The Steel Guitar Forum

First I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that it will be a safe and prosperous year for you and your families!

I was wondering if any of you would be willing to post a good picture of how finger picks should look when installed on the fingers correctly?
You know, how they should be bent and how close to the actual finger tip they should be.

Thank you from a new steeler!

You're going to get a lot of different answers! Some prefer to wear them extended out from the fingers, while others prefer to wrap them around closely. I think that it's safe to say that the tip of each pck should be along the same line as the fingernail.
Just a piece of advice from a fellow beginner.
James Collett
P.S. Also, another thing- the striking part of the fingerpick should be parallel to the strings, like a regular flat pick, to ensure an even and clean attack.

will this do??? kinda hard to scan these rascals

I got my first picks from Lloyd; they look like this...

If you scroll down to Ernie's reply in this archived thread, you can see what they look like as worn on the best right hand in the business http://steelguitarforum.com/Archives/Ar ... 02733.html

This is what feels good to me.

Guys! The photo's are simply great!

Just a word to the wise........
I attempted to play a wonderful show a couple of years back and could not figure out WHY, I couldn't play for beans. I was totally confused.... embarassed and humiliated.
The top of my curled picks were hooking on the next higher strings..... And when I had a nice melody line to play, I was missing the desired strings entirely, making loud metallic noises instead.
I had mistakenly grabbed my "Emmons" g'tar picks and not my SIX STRING Rickenbacher picks. For the wider spaced strings, I need a flatter, longer picking surface.

Wow, I came back from work today and I was happy to see so many of you replied so quickly to my post! Thanks James C., good to hear another newer players opinion. I've played stratocaster since '66 and I always used a hard pick until about 3 years ago when I decided to use my fingers. (I quit playing out and just wanted to try something different) I really liked playing with my fingers but I didn't use picks, just bare fingers. I really don't mind using the picks for steel but they,ve been falling off or getting hung up, especially the thumb. Flew off the other day and it took me three minutes to find it on the floor!
Calvin the scan looked fine--thanks!
Michael thanks for taking your time to respond. Looks like you and James M have yours curved more than mine and they come a bit above the line of the fingernail. I have several pair so I'll bend one that way and try it.
Thanks Jerry and Bob for Buddy's hand pic. I imagine a steeler with his ability uses a light touch most of the time.
Thanks for sharing the amusing story Ray.

Nice pics guys, really appreciate the effort

I guess I'm the freak of the litter! Long fingers, long palms. If I put my picks on straight, and addressed the strings, my thumbpick would be more that three inches in front of my fingerpicks! I have to have my hand at about a 45 degree angle to have all picks playing in the same area. Notice also the two-sided pick on my index fingie. I get a lot of use out of that!