OutOfReachDrumr - Posted - 07/09/2009:  21:01:04

I've heard people advise that it's not a bad idea to roll the tips of the finger picks so they go flush with your finger. EG; puting them on, place your palm flat on a smooth/sturdy surface, and roll them up.
Does anyone do this? Does it help? Is it useless? Any feed back is weclome.

-JJ

Cornflake - Posted - 07/09/2009:  21:32:19

I believe many people do bend their picks up as you describe. At this point in my playing I bend them a bit, but hardly as much as you're talking about. You'll get many opinions on this. In the last Banjo Newsletter Bela F mentioned that he has gradually switched from the full bend to keeping them fairly straight (as they come). I think he said this gives him more power, but it promotes more pick noise. I prefer them toward the straighter side so that I can get more reach and leverage.


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It takes a village to tune a banjo

jeremy blankenship - Posted - 07/09/2009:  21:39:05

to me this is a personel question. I have tried it both ways. my grandfather bends his pretty heavily and it seems to have worked for him for the past 50 yrs LOL. For me I have come to like my picks bent about half way between the way they come and bent all the way up. experiment and you will find a good compromise. straight picks do tend to be a little noisier but they also give more volume. my major hang up with them is speed. I tend to play faster when my picks are slightly bent.

Jeremy

shut up and pick!!!

OutOfReachDrumr - Posted - 07/09/2009:  22:39:03

I'll have to buy more and try a variety of ways. I'm pretty new at this, and some times with them bent, i get the strings stuck under the backside after I've struck the string. But I'm sure that's just me and the lack of style I play with. ha ha. Mucho gracias. Any brand over other that seems to be better? I know that's like asking what the best color in the world is, there's going to be a 1,001 answers. But maybe there will be a consensus on ones that are great and ones not so great.

-JJ

Texasbanjo - Posted - 07/10/2009:  05:45:36

Bending or not bending picks is definitely a personal thing (as said above). Some people like their picks straight (think Alan Munde) and some like them bent (thnk J. D. Crowe). It just depends on what works and feels right for you.

Me, I bend my picks up where they arch around my finger and that's what works best for me. Straight picks just didn't do it for me. I've tried both ways and found one that suited me. That's what you need to do.

Let''s Pick!
Texas Banjo

Deaf David - Posted - 07/10/2009:  08:22:33

That's why letting someone else use your finger picks is like letting them use your tooth brush--well, maybe not quite that bad. I know I have spent a LOT of time tweaking my picks so that they fit right and strike the string correctly with my hand position. (How they should strike the string is probably not as variable as how you hold your hand and how your fingers move while picking.) If someone else put on my picks I'd have to start all over again--even with just me using them I have to periodically "tune my picks."

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"The most thought provoking thing in this thought provoking age is that we have not yet begun to think."
--Martin Heidegger
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1four5 - Posted - 07/10/2009:  09:41:25

I'm with Deaf David, my fingerpicks are extreamly personal, and to me extreamly valuable and have evolved over several years and many micro-tweeks. I wouldn't let anyone else even touch them. Serious. What's even more interesting is that I have a complete back-up set, and dispite a couple years of tweekeing them also, they are close, but still not the same (even though they are the same type). As for rolling them around your fingers, doing it the way you describe might work for thin picks, I use .025's and it takes special care with round nose or needle nose pliers to shape them. As for wrappingthem around my fingers, yes, it's my preference. The tips of the picks almost touch my fingernail.

Dean