Comparing The Tone Of Different Picks

[KhzDonut]

To make a long story short, I ran into Chris from Gravity Picks and tried one of his mega-thick Acrylic picks and was surprised at how different they sounded from some of my other picks.

Figured I'd do a bunch of short samples to see just how different all of my picks sound (I've gotten quite a collection over the years) Thought I'd share the results with anybody who might be interested.

Pick Testing Extravaganza - YouTube

Posted this in Talkbass as well, but I figure there's probably more Pick players here than there are there, so I submit it to you as well.

 

[facepalm66]

First of all, really nice tone, dig it a lot.
But the difference is nearly noticeble, and, to be honest, it felt different with only few of them to my ears.
A bit less / more attack and a bit more on the bottom end.
In a mix, the difference would not be audible at all.


I'd rather post the collection of picks

 

[JLP2005]

I had a buddy who played bass and used a felt pick. I always thought that was a great way to get the softer attack of a finger pick but still getting the convenience and relatively easier 'speed' of a pick. Was neat-- and great video!

 

[Deadnightshade]

Nice!My go-to bass pick right now for distorted bass is a 3mm razer without master finish that is worn out a little cause i was using it with my guitars, so it has sliiightly less high end.Overall i think it works better without the master finish as a bass pick.

Care to share the pod patch too?

 

[TedEH]

I wonder if the effect might be more pronounced with guitar tone instead of bass. All the other guitarists I know use what I think are ridiculously thick picks, which seems to be the norm, and it never occurred to me that it might be for tone reasons.

The ones I use are really thin (not paper thin, but close), but don't have the size printed on them so I don't know what for sure. I find that with thicker picks, I end up hitting the strings so hard that the notes go too sharp for a short time before ringing out, and I don't like that effect. I prefer to feel like I'm "gliding" over the strings.

 

[Murmel]

^
I'd say it's the other way around. Bass tone is more affected by pick thickness because it's not drenched in distortion.

With that said, I don't think the pick matters all that much. If anything it will only change what the bass player is hearing, the others will most likely not notice, definitely not in a full mix. The difference shown in the video was so subtle.
It's more about how hard you attack the string than anything.

 

[pushpull7]

I'm trying to listen and pick (see what I did there?????) these out!

It can be very subtle but a couple of things I noticed.

-the planet waves are less "mid" sounding. Have no idea why, just are
-The "gravity" 3mm jumped out immediately. Hmmmmm, maybe because it's THICKER! (insert churchlady photo here) No really, biggest diff so far.
-Oddly, the gator .96 seems to cut where as the 2.0mm is almost too thick (if that makes any sense)
-The nylon .88 to the end's are awful to me

I like the "this is a pick, I will not describe it a second time

Really love this kinda stuff. Fun and informative but I think maybe that Gravity 3mm might be something to keep around

 

[pushpull7]

Also, about distortion. Maybe it's just me, but I hear a HUGE difference with distortion. Of course I'm talking about guitar too, but some picks are so obvious it's kinda creepy. I'm just using dunlop M "confetti's" and they are LIGHT YEARS from any of the other picks I like tone wise. It's just crazy. I wish it was placebo because they are not is easy to grip or even pick with, but they just sound better (shrug)

 

[KhzDonut]

...the difference is nearly noticeble, and, to be honest, it felt different with only few of them to my ears.
A bit less / more attack and a bit more on the bottom end.
In a mix, the difference would not be audible at all.

Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. 80% of them all sounded exactly alike to me once I listened to the recording. Only the really thick and beveled stuff seemed to sound noticeably different to me, and then super thin nylon have a specific sound. In a mix I think it would all just disappear, though.

Care to share the pod patch too?

Unfortunately it's a lot of studio magic, so the patch by itself would be a little useless. Lots of post EQ and multiband compression, and the distorted channel is running through Recabinet 3 (I should probably specify that in the video info). I'm going to try and get a POD patch that replicates it without studio magic, so if you want I'll let you know when I get to that.

With that said, I don't think the pick matters all that much. If anything it will only change what the bass player is hearing, the others will most likely not notice, definitely not in a full mix. The difference shown in the video was so subtle.
It's more about how hard you attack the string than anything.

I agree with the part about not hearing it in the mix, and about it being subtle. As far as how hard to attack the strings, that's very important, I agree. One of the other things I noticed was that some picks require a much different angle of attack to sound right. The Acetal require a nearly flat angle, whereas celluloid and nylon I could get more of an angle before I got this weird, scrapy, chirpy, buzzy "zinging" sounds all the time. The acetal and ultem really just WANTED to make that weird sound unless I picked almost flat. The thicker, beveled picks like the Gravity, Delrin, Duralin, and Carbon Fiber seemed to not want to do it at all most of the time, almost regardless of angle.

the planet waves are less "mid" sounding. Have no idea why, just are
-The "gravity" 3mm jumped out immediately. Hmmmmm, maybe because it's THICKER! (insert churchlady photo here) No really, biggest diff so far.
-Oddly, the gator .96 seems to cut where as the 2.0mm is almost too thick (if that makes any sense)
-The nylon .88 to the end's are awful to me

That was more or less my assessment. The Gravity is probably my favorite, because it's so bright and articulate. The Delrin 2.0 and Duralin 1.5 tied for second. The Carbon Fiber Jazz III has a very specific midrange grunt that I really like, but I find it a little hard to use on bass.

And... Yeah... Nylon just isn't my thing.

 

[pushpull7]

haha, it's nice to know my ears still work to some degree after all these years!