Conference napalm::guitar

    Jim Dunlop has similar picks in their catalog.  They offer picks made of 
    various organic materials. They were not cheap, but it sounds like what
    you are looking for. I used to play with a guy that loves the *Mind*
    pick (made of stone). He wouldn't play with anything else. He had 2-3
    of them and was very protective of them. 
    
    Give Dunlop a call. Their number should be in the manufactuer's index 
    (note 1421). Jim Dunlop has an interesting array of products including
    the Jimmy Hendrix Big Muff pedals, Cry Baby Wah's, and an array of 
    straps, picks, slides, and other cool accessories.
    
    Mark
    
    
    

    Are other people drastically affected by the size and shape of picks?
    
    I've been using almost nothing for a while but Dunlop Jazz IIIs and, 
    since they came out Dunlop Jazztones (if you like thick picks and haven't
    tried a Jazztone, give yourself a treat!).  I find that when I try to use
    a standard Fender-type pick, it feels like so massive and awkward that
    I basically can't play.  In particular, it feels like so much unwanted
    leverage is being applied to my finger and thumb by it that I just can't
    control what it does.
    
    A long time ago, I went to hear Tal Farlow play in a little club.  On
    this particular night, Tal was really burning up the fretboard.  When
    he took a break, I went up and asked him what kind of picks he used.
    He looked at me like he'd never heard a stranger question and, without
    saying anything, held out a standard heavy Fender pick.  I guess it
    doesn't bother everybody.  (Then again, Tal's fingers aren't
    particularly dainty.  Maybe these picks don't seem big to him.)
    
    I have a Min'd pick.  I've never used it much, because I can't deal
    with the shape and because I can't stand the resonant little "plink"
    it makes when it hits a string.  I think a pick made of plastic with
    that type of tip and a shape sort of like the smaller Dunlops would be
    perfect.  I keep hoping Dunlop will make one someday.
    
    Paul

    
    
    
    I'm another Jazz III fan.  It's hard for me to play with anything else.
    The other guitar play in the band could never use 'em, though.  He'd
    cut himself to death.....he needs something twice as big.
    
    Kevin
    

    The Dunlop Jazz III is all I had been using for the last several
    years until rediscovering these agate picks.  I agree about the Min'd
    pick.  I also find the standard Fender picks to feel 'cold' and only
    offer clutz appeal to my playing.   I'll have to try Dunlop.  Even tho
    Musician's Friend has an assortment listed, these special jobbers are
    not among them.
    
    /paul
    

    I prefer heavy mandolin picks, 'cause they're tiny and I don't get that
    'playing card on bicycle spoke' slap I feel with mediums or thins. All
    other picks seem *HUGE* in my hands.  I tried the Jazz III's, really
    liked the material and feel, but didn't like the shape: a little too
    rounded for my taste.
    
    About those Min'd picks:  I lose picks so often I could never own
    one...didn't they go for $8 - $10 a piece?

    Never able to refuse a new pick, I got me one of those picks made of
    cymbol metal (AMS or MF catalog).  Cost $4.99.  Size of a Fender pick,
    but weighs a ton.  Pretty amusing, but I'm still a Fender Heavy man.

    
    
    
    I use these hard to find picks by Mel Bay called "Teardrops". They are
    small, teardrop shaped (could you guess from the name?), and made of
    translucent blue plastic. They are fairly thin but stiff. I play them
    off the back (round) side, not the point. Once they break in I get a
    great variety of articulations by making slight rotations of the pick
    (the radius has a high rate of change where the pick contacts the
    string. It's easy to go from a biting sound to mellow.
    
    I can use other picks, but prefer small stiff ones. Nothing else has
    done as well for me as the Teardrops, though.
    

    Paul,
    
    	I've been using Jim Dunlop's stubby's 3.0 mm for quite some time
    now and find they are pretty adequate. I believe they were along the
    same lines of the Min'd pick. I used a heavy fender jazz for at least
    15 years. I could never get use to a regular fender pick shape. I also
    found I had less of a tendancy to drop or fumble around with one of
    these. 
    
    							Rick
    

Elderly Instruments' latest "Acoustic Instruments and Accessories" catalog
lists the Dunlop picks made out of exotic materials.  They have:

        bone ($13.90)
        horn ($11.65)
        ebony ($9.45)
        gualacum wood ($12.80)
        coconut wood ($12.40)

It says these have carved contours to fit the finger and thumb.  They appear
to be roughly standard Fender size and shape.

I also see that Elderly lists more kinds of Dunlop Jazztone than I've seen
before, including ones with rounded tips.  Think I'll check those out...

Paul
    

I've use the small teardrops since the mid 70s for
electrics..  but lately I've been using the larger
tear drops, and the more I use these, the more I like em.

For acoustic, (especially  12 string) I prefer the standard
size medium, (the one's labeled Pickboy feel the best to
me..)

I've tried the large stone ones, can't get the feel
of these at all..

I've tried the brass ones, and I just don't like the touch,

and I've tried those ones put over your thumb
and fingers,,,, forget it..  I just can't get the
feel...

    
    	I use the Jazz III's for most tunes.  But I use another pick,
    	I believe D'Addario something or other for the smoother clean
    	tunes.  A friend came over the other night - Ron Ross - and I
    	had him try a bunch of different picks.  He couldn't believe
    	the difference in feel and tone going from one pick to another.
    
    	So I go between 2 types depending on the tune.
    
    	Gotta try the new Dunlops!
    
    	Tom
    

    Speaking of metals, I've also used Hot Licks copper picks.  These I
    actually like quite a bit but I find them hard to locate.  They are the
    same size as Fender regular, but can be much thinner for a similar feel
    on the strings.  Also, you can practically saw your strings in half
    with them when used properly... a big plus.  ;^)
    
    I went through quite a few variations in picks looking for ones that I
    would drop less regularly (a feature Rick reminded me of).  Tried ones
    with various holes, surfaces, sandpaper-like material with peel-off
    backing which you attach to a pick.  But I found nothing really better
    than the white stuff they use to write "Fender" on the pick.  When that
    rubs off, I buy new picks.

Speaking of the Min'd pick...

A while back, I decided I would try to get a lapidary to cut my Min'd pick
down to a size/shape that would make it more useful to me.  So, I chose a
lapidary from the phone book (I lived in Maryland at the time) and called him
up.

This guy found things in my request to be suspicious about that were so
strange I can't even remember what some of them were anymore.  I do remember
that I had to start by explaining what a guitar pick was!  And this one
was made of agate...and I wanted it cut down...(clearly, I was up to *no* good).
Where I got it, why I wanted it cut down and what I planned to do with it
became the objects of what I thought was an unreasonable degree of scrutiny.
"Can you do it" also proved to be a more impenetrable question than I'd 
expected it to be.

By the time I finally gave up, I felt as if I had been trying to buy a modest
amount of weapons-grade plutonium.

I still think this is an idea worth trying, though.  Anybody know a good
lapidary (who isn't an overly suspicious sort)? 
           
Paul

P.S.  I bought my Min'd pick in Cincinnati.  A local jazz guitarist I used to
      go listen to all the time back then offered me this opinion about where
      the name came from:  "You'd have to be out of your Min'd to pay that
      much for a pick".

well of course he'd be suspicous,, after all all 
guitar players a pinko-commi-fagotts anyways, aren't
we....

    Spoken like a true Charlie Daniels fan...
    :-)

   The Min'd pick gets its name from being "mined" from the earth.  They went
   with the apostrophe to add the cute factor.

   BTW, you didn't know crushed agate stone could be used to create a powerful
   explosive?  Or was that a relatively unknown but highly potent euphoiant?  I
   forget...

   -- Sam

    anybody else remember the Min'd Pick ads in GP from the late
    seventies featuring Pat Martino as The World's Fastest Picker
    challenging anyone to go up against him and his Min'd pick?

    I remember Pat doing MIn'd pick ads, but I think the "world's fastest
    guitarist" was a fellow by the name of John Dougherty.  You know, the
    really famous one :-)
    

    >I remember Pat doing MIn'd pick ads, but I think the "world's fastest
    >guitarist" was a fellow by the name of John Dougherty.  You know, the
    >really famous one :-)
    
    That's how I remember it, too.  I also remember wondering at the time,
    "hmm...why's John such a household name?".
    
    Paul

Who had the record in Guiness's World Records?  I thought it was the guy in 
Ten Years After???

Jim

    Naw, he held the record for drinking the most Guiness...
    
    :-)
    

    At one time, I thought Roy Buchanan held this distinction. His tune
    "The Messiah Will Come Again" certainly qualifies.
    
    Mark

    
    
    
       Seen in some junk mail catalog that came to the house.
    
       A pick with a leash and a little rubber band that you 
       wear on a finger.  "Every lose a pick into a guitar..."
    
       I simply could not believe my eyes.  I will lose all 
       faith in America if the inventor makes any money. 
    
    
      -Rick. 
    
    

    
    	Chia pets
    	Flow-Bee
    
    	We're already hopeless.  8^)
    

    How about that pick with the egg shaker thing attached to it?  I almost
    fell over laughing when I saw it.  Endorsed by Wolf Marshall, so you
    know it's good!
    
    /ron_coe
    

    Re. .25
    
    Yeah, I've seen 'em at Union Music....my reaction was:
    
    "Good...."
    
    
    "....GOD!!!!"
    
    ;^)
    					--Eric--

I got some Dunlop Jazztone picks with rounded tips (model 204; the pointed
tips are model 205), and now I'm in a quandry.  I much prefer the rounder,
less brittle sound of the 204, but they make it clear that the 205 has been 
letting me get by with a lot in terms of not keeping the pick perpendicular
to the strings.  The least bit of angle, and the 204 tends to go glancing
off the string instead of sounding it.  I like the sound of the 204 so much
better that I think I'll work with it for a while and try to change my
ways.

Paul

    Lotsa interesting feedback here!  re:-1, Paul, how thick are the
    Jazztone 204 and 205, compared to say the Jazz III ?
    
    thanx
    pc
    

    >Lotsa interesting feedback here!  re:-1, Paul, how thick are the
    >Jazztone 204 and 205, compared to say the Jazz III ?
    
    I'd say they're noticeably thicker.  There's enough difference that
    I find it disturbing to try to use a Jazz III now.  The texture is
    a lot different, too; the Jazztones are made out of a much harder
    plastic than the Jazz III.
    
    Paul

    Do you find it more difficult strumming/playing rhythm
    lines with these thicker picks?  Do you switch
    picks for such playing?  
    
    Having read this line, it prompted me to try
    a Jazz III, instead of the flimsy little Fender
    Mediums I've been using.  I was worried a heavier
    pick would make playing more difficult.  It
    doesn't seem too bad for single note stuff, and the
    sound doesn't have the "thwacking" sound of the Mediums. 
    Which is better sometimes.  Next I might even
    move up to 10s for strings!  But then it would be
    harder to bend. . . 
    
    Apparantly different settups
    - picks, strings, pickups, fingerboards - are associated
    with different styles.  On the other hand, I think
    some players get alot of different sounds/styles  
    with just one settup (pick etc.). 
    
    Dave
     

    >Do you find it more difficult strumming/playing rhythm
    >lines with these thicker picks?  Do you switch
    >picks for such playing?
    
    I almost never play anything that would require strumming, but
    I have noticed that it seems a little awkward with a heavier
    pick.  A lot of the chords I use skip strings, so I seem to end
    up doing a lot of pick+nails playing.  If I did have to do a lot
    of strumming, I'd probably use a "Heavy" Fender teardrop for it.
    
    I use .010s on my Strat and .011s on my archtop.  To me, nothing
    electronic can take the place of a certain amount of "strength"
    or "weight" at the point where pick meets string(s).  I probably
    don't do as much string bending as a lot of people, but I never
    feel that the .010s are getting in my way.  On the other hand, if
    you replaced them with .009s, my whole concept of what I can and
    can't play would change.  If my hands were stronger, I'd probably
    use heavier strings on both guitars.
    
    Paul

< I probably don't do as much string bending as a lot of people, 


or maybe you've just got stronger hands than you think...

011s are FAT for me...


I had 010s on my sheraton when I first got it, and I
kept them on for probably a week, and I liked the sustain
and feel to a degree, but I put some 009s on it last weekend
cuz I wasn't getting the response out of the bends I was
looking for...  however, I'm gonna try another set of 010s
next restringing, just in case the factory installed strings
were as crappy as most...  If I could just have gotten a
little less resistance out of the 010s on the archtop, I'd
have kept them...

however I don't think I could put anything other than 009s on
the fenders...  The scale is tight enough as it is,, I think
they'd be fighting me...

10s are too heavy, 9s are a bit too light, 9 1/2s are just right.

Jim

<<10s are too heavy, 9s are a bit too light, 
<<9 1/2s are just right.


Arruuhh ????

    somebody (Markley?) used to make 9.5's and 8.5's. Haven't seen
    them in a while in these parts. 
    
    I've been using Strats with 10's for years. I went through
    a period where I mostly played and acoustic with 13's on it.
    Now the 10's feel too light. I'm thinking of changing to 11's.

    Paul Reed Smith makes em, and supposedly that's what Paul himself
    prefers.
    

    Well, I located some Dunlop Jazztone picks this weekend at Music
    Emporium on rt 225 in Lexington MA.  They actually had 4 variants of
    the Jazztone - everywhere else I called; Daddy's - Shrewsberry; EU -
    Framingham; Guitar Center - Boston; Mr C's - Marlboro didn't have 'em.
    I picked up the Jazztone 204, 205 and 206.  The 207 didn't seem
    appealling.  So far the 206 is best for me.
    
    Still searching for some of those agate jobbers.
    
    paul
    

    I also use the Dunlop for mandolin,,, they have a wonderfull effect on 
    the tone and projection.   I can burn up the stings with them too!
    
    Bruce