finger picks

[wolvoboy]

Hi everyone
for of us guys who have trouble getting used to finger pick's,i was in my local music shop buying some mm Newtone strings,i chatting to this old guy who was playing Banjo, and we got chatting about finger picks and how i could not get used to them,he said you need to fit them properly,so he got metal one's out of the box and showed me how to fit them,as follows, bend them right round the finger till the tip is almost touching the nail then bend the tip back the opposite way,now it just feels like your playing using nails .it works for me now i find the a lot easier to use.
wolvoboy

[Deleted]

Hello.

When you say "bend them right round the finger till the tip is almost touching the nail then bend the tip back the opposite way", about this second bend: do you mean bending only the end of the tip (the tip of the tip, so to speak) in the opposite way? I mean, the whole tip of the fingerpick is going up, in the direction of the nail, and the tip at the end is bent backwards again, so it points in the same direction as the fingernail?

Hope I made my question clear, with all those tips , regards, John.

[wolvoboy]

Hi
thats right bend around the finger till the tip of the pick is if possible touching the nail then bend the tip of the pick back in the opposite direction so the pick follows the profile of the end of the finger, so the bit you bend back is almost like an extension of your nail,you will have to experiment on how much of the tip you bend back,i find just enough to catch the strings, hope thats of some help,let me know how you get on
wolvoboy

[Deleted]

Hi there,
Just in case you don't get on with the sound of metal finger picks (i don't but other love 'em) Ernie Ball do some plastic ones shaped in the way you've described which i really rate - having the majority of the finger pick against the tip of the fingers instead of extended away to get a clean sound is only really possible with the '2nd bend' at the tip and i too have found it feel more natural to play in this way.
Keep picking it better

Woz

[wolvoboy]

Hi Woz
i would like to get me some of the plastic pics ,i have not seen them in any of the shops can you tell me where i can get me some .
wolvoboy

[Deleted]

Wolvoboy,
I don't know where you're based but I get mine from Hanks on Denmark St, London. They have a fairly good range of finger & thumb picks although their stocks seem to change from month to month with little consistency (IMO). I must have tried a dozen or so makes and types (plus a little 'd.i.y' on them) 'till i settled for my preferred types. We've got it so good these days eh? - so much choice and variety.
Woz

[Deleted]

If you're in the midlands I'm sure Sheehans in Leicester have a half decent stock. Having said that I generally use stringsdirect cos I'm lazy : )

[SoloBill]

Sounds interesting, any chance of a picture? I'm a bit lost with the bends!

I don't like fingerpicks either. I used to play a bit of classical where of course the nylon strings are easier to pick au natural. Even there though, classical players have various nail strengthening tricks and I wonder if they would be useful? For example reinforcing your own nail with a 'false' nail. There were stories about using araldite and such like, I'm not sure how healthy that is, never tried it myself.
Bill

[Michael Messer]

I am not one for telling people that you 'must' do something in a certain way, but this fingerpick bending sounds pretty weird to me. I have been around many banjo players and users of metal fingerpicks. I used metal for many years. Most American Dobro players & fingerpicker guitarists use metal fingerpicks. However, I have never seen this bending back of fingerpicks. Surely they become hooks and catch in the strings?

Bending the pick right around your fingertip is a good technique for banjo playing, as the string spaces are wider. But on a guitar generally speaking, people have the picks protruding for better accuracy.

I agree that metal fingerpicks are easier to get started with as they are more pliable and easier to fit to your fingers. But the downside of metal picks is that the tone is not as good as plastic, and metal picks can scratch your guitar to pieces.

All the comments above are only my opinion. Folk music is a strange beast and there are many musicians who very successfully use their own quirky style of playing. I may be wrong about this pick bending idea and have just not noticed it.

Shine On,
Michael

[Deleted]

Hi All,
Just to clarify how the plastic ones work: the bend at the finger tip is more of a deflection by a few degrees just proud of the finger tip rather than forming a hook. I didn't notice it at first until I played with them as it's so subtle.
All the best
Woz

[djsbluesbar]

Hi all..
I'm with Woz on this one, the bending of the tip is only slight, not nearly as hooked as nails. It just gives better contact with the string and a more possitive tone than a regular finger pick. maybe is an advantage for players (like me) with large chuncky fingers.

[wolvoboy]

Hi all i know i started all this of but i'm also with woz on this bending the tip's back is only slight just enough to catch the strings ,i also have chuncky fingers and found them easier to use than regular pick's ,but i am also with Michael that plastic picks have a better tone and don't damage our guitars so i am going to get some plastic pick's with the bent tip's.
wolvoboy

[Lewis Cohen]

I tried a pair of these after reading about them on another forum:



The pick part fits over the nail thus providing a pick where your nail would actually be. They feel pretty good but, to my ears anyway, sounded really disappointing - a weak, "pinched" kind of sound due I think to the fact that the shape of them means you're actually picking the string in two places.

As unnatural as I find standard plastic fingerpicks I can't get away from the fact that they just seem to sound best.

[Deleted]

Apr 29, 2008 15:47:52 GMT @Lewis Cohen said:

I tried a pair of these after reading about them on another forum:

As a matter of fact, in my hunt for a pingerpick that feels like a nail more or less, I also ordered a few of the Kelly Freedom picks, just to fill in those horrible days after braking a nail. And, I have to admit that they are the closest thing to real nails as far as I have seen until now. I ordered six of them, all three sizes in both materials. Strange thing was that the largest size stays on my finger best, the smaller ones do pinch more, but because of that, they don't take the desired position on the finger, but tip over somewhat thus working themselves loose. The large one fitted without pinching, and stayed at the right position just like that. About the sound: I couldn't hear that much difference between the two materials, the tranparant ones sounded a little better to me, but I can't say why. And another thing: when I play with my nails, I hit the string with the side of the nail, so I keep the end of the nail at a straight line (looked at from the upper side of my hand). The kelly picks are rounded though, in the shape of an average nail, so I guess I shape them a little with a nailfile next time I need one.

Regards, John.