the thumbnail, not picking individual strings so I’m sure this isn’t what's causing them to break.

[mikenewport]

HI Tymus,

I like Fred Kelly picks and prefer the sound and feel of Delrin. Don't know where you are based but I buy mine in the UK from the link below. No association and so on.

Mike

www.eaglemusicshop.com/search.asp?q=fred+kelly+picks&Search=Search

ps, "in fact I generally try to keep it soft and gentle to keep the noise down for my neighbours" perhaps you're still playing too loud and they are sneaking in and breaking your picks?

[slide496]

Propik makes one with a metal band around the thumb

[kiwi]

I have had several thumbpicks break like that over the years and it was due to stress, my thumb is tight on the large Dunlops and flexing taking them on and off caused it. I still use some plastic Dunlops but my main thumbpick is an Acri, very comfortable

[Tymus]

Ha ha! It never crossed my mind that my neighbours might be breaking them, sounds very plausible!

I think the Fred Kelly Delrin might be what I want, need, but the Acri and Propik also look interesting. I should be going down Denmark street later in the week so hopefully there will be a good selection there I can try out!

Thanks for the replies, Tymus.

[slide496]

The acris look interesting I might check them out, thanks kiwi!

[Michael Messer]

Hi Tymus,

I have worn plastic thumbpicks for decades and could count on one hand the ones that have broken.

I use a set of thumb and fingerpicks for years. I replace the thumbpicks more often, maybe once a year....ish. They only break like yours have when they are very old and brittle.

For a long time I used Dunlop white large heavy thumbpicks, but for the past five years or so I have used Fred Kelly Large Heavy Delrin thumbpicks, the white ones. I find them excellent because the playing edge does not get scratchy with wear, which can happen to Dunlops.

I wish Fred Kelly would produce some normal proper fingerpicks like the Dunlop white heavy gauge, but with their heavy gauge Delrin, they'd be really good.

Shine On
Michael