Has anyone out there ever seen a good tutorial on finger pick shaping? Let me preface this email by saying that I have been spending the last few days reading the MANY MANY posts on this subject.
So when I brought home my MSA from Tom Cass' place (my first steel) - he sent me home with two sets of fingerpicks. One set looked to have been previously shaped...the others, a set of Nationals, were not. The ones that were shaped (pretty close to the curve of my fingertip) feel great and I am trying to get the Nationals to shape the same way.
So last night I wrapped them in some tape, picked up a few pairs of needle nosed pliers, and started working on them while watching TV with the wife. A few hours later I was ready to throw the picks and the pliers across the room into the tv. I'm sure, that my experience is not unique. Is this something where I just need to keep bashing my head against the wall until I figure it out? Or has anyone ever seen a good online tutorial that walks through the process?
Michael, The only way I have ever learned is from what the great Jeff Newman told us and it works for me, so here we go...
First, don't get the picks with the little flares at both sides. Get the straight ones like National etc.
Then, with 2 needle nose pliers, clamp onto the wrap(one plier on each side) and pull straight out as if you want to make a funnel shape. If you look closely at your finger, sure enough it is slightly funnel shaped.
When you have made this shape, stick the pick on your finger and close or open up the round so as to fit it to the thickness of your finger. You will end up making them a bit loose. Simply put them on your fingers and squeeze so that they become a bit more snug. Make them sung enough so that you have to gently force them on your finger, by pushing them on against the palm of your left hand while slightly wiggling the fingers back and forth.
Have some kind of a mark so that each pick fits only that finger. This is very important to me anyway.
As to the shape of the picking part itself, this is more of a personal taste thing, but I see where a lot of players, including myself, bend the picks up toward the fingertip. I have them curved so that when I look at the finger in profile, the point of the pick is pointing almost straight up in the air.
It might take some getting used to and a bit of time before the pick becomes a part of you. They might hurt a bit to start. You'll get over it.
When you have them shaped to your liking, guard them with your life. Do not let anybody borrow them.
Mine are original Nationals from about 1975 and to me no other brand sounds ,feels and looks quite as good.
Thank you so much for the reply. It was really the "pick" portion that i was struggling with. I have fairly rounded (vs. pointy) fingertips. The set that I am trying to match wrap almost PERFECTLY the curvature of my finger and the end of the pick does point pretty much straight up. More like just having a metal fingertip, rather than having an actual pick protruding off of my finger. Wasn't sure if there was some trick to make the curve evenly contoured.
Aluminum, or brass ...round the slot opening, you can bend/shape the angles of the wrapover, and the contact surface. Wrap the pliers with tape to better hold while shaping...Bill
PS..Please excuse my drawing ability.
Bill Ford S12 CLR, S12 Lamar keyless, Misc amps&toys Sharp Covers
Steeling for Jesus now!!!
On a dark stage I often had problems figuring which pick was for my first finger and which for my second. Paint or marking them didn't help much. So I took a small punch with a pointed end and punched a small bump from the inside out at the center of the inside band - for the first finger's pick only. A simple little bump. One tap did it. Now all I have to do is feel for the bump and I know that's my first finger's pick. The other pick, of course, without the bump, has to go on the second finger. In no way does it get in the way of actual picking or technique.
For myself, how the metal finger picks fit had a lot to do with how much humidity was in the air. When the humidity was very low it was hard to keep the picks on without bending them in more. My fingers would get so dry the picks could fly off in the middle of playing. I finally got some "stickem" for turning sheets of paper and that helped.
James, Sorry for the confusion.Top picture shows what the tool/part looks like, and position for shaping the leading edge of the string contact area, center shows shaping the band area, bottom, shaping the rear of the string contact area....
Billy, Licking your fingertips before you put your picks on helps keep them in place.
Bill
Bill Ford S12 CLR, S12 Lamar keyless, Misc amps&toys Sharp Covers
Steeling for Jesus now!!!
Thank you so much for asking Bill for clarification on his diagram!
Bill, it was so clear you put time into drawing up the sketch and scanning it in, etc - I didn't want to be rude and say I had no idea what I was looking at! But now that I do, thank you SO MUCH!
In a funny followup to my post...I mentioned that Tom Cass had sent me home with two pairs of picks.
1. The first pair I loved...they just worked for me the instant I put them on. They had the initals JF on them. I'm a total newbie here...so I had no idea where they were from, etc.
2. The ones I was trying to shape were Nationals...and I wanted them to feel just like the other set.
In parallel to writing this post, I had decided to order some more picks...and based on a lot of posts here, I figured I would try Jeff Newmans...so I called and ordered a few sets.
I'm sure everyone knows the ending already...but sure enough, they arrived last night...and much to my delight, they had JF stamped on them...and they feel GREAT on. I am still going to shape them a little, but not NEARLY as drastically as I would have needed to do the Nationals.
So there you have it.
And while we're on the subject...can we talk about how incredible the customer service is with the people at Jeffran? I am such a stickler for this...but man, the woman I spoke with was just about the sweetest lady I have ever talked to. So nice to see that customer service isn't dead!!
Bill, Gotcha! All is clear. As I said I'd just got out of bed and very nearly went back again! Michael, you can't go wrong with JF picks. I don't find it necessary to change the shape at all. I leave them as they are and put them on any finger with no problems. Good luck. James.
After looking at the first post, it is a bit confusing...call it a senior moment. Sometime you go on the assumption (we all know that word) that everyone knows what we are talking about. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Bill
Bill Ford S12 CLR, S12 Lamar keyless, Misc amps&toys Sharp Covers
Steeling for Jesus now!!!
