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Topic: ? for pickers doubling on six-string: thumbpick? |
Gerald Menke
From:
Stormville NY, USA
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 6:45 am |
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Hello,
A couple of the artists I play with like for me to play guitar on a few songs. Since picking up the the PSG about 5 1/2 years ago, my fingerpicking chops have increased 10 fold. Now when I play guitar, it feels much more natural to play with a thumbpick than with a flatpick, in fact, I feel handicapped, since my index finger can't do anything other than hold the flatpick agin' my thumb.
Now I believe Clarence White and James Burton (my tele idols) played with flatpicks but I can't really get anything goin' on WITHOUT a thumbpick these days. The many others on the forum who pick six string in their sets, do you use a flatpick or a thumbpick or both depending on the song?
Thanks for reading my post.
Gerald
edited to say without a thumbpick, sorry guys! After 20 years of playing with a flatpick, now it feels weird to play with anything other than a thumbpick...[This message was edited by Gerald Menke on 19 October 2005 at 11:26 AM.] |
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Todd Pertll
From:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 9:35 am
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| I'm in the exact same situation. I figure that if I practice enoough wearing the thumb and finger picks it will eventually feel natural. I'm having the hardest time with strumming, but it is coming along. |
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Darvin Willhoite
From:
Roxton, Tx. USA
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 10:00 am
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I believe Brent Mason uses a thumb pick, it hasn't held him back any.
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Darvin Willhoite
Riva Ridge Recording
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Keith Cordell
From:
San Diego
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 10:03 am
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| I am struggling with that very thing right now. I am switching between guitar and console steel, usually on the same song, and can't very well swap flatpicks for finger and thumbpicks midsong. I figure I will get used to playing with fingerpicks and a thumbpick if I stick to it, but it will sure change my playing style. |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 10:10 am
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| I play everything with fingerpicks. The pick on my index finger is two-sided, and I find it very easy to use it just like a flatpick. I took two metal Dunlap picks, and cut the blade off one and silver-soldered it tip-to-tip to the standard pick. Seems to me that someone here on the Forum was offering this same style of fingerpicks for sale last year. |
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Bill Hatcher
From:
Atlanta Ga. USA
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 10:45 am
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I gave up the thumbpick on guitar a long time ago. I read somewhere in an interview with my hero Chet Atkins that he said if he had it to do over again, he would be much less dependent of the thumb pick. I was debating the issue at the time and when I read that, I immediately stopped using the thumb pick on guitar.
Thumbpicks are all right, but you can also open up a whole new sound with the flesh and the nail of the thumb.
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Larry Strawn
From:
Golden Valley, Arizona, R.I.P.
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 1:21 pm
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Gerald,,
I'm in the same boat,, some songs I can "get by" with thumb, and finger picks, others I just gotta have that flat pick.. Dunno, sure is a chore some times!! LOL.. Just gotta keep practicing I quess!!
Larry
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Emmons S/D-10, 3/5, Sessions 400 Ltd. Home Grown E/F Rack
"ROCKIN COUNTRY"
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Cliff Kane
From:
the late great golden state
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 1:59 pm
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| When I play standard guitar I use a flat pick and I finger pick with my middle and ring fingers..this gives me the best of both worlds: I can finger pick and flat pick as the song desires. However, I like to use a thumb pick and fingerpicks when I play slide on my acoustic because of the extra attack and edge that the picks give to the tone. I use thumb and finger picks with my pedal steel and lap steel, but I've just gotten a Weissenborn style guitar and I'm finding that finger picking without a thumb pick or fingerpicks works best with that guitar (there's enough space between the strings so I can get in there without picks). I think it's good to be adaptable for different instruments and tones. I've heard that there are some pedal steel players who don't use picks at all and that frees up their hands to play with different approaches. FWIW, I believe that Johnny Winter uses a thumb pick. I believe that Jeff beck used to use a flat pick and now uses his bare thumb and fingers. |
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Gibson Hartwell
From:
Missoula, Montana, USA
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 3:51 pm
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I agree with Bill on this one. I just can't get the same sounds using thumb and fingerpick that I can with pinching strings between flatpick and thumb or nail. especially on that chicken-pickin' stuff. But that is just me.
Mark Knopfer (sp?) from Dire Straits gets nice fat round electric six string tone, I believe with no picks at all.
I always switch to thumb and finger picks when going to steel. |
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Stephen Gambrell
From:
Over there
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 6:30 pm
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And didn't James Burton use a flatpick and fingerpicks on his middle and ring fingers?
Robbie Robertson, too??? |
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Garry Vanderlinde
From:
CA
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David Mason
From:
Cambridge, MD, USA
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Posted 20 Oct 2005 1:53 am
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I've been playing electric guitar for 35 years with a flatpick, but as the pedal steel has been taking over my life I've been sniffing up this alley too. My research findings:
A) Fingerpicks work better on electric guitar if you bend up a special set, because the angles of string attack are different. I bend my steel picks more or less straight across, but I have to angle the blades on the picks I use on guitar to make them hit the strings flat. This doesn't help a bit if your goal is quick changes on stage, of course.
B) You can play very credible up-and-down strokes with a thumbpick if you take a wide one like a Dunlop or Golden Gate and reshape it with a file. Mine end up looking like a sharkfin (if the shark were my thumb, swimming upside down and trying to eat my wrist). One angle controls the downstrokes, one angle controls the upstrokes. This second, upstroke angle ends up leaning way, way further than the stock pick, angling towards the tip of my thumb. I can actually play faster with one of these than with a flatpick these days. I like Jim Kelly's picks for steel, but they're too narrow to get this going on.
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Tony Prior
From:
Charlotte NC
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Posted 20 Oct 2005 2:32 am
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doubling on both for 30 years..
I put the picks down in the late 70's....
No picks with the 6 string..
nothing to drop, loose or forget !
not using picks on the 6 string was part of my cost savings program for purchasing gear for many decades...
I think I've saved 5 or 6 bucks now ![This message was edited by Tony Prior on 20 October 2005 at 03:35 AM.] |
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Larry Strawn
From:
Golden Valley, Arizona, R.I.P.
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Posted 20 Oct 2005 7:21 am
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Tony,,
With savings like that you may just rate up there with the finacial wizards of the world!! LOL..
Larry |
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Jim Sliff
From:
Lawndale California, USA
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Posted 20 Oct 2005 7:55 am
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For decades I played 6 string, along with dobro and banjo.
For dobro and banjo it was always thumbpick and two fingerpicks. On guitar, a flatpick and the middle and ring fingers (hybrid picking).
Oddly, although I can fingerpick like crazy on dobro (and getting there on steel), I've NEVER been able to use a thumbpick and fingerpicks on guitar, or even fingerpick barehanded. |
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Mark Lind-Hanson
From:
Menlo Park, California, USA
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Posted 20 Oct 2005 12:13 pm
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I go back and forth from thumbick & fingerpicks and the flatpick for electric 6 string. Have recently been studying some of Richard Thompson's moves on video- he manages to play using both the flatpick and a couple fingerpicks. Seeing that actually
was something of a revelation for me on his style- I knew there was more going on than things seemed. I suppose in a matter of weeks I will be attempting to do such & same myself & just have to see what results I get.
I also have been experimenting with the steel without any picks at all (fingers only) as I think there are tones possible which are maybe ONLY possible with a finger-pull
instead of a flat/fingerpick chop (on the steel) -it looked daunting at first but I have adapted to it. I think somewhere down the road I will be using a combination of both techniques (pix/no pix) depending on my mood. |
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I said to hell with it and decided to play the guitar in any way I could and have been having a great time rockin' out without the use of a flat-pick. And since then have found out that some of the hottest pickers' use the same thumb pick and two finger pick technique. So I think that it doesn't matter what style you use to get the notes as long as you do get the notes and have fun while doing it! 