Replies – Forums – Sands – Tony's Acoustic Challenge

Here is another tip. Don’t let the glue fasten while your fingers are together. After many years of using the stuff, it eventually happened. What a dreadful situation.

Sands

Member

June 29, 2021 at 7:58 am in reply to: Rotating Picks

One of the monogrip picks has failed. Some kind of oily substance seems to have been introduced to it, and I have been unable to return it to it’s previous glory, so I think I will toss that one. (Cleaning it just made it softer and not as gripable.)

Otherwise, I have had some general trouble with them here and there, but still find them remarkably stable. I got sucked into one of the new Martin Luxe pics ($20!), but not very keen on it. Too firm for me, although the little textured feature is pretty good stuff. I will be trying the super glued sandpaper idea on some of my old favorite Dunlops in the near future. I may try sanding them down to offer added grip, but I don’t think that will be enough for me given the texturized options have been a bit less than satisfactory.

Thanks for all the feedback!

Sands

Member

June 9, 2021 at 7:54 am in reply to: Rotating Picks

I’ve tried all of them and a few thicker ones not shown including a couple Dunlop Max Grips with thicknesses over 1.0 mm.

The Fender Mojogrip shown in the package is by far the most secure in my hand. The thick piece is soft with gripable textures, and it’s just very easy to hold securely and play confidently. It doesn’t seem to get in the way.

That thicker piece is key, but the material of that thicker portion is also well designed it is a pleasure to hold and use. The thick material is not as dense as the pick itself so I am able to grip the “handle” part much more firmly without it translating into the string. It’s almost like an absorber of the grip I employ, allowing a much larger range of firmness in handling.

So whereas I may have been able to employ a grip firmness range of 0-3 (unscientific guesstimate) with a normal 351 medium pick, with that extra grip material, I am able to employ a grip range of 0-6 with the approximate same effect on the string at 3 (without the mojogrip handle) and 6 (with mojogrip handle). Again, this is an approximation.

Point is, essentially I can probably use up to double the firmness (pick squeeze) without overpowering the strings being picked, and that doubling increases the range of squeeze. This doubling allows for more subtle variations across that larger range. In other words it is easier to play softly to firmly…. the transition from playing softly to firmly (expressively) has seemed almost effortless except I get a sense that I’ve only scratched the surface of what this pick will let me do or what I can do with it.

I picked up 6 for about $8.