Metal Thumb Pick

[Sigi Meissner]

As we all know, plastic thumb picks tend to wear thinner and thinner the longer one use it. For shure much quicker than a metal thumb pick. I wonder why the metal pick is not standard for steel players. What speaks against it? Sound? Feeling? Not comfortable to wear?
Thnx for any coments
Sigi

[Ryan Barwin]

Maybe it's just my technique, but all the metal thumbpicks I've tried sound too harsh and bright, and the tone is very different than the metal fingerpicks, whereas I can get basically the same tone with a plastic thumbpick as with metal fingerpicks. Don't know why.

Haven't tried filing the thumbpick though...good idea. Your fingerpicks do look unusual...what are they?

[Leonard G. Robertson]

I prefer a thumbpick made of metal wrap & plastic tip. To each his own.

[Arne Odegard]

I use a Dunlop metal thumb pick. I find it's more comfortable.

[Emmett Roch]

I've been using a metal Dunlop thumbpick on PSG for years. They never lose their shape or fall off, and after a little getting-used-to, the tone was about the same as what I was getting with a plastic pick.

[David Mason]

I liked the all-metal ProPik (thnx Easley) much better than the Dunlop, trimmed down to proper length natch -
http://elderly.com/accessories/items/PK43-L.htm

But then a few years back I got in deep with the Sonny Landreth "whole-guitar" slide style, and started doing a lot of alternate picking with the thumbpick.... the cross-contamination had me doing upstrokes on the steel with the ProPik, ack. I'm back to a standard or "Heavies" Dunlop, with the point trimmed to a sharkfin angle so it'll do ups and downs at equal volume. I tried the Dunlop thumb/flat pick and the Kelly Bumblebee, but the Dunlops work just as well for me. One thumbpick, four instruments, keeps the crazies & scrapies down.

[Bob Mainwaring]

I've been using a metal thumbpick for many years and find them to be a much better tone than the plastic ones.
When I was using the plastic ones, I always placed a few ridges with the pointed end of a sharp knife inside/across the flat area to eliminate them sliding off when playing.
The metal ones have the holes placed in them which helps them to stay on.
I also keep it in place for the ol' five string.

All Z.B.est

Bob Mainwaring

[Bob Mainwaring]

I forgot to mention Sigi.....to make it easier to figure which finger pick goes where, I borrow the wife's nail polish and paint the 1st finger pick around the top, it's way easier than trying each one wondering which goes where.

All Z.B.est.

Bob Mainwaring