The Steel Guitar Forum

I've tried and tried to use them ole finger picks, but they make me sound horrible. Plus, my fingers are fatter than a pack of hot dogs and the picks just hurt to wear. I'm a bassist/guitarist by trade and learning steel, now. Are the pics a must have? My friends from Italy do not use them unless they play the banjo. They play National, Weisenborn, and cigar box and it sounds great to me without finger pics. I'm not sure if i should keep trying to use them or not. Any advice/recommendations would be great to hear from yall at my starting point with lap steel.
With love and Respect,

Burney - welcome to the ever-rewarding, ever-frustrating world of the steel guitar. Fingerpicks or not? Entirely up to you. Just like the music you choose, play it the way you want!

No, they are definitely not necessary, but they are essential for playing certain styles. Most of the time these days I only use a thumb pick. When I do use fingerpicks these days, I wear a thumb pick and 3 fingerpicks, but only because I am playing a 10-string.

All you really need is desire,and an instrument of course.

There are certain kinds of 'snappy' sounds that would be very difficult (I won't say impossible but I think that might be the case) to achieve without them. But if you don't need that sound for the music you want to play, then, no, you don't have to use them. You won't be alone either.

I wish I could make fingerpicks work, because they improve the tone a lot.

But I just can't. I have tried all kinds, totally impossible. To me, it's like typing with gloves on. I lose all control, so I've learnt to live with the sound of bare fingers.

Playing without picks also makes blocking with your fingers much easier (and totally silent).

I was also very resistant to finger picks. I spent my first 5 years of steel playing using a flat pick and bare fingers, but there were things I just couldn't do. Some gentle encouragement from a really good steel player got me to try them again, and now I like them, and I'm finding that they are improving my picking speed and accuracy. I have big fingers too, and I hated how they pinched, but I got some of the brass ProPiks, and wear them kind of loosely, and they feel fine. The trick to getting them to stay put is to get a little saliva on your fingers before you put them on.

I have to use a thumbpick but I can't use fingerpicks. Unless you are playing un-amplified, use of fingerpicks is not a necessity. You can also turn up the volume on an amp to be heard.

I find that fingerpicks give me the sound I'm looking for, but there are plenty of players who play without fingerpicks and are satisfied with their tone.
Go with what works for you and don't worry about a poll.

Brad Bechtel wrote:I find that fingerpicks give me the sound I'm looking for, but there are plenty of players who play without fingerpicks and are satisfied with their tone.
Go with what works for you and don't worry about a poll.

+1 it's up to you, Burney

I'm a banjo player before I took up the steel, so fingerpicks don't bother me. What does bother me is the metal on string noises I sometimes hear when playing with them, especially on my practice amp in a small room, or through headphones.

I'm thinking of trying some plastic finger picks, shaped and trimmed. Anyone else with this issue? Any suggesetions on good plastic picks?

Half the time I play sans fingerpicks. I like the warmer tone for certain things, as well as ease of string blocking. I've recently began using fingerpicks more because again -I like the brighter, twangier sound for certain things.

The hardest part for me was getting used to the thumb and fingerpicks. I would put them on and I could feel my circulation getting cut off. That throbbing, pulsing sensation in my fingertips put me off initially. Eventually I got used to the way they felt, but then the challenge became blocking cleanly and picking accurately -as well as controlling dynamics. Still working on that.

Derek Quinn wrote:
The hardest part for me was getting used to the thumb and fingerpicks. I would put them on and I could feel my circulation getting cut off. That throbbing, pulsing sensation in my fingertips put me off initially. Eventually I got used to the way they felt, but then the challenge became blocking cleanly and picking accurately -as well as controlling dynamics. Still working on that.

Your fingerpicks are not sized properly and your thumb pick is too tight. Get a bigger size. There is no need to be uncomfortable at all. The metal picks should be shaped to fit perfectly on the fingertips with needlenose pliers.

I would say its up to the player cause I couldnt use finger picks for a long time. But if you want to give some a try that are different...

butterflyfingerpicks.com (this is what I use)

and Pro Pick true touch(I believe is what they are called)

Mike Neer wrote:

Derek Quinn wrote:
The hardest part for me was getting used to the thumb and fingerpicks. I would put them on and I could feel my circulation getting cut off. That throbbing, pulsing sensation in my fingertips put me off initially. Eventually I got used to the way they felt, but then the challenge became blocking cleanly and picking accurately -as well as controlling dynamics. Still working on that.

Your fingerpicks are not sized properly and your thumb pick is too tight. Get a bigger size. There is no need to be uncomfortable at all. The metal picks should be shaped to fit perfectly on the fingertips with needlenose pliers.

Thanks Mike. I think the picks finally gave up and stretched themselves to accommodate my fingers because I don't get that weird feeling anymore. They feel quite comfortable and natural now. I was having trouble with the string constantly getting caught between the pad of my finger and the pick until I read Jerry Byrd's instructional segment in The Hawaiian Steel Guitar. Out came the pliers and viola! Problem solved.

Next set of fingerpicks I get I'll just cut to the chase and bend 'em where they need to be.

I like the tone I get much better with fingerpicks. Palm blocking is fine without them too but I can't "pick" block without them.


http://www.gregcutshaw.com/No%20Fingerp ... picks.html


Greg

It is such a blessing to have well proportioned hands. We can take then for granted too easily. I first put on a set of National picks 50 years ago and they felt natural right away. But I did not use them much because I was playing nylon strings. Years later, I took them up for steel strings. I cannot get a good Hawaiian Guitar tone without them.

I developed my muting technique on regular guitar... I haven't been able to use picks, even a thumbpick. I use the back of my thumbnail, the meat of the thumb, the fingertips, and the fingernails... and I use the side of the thumb for a lot of muting etc. I can't do fast single-string picking, but I've worked all five fingers into my style, so there are advantages to it... arpeggios are pretty easy, and the 'feel' you get is great, no problem hunting strings down or finding grips.

I appreciate every one of the replies. I will try shaping my metal ones with needle nose pliers, but i have to play without them in the band, for now. I'll try practicing alone with them and see if i can get something good to happen. Ya'll are appreciated.

Like a lot of people, I grew out my fingernails for nylon and fingerstyle guitar playing before making the move to dobro and steel. I resisted the transition, but eventually caved because my thumbnail kept breaking on my heavy dobro strings.

I say give it two weeks and experiment a lot with bending the fingerpicks to fit your fingers and preference. I'd argue it's damn near impossible to get a proper sound out of a dobro without fingerpicks, but you can easily get a beautiful tone out of a steel guitar, especially if you're sucking out the attack of the envelope with a volume pedal.

We humans are much more flexible creatures than we give ourselves credit for. A couple weeks of discomfort and awkwardness can even out to a whole new world of possibilities for technique and proficiency. I'm a beginner but I'm noticing already.

better to know how to play with picks than without them
i prefer the clean attack & sound from pics
you can play both : with & without them
they both have their advantages

You can play more expressively with bare fingers than you can with picks, provided you have enough fingernail to alternate. That said, I have to agree that you won't quite get that 'classic' sound without the finger picks. I use both as my situation requires.

My advice is to keep practicing with them, off and on. It'll come, trust me. You'll be a better player being able to play (to some extent anyway) in both manners.

learn to play with picks! once you do you most likely won't want to use bare fingers. 98.5% of steel players can't be wrong.

Buddy used picks!!

Some tunes lend themselves toward the use of picks. I think it would be pretty hard to get much out of the Hula Blues or Sol. K Bright's rendition of Malihini Mele without them. Also, the machine-gun triplets of Sol Ho'opi'i would far less effective.