The Steel Guitar Forum

Just wondering about how many picks player's use?

I joined the forum when I started playing seriously about a year ago. One of the first discussions I read was about how many picks to use, and I decided to use a thumb and three fingers right from the start, on the grounds that you didn't have to use the third finger if you didn't want to, but it would be there if you did.

As it turns out, I use it occasionally for grabbing the top strings on the E9, and all the time for 4-note chords on the C6.

I quite understand how if you're well used to only two fingers, a third could bring more nuisance than benefit.

I really wish you would have included nose picks. That's probably more representative of steel players.

Nose Picks??
I was thinking tooth picks!

You see people all the time with pierced noses and anything from a little diamond to big hoops. I want to pierce my nose and have a finger pick instead. I should look really hip then.

That is it?

I've been using thumb and two finger picks for about 3 years on a Carter Starter, then got a Emmons D10. Started using 4 for the same reason mentioned above. 4 String Chords on C6th.

I wanted to do everything right, so I bought the Emmons Basic C6 book. In it he advocates the pick-two-rake-two technique for 4-note chords that so many great players seem to have employed. Now I've learned a lot of new tricks over the years, but I figured I didn't have time left to master this one, even though I'm only 63. So three fingers it is.

I use thumb and 2 finger picks on pedal steel, thumb and 3 finger picks on lap.

Came across this YouTube video of Roger McGuinn recently playing a solo version of Turn Turn Turn on his Rickenbacker 370. He's using a conventional guitar pick along with 2 finger picks on fingers 3 & 4.

Always wondered how he got that really jangly sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAejkh4rTjs

It looks like he has double strings on his guitar, sort of mandolin like.
That could explain the "jangly" sound.

Ian, curious. I just got the Emmons Basic C6 instruction booklet. Seeing four strings played at the same time I assumed an addition pick. I don't see where it describes pick two rake two tech. What page? or can you send me the description. I'm 53 so I may have a little more time to master it.

I use 5 picks!

The pick on the small finger makes it real easy to go out and grab the first string for banjo rolls. My belief is if the small finger is there hanging around, it may as well be useful for something.

Don

Jeff, sorry, it's not mentioned in the book but he talks about it on Track 35 of the CD. Good luck, youngster.

Okay, thanks. I'll check it out. Haven't got that far.

A wealth of info in that one segment. Hands. You would think it would come before playing the chords.

Erv Niehaus wrote:It looks like he has double strings on his guitar, sort of mandolin like.
That could explain the "jangly" sound.

it's called a 12 string guitar.
he has always played one.

Yes, I use my nose. That way I get a good look at which strings I'm picking. (Or should I say "pecking"?)

I think you meant no's or "no"s.

I usually play PSG without picks because I like the mellower tone.

I think that it is silly to constrain myself by not using all of my fingers when I play. So when I use picks; I use 4 finger picks and a thumb pick. Also when I Flat Pick regular 6 string guitar it come in handy sometime to add some fingerpicking in unison with the flat pick.

Erv Niehaus wrote:It looks like he has double strings on his guitar, sort of mandolin like.
That could explain the "jangly" sound.

The 12 is an artist model made for McGuinn with special electronics, built-in compression, you can hear the compressor on the clip.





Here's a version with Marty Stuart doing B-bender sounding like a psg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s6TSNwnYDw

I haven't decided how many picks.

Yes Erv, they call them 12 string electrics and they were pretty big in the 60 & 70's rock music. Roger may have been one of the first to popularize the 12 string electric with the Byrds. I believe he used the Fender XII, which had single coil pickups. Most 12 string electrics have humbuckers. I think the Fender element was where the jangly sound came from.

Lots of rock players employ the middle and ring fingers with a flat pick, but few use metal finger picks on those fingers.

I use a thumb pick & 2 finger picks and since I started playing steel I've also tried using the thumb and 2 finger picks on electric guitar with some success.

Roger McGuinn still uses a 12 string Rickenbacker, not a Fender XII. He heard one on Beatles records and bought one.

I'm sure you're right, I just read recently I think an interview with someone (maybe David Crosby) who was relating a story about Roger playing a Fender XII, it may have just been for a short experimentation period or something. He was talking about Roger trying to emulate the late period sax improvisations of John Coltrane. I read too much stuff on the internet and then I can never remember where I had read the info.

Rickenbacker 12-strings are unique amongst 12-string guitars. There are many 12-strings around, both solid and acoustic; in fact I have eleven of them; but only Rickenbacker has that awkward arrangement of interleaved tuning machines.

Incidentally, I've built several console steels over the years with octave courses. So many steel guitarists play octaves but use two separate strings and two separate fingers. With double courses you can do that with one finger and it makes harmonies a lot richer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYWLDLJJvzQ
Here's a video I made a few years back of Basil Henriques playing an octave-course lap steel that I built for him.

The Rick that Roger is playing is a 370 12, which is a 3 pickup version of the Rick 360 12. George Harrison was one of the first to play the Rick electric 360 12 and is heavily used on the album - Hard Days Night, including the signature track, which inspired a lot of other guitarists, including Roger to use one.

It essentially became the sound of the Byrds and Roger's signature sound.

Rickenbacker swapped around the way the pairs of strings were arranged from a conventional acoustic 12 string to low string first, (low octave) and high string second, (octave up) which gave it more of a distinctive sound.

They have a jangly sound anyway, but using metal picks gives them a "really" jangly sound which was what I was trying to emphasise.

Roger was a banjo picker before he took up with the Rick which probably explains his use of picks.

Alan, that's interesting, been thinking of making something similar, sounds great BTW.

I use Thumb and 2 Fingerpicks.
I curl my ring finger for string-muting.