The Steel Guitar Forum

Jacek Jakubek wrote:...Ian, I notice in your picture with the hose clamp that you have some kind of white material padding under the wrap of your finger-picks (index and middle...

Nope, the white bands are a high tech monofilament bio-polymer developed in a secret lab in South America using the skin excretions of a rare giant Amazonian tree spider. It was designed especially for this purpose, but the bands are part of the clamps. My picks are just plain old National No.2s, nothing added, nothing taken away.

I've actually never had issues with the picks staying put, with discomfort or with picking accuracy. I shape the finger bands carefully and they just fit and stay there. I think the reason for the humorous jabs and the push-back in general is that you're trying to sell everyone on a solution to a problem that isn't really a problem for many (most?) of us.

It's cool that everyone does share their ideas here though, everyone is free to re-invent the wheel as they see fit, however, one should not expect that everyone else will agree that it's a better wheel.

I do like Max's idea though, maybe make the glove electric with colored LED lights and a heating/cooling system for those seasonal outdoor gigs

Ian Worley wrote: I do like Max's idea though, maybe make the glove electric with colored LED lights and a heating/cooling system for those seasonal outdoor gigs

Run with it, Ian. I just have the ideas...I don't do anything with them. I wish I'd copyrighted the "Are you sure?" question back when I was a computer programmer. I'd be rich today.

Heck, I don't even use finger picks. I tried them 50 years ago on acoustic guitar and hated them.

You guys are hilarious. If you think about it...who else would come up with these new musical discoveries but pedal steel players: Lighted fret-boards, pull-rod compensators, gear-shift-looking lock-levers, palm-levers, surgical tape on fingerpicks...

EXCITING NEW UPDATE:
I received the tan coloured tape in the mail today and I'm very, very impressed! The tan tape is actually slightly transparent so it blends in with your skin tone, looking darker or lighter depending on your skin tone. It is almost invisible. No more of the "table-saw accident" type look as with the white tape. Definitely worth the extra cost.(See picture of tan tape with thumb/fingertips below.)



Also, notice in the picture how the tape clings very closely and tightly to the skin/picks, it feels like a very thin film on your fingers. No bulky feeling on the fingers at all. You do not need to put any glue-like goop inside your picks like people here are suggesting, and therefore will not need to clean out the inside of your fingerpicks afterwards (But still, try using the tape one the outside of the picks even with your goop inside, it will work better.)

I have not played my guitar without this Micropore tape on my picks even once since discovering this. It's a NIGHT and DAY difference. If you think I'm trying to sell "a solution to problem that doesn't exist," it just means that you haven't tried it yet and don't know YET that you have a problem

TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL:
I took this idea to a new level and tried using the Micropore tape with a 6 string guitar flat-pick. I taped the flat pick to my thumb in the position that I usually hold it, and...it works! (See picture below)



You need 5 or 6 couple-of-inch long tape strips to hold the flat pick in place (vs. only one strip for metal finger/thumb picks,) but once you get in on there, it stays! I played so hard with the taped up flat pick that after 20 minutes, the flat pick was worn and there was black pick dust all over the pick-guard of my 6-string Strat! It gives a whole new meaning to SHRED guitar I rarely every play this hard with a flat-pick normally.

Having the flat-pick taped to the thumb also allowed for MUCH easier use of the tremolo bar (See the picture of flat-pick while using the tremolo bar on the Strat.)
If you're a 6-stringer into Pete Townsend style windmills, this is your ticket!



If this catches on with the 6-string players, who number in the millions, it could be HUGE. You've seen it here first folks, new cutting edge playing tips right from the Steel Guitar Forum. Just watch a great player like Paul Franklin or Joe Walsh recommend this
and everybody will be trying this.

On a more serious note: There are many older guitar and steel pickers on here, in their 60's, 70's, 80's, and beyond. It is common that as people age, our hand/finger muscular dexterity and strength/grip can decrease. You can also have different health conditions affecting finger grip, such as arthritis. This might be a good solution for players who find themselves dealing with these sorts of health related obstacles. Heck, you can even just use this on your picks only if you're having a "bad-picking" day on an extra-sweaty gig, like Gene suggested.

IN CONCLUSION:
I'm not affiliated with the 3M company making the Micropore surgical tape in any way, nor am I trying to sell you anything. I just wanted to share this great tip and recommend a great product to help increase people's guitar playing enjoyment.

Now that you know the tip, do what you will with the information: Have a laugh and move on (which is OK) or try it for yourself and possibly discover the BEST picking attack and control you EVER had.

Either way, you know what I'll be doing: Slap-Shot to the G-String...Score!

Just wet your fingers with water or saliva, then put your picks on. They will stay there until you decide to take them off.

Jacek, If you use a few rolls of that tape, you could probably get a job with the Mummies!:)

You might even get a discount from 3M.
Erv

You could probably shrink-wrap the picks to your fingers too. It might hurt the first couple weeks. And how would you go to the bathroom?

The same way porcupines make love, very carefully!
Erv

Very Good Erv, J.R.

I dipped my Diamond Newman finger picks in rubberized paint. Just the part that goes on your finger. I learned that off the forum a couple years ago.

I no longer recommend the 3M Micropore tape. I now use 3M "Durapore" tape. The Durapore tape is more durable and made from a cloth-like silk material (see picture).

The micropore tape was hard to take off because it tore into little bits when trying to take it off. Durapore is the thickness of duct tape, and you can re-use the strip if you have to take off your picks for a minute. I experimented with other 3M medical tapes (they make many)and I like this one the most...Tears off without scissors, too.

Unfortunately, they only make white Durapore so I can't get the nice skin-tone tan-coloured tape. But, who cares, it works better.

I don't play any other way anymore. Call it a "crutch," I call in an "enhancement." Got to have the tape always handy when playing:

Overkill if you ask me.
Erv

I dunno, I thin k the way I pick depends on having some give in the fit of the fingerbands. I have some picks that are fitted very tight, and depending on whether the blades are pretty straight or tightly/closely curved to fingertip, I change my picking style, from a catch and upward release w/straight blades, to a sweep thru the string with curved blades

This guy seems to have (sort of) similar ideas

https://www.banjohangout.org/archive/345397

Note that he's still a blazing fast picker even tho I'm guessing he still has pretty significant focal dystonia

___________

somebody above referenced sticky coatings for picks, I use Plastidip for other purposes but I also have some Greg allen banjo picks that have the coating already put on for you https://www.elderly.com/collections/cat ... d-one-pair

The top number is how many beats go into a bar, the bottom number is which type of note is counted.

4/4 would mean four quarter notes to a bar. 4/8 would mean four eighth notes to a bar. 2/4 would mean two quarter notes and 2/2 would mean two half notes to a bar and so on.

Here’s a decent tutorial, he uses the European terminology, but it’s the same theory
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qtvx57P4oKo

Violin rosin works well also.

Jacek, thanks for the tip. I might try the tape sometime.
I have been using Saddle picks for the past few years (not the saddle thumbpicks, just the saddle fingerpicks). They don't come off . The only thing I don't like about them is that they only come in one thickness, wheras I prefer a softer brass style which they do not make.
When I occasionally use brass fingerpicks I have shrink tubing hugging around the pick itself which helps keep it from slipping off. It works "okay".

K

It just amazes me how I've been able to get by with spit all these years.
Erv

Thanks, Jacek, for your sharing your tips on finger picks …I just tried "Heat-shrink" today and it actually works great! Had seen this idea used by another steeler and because I’ve always had a problem keeping a good fit on my fingers, my finger picks was always slipping off and bounce off the stage onto the dance floor, sometimes I would ask a dancer to pick it up for me…ha! Sometimes they would come back smashed flat! I located a set of older Nationals, bent them with a needle nose, cut some ½” heat shrink, slid them onto the sides of the picks and did the heat treatment thingie and walla…tried them out! Works great!!!

Erv Niehaus wrote:It just amazes me how I've been able to get by with spit all these years.
Erv

Spit works for some, not for others, so perhaps all spit is not created equally...

So Erv, I see a sideline business possible. Bottle yours and make NiehauSpit available!

A golden opportunity if I ever saw one!!
Erv

I simply use violin rosin, work perfect.

Hi guys,
I use thumb and finger picks on my Telecaster as well as PSG.I use 3M TRANSPORE tape over the picks to prevent them flying off during a vigorous finger chord upstroke ( I play in a 60s band !!).This works perfectly.I use a 1/4 inch strip over where the pick base sits on the finger thus preventing a lip for the string to get under and lift the pick away and then toss it yards away !

How about using picks that fit your finger? I never knew this was such an epidemic. And how hard are you picking that they come loose?

Saddle picks are as comfortable as the wedding ring on your left hand and you don't even know you have your wedding rings on.

Erv Niehaus wrote:It just amazes me how I've been able to get by with spit all these years.
Erv

Recent spit convert. It works so well i sometimes think i'm not going to be able to get the picks off!