Starting off with a pick

[Muzz]

Jim Dunlop Nylon 88s - tried zillions of others over 30-odd years, and they're the ones which work for me. I find them a nice compromise between feel and resistance. There's more to picking than a lot of people assume. I use the JD 73s on the occasions when I pick up a guitar.

[Linus27]

I use Jim Dunlop 1.14mm Nylon. They are purple with a rough face so it has great grip and hard to drop.

[yorick]

Dunlop Ultex Tri's 0.88

[bungle]

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='1171530' date='Mar 21 2011, 11:21 PM']1mm Dunlop big blue triangles. I've tried shed loads of different picks. I'm a full time picker.[/quote]
These are my weapon of choice. Tiny bit of flex, large surface area, and they just don't break

[quote name='dave.c' post='1171940' date='Mar 22 2011, 11:49 AM']I used the big Gibson Heavy black picks for many years but the last batch that I got started breaking up on me so I have now switched to Herco Silver 0.75 or the Snarling Dogs Brain picks 1.0 that come in a handy tin and I find have the best grip to them as I usually find picks spin round between my fingers.[/quote]
I found the black Gibson triangles broke on me too, and I don't pick particularly hard. The ultex Tris that yorick mentions are pretty good as well.

I do find that I much prefer the big triangles with not much flex for bass, and when I pick up one of those things with six skinny strings I much prefer the normal sized ones with a fair bit of flex.

[matski]

[quote name='Muzz' post='1172013' date='Mar 22 2011, 01:51 PM']Jim Dunlop Nylon .88s - tried zillions of others over 30-odd years, and they're the ones which work for me. I find them a nice compromise between feel and resistance.[/quote]

Same here.

[Paul S]

For me it helps to have a bit more flex for faster picking, so I have Jim Dunlop 1mm black nylon for general use, switching to .73mm grey nylon for faster playing when I need to. Which is only a couple of tracks (Lights Out, UFO and Ace of Spades).

[WalMan]

Vary between
[list]
[*]3mm Dunlop Stubbie - all I used for a long while
[*]Large black Dunlop Jazz III's - current fave
[*]Dunlop Ultex - large & heaviest
[/list]

Liking the Jazz III's at the mo, though still use the Stubbie on occasion & the tone is similar.

The tone from the Ultex is quite different though & I'm not convinced just yet

[Wolverinebass]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I'll start off at 1mm and see how that goes. Grab a few and see what works for me. I guess trial and error in this case will be the order of the day.

I'm not intending to switch to pick playing exclusively by any means, I just think that it's a good thing to be able to do properly. Am sure I'll have to endure insults from my guitarist mates for a while until I get reasonably decent at it.

[mep]

Yet another Dunlop 1mm black nylon user here. Tried other but these really cut it for me. I hold mine the other way round and use the rounder end on the strings! Anyone else tried it that way?

[dlloyd]

[quote name='dlloyd' post='1171939' date='Mar 22 2011, 11:49 AM']I use Wegen 3.5 mm picks.[/quote]

I had a rummage around and I found a bunch of my old picks, including some oddities. The Wegen is definitely the best, but they're not cheap at €15 each. I quite like Dunlop stubbies, and sharkfins.

I have some 5 mm rubber picks called "Wedgies" and some utterly strange 10 mm felt picks... they both make quite convincing fingerstyle-like sounds, but then so do my fingers.

[WILD FROG SHOT]

[quote name='Doddy' post='1171912' date='Mar 22 2011, 11:20 AM']I don't like using picks that flex,I find that I lose speed and control.[/quote]

I'd agree with this statement.

I use the exact pick you have mentioned, a 2mm Dunlop (purple one right?); in fact, I think I have used the same individual pick for the last five years. God knows how I haven't lost it yet!

Using a nice thick pick combined with playing parallel to the strings and below the bridge pickup on my Rick or Precision gives me my ideal growly tone.

[spinynorman]

Somewhere I've got a load of discarded thick triangles and other hard picks which I used when I started. As I got more comfortable with it I went thinner and now use .73 Dunlops. No problems with speed, control or technique, or not that I wouldn't have anyway.

Where do they go? I used to have dozens but last time I looked there were only 5 left.

[Gust0o]

[quote name='spinynorman' post='1173519' date='Mar 23 2011, 04:51 PM']Where do they go? I used to have dozens but last time I looked there were only 5 left.[/quote]

A lot of mine go through the dog. Emphasis on [i]through[/i].

Not my preference, mind.

[stevebasshead]

I've experimented with thickness far more than the type of material over the years and pretty much always gravitated towards thinner picks. I've never taken much notice of the material type, I just go by whether I like how it feels/responds.

I don't know what guage it is but the thinnest I've used has been the red sharkfins which are ridiculously bendy! But they stiffen up nicely as you alter your grip (I'm sure there's a joke there...somewhere...) so they're quite, erm, flexible if you see what I'm getting at.

For the last 6-8 months I've been really happy with the much thicker blue sharkfins which I hold in reverse and use the serrated edge...which probably makes me a bit odd!

[4000]

I change them depending on what sound I'm after but the mainstay is a Jim Dunlop 3mm Big Stubby.