Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Discuss the Guitar lesson: Plectrology– The Study of Flatpicks!

#21

@claytrell,

Welcome to the forum. What a story…

Thanks for sharing.

#22

Hello All,

As of late, I have tried switching over to thicker flat picks (Blue Chip CT -55, Dunlop Prime Tone 1.4, etc…) for both guitar and mandolin. I have loved the way that these pick play and feel. However, I have been a very noticeable chirping/ringing sound when I flatpick on my guitar (especially on the high E and B strings). Has anyone else encountered this before? Any idea on how to fix this?

I would assume that this is user error, but I am also surprised that I have not ever encountered this is my 8 years of playing with lighter picks. I would prefer to stick with the thicker picks because of their playability and tone, but I might just switch back because of this chirping/ringing noise.

FYI I playing on a martin dreadnought with medium gauge martin strings.

Cheers,
Josh

1 Like
#23

First, welcome to the forum! I’d have to hear it myself…it may not be as undesirable as you think :slight_smile: Can you take a vid?

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#24

https://banjoben-discourse-upload.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/ba449b9cf4a8db58263d304ceececc64d8c1abbe.m4a https://banjoben-discourse-upload.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/2X/2/2038439e65c4b0903209843ff5dfc7eff1f22f0d.m4a

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#25

Hey Ben,

Thanks for the quick response. I posted a few recordings that showcase the sound. I can probably record a video later if that would work better. Let me know!

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Josh

2 Likes
#26

Welcome to the forum, @joshuatbeasley!

It doesn’t sound super drastic to me, but it sounds like you might be angling your pick a little too far downward. I get the same type of sound on my two unwound strings if I angle my pick too far downward/towards the bridge. I’d suggest angling it slightly flatter and see if it helps. Picking slightly heavier/more strongly might help as well, as if you pick more quietly, you will get more pick noise.

Nice picking, by the way! :+1:

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#27

I agree with @Michael_Mark, also you should consider a pick with a more rounded edge. My fave is the TP-1R 40: https://store.banjobenclark.com/products/bluechip-tp-1r-40

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#28

@Michael_Mark Thanks! That makes sense. I’ll try making those changes.
@BanjoBen I’ll check out that pick. I think I might actually prefer the rounded edge.

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#29

For flatpicking / crosspicking, I almost exclusively use blue chip picks when playing my own two guitars (Martin D18 and my “travel” guitar a Taylor 110e). Reasons: tone, just-right tackiness for good grip without over-doing it, and durability. I also really like the "Banjo Ben bum-budda=bum pick he tossed in gratis with my G-run T-shirt order, but don’t get around to using it very often because no disrespect, but the BCs live in-case nestled in the strings at about the second fret, and so there’s not much motivation to dive into the Altoids mint can in the case storage compartment (where the BB pick lives along with a bunch of 1.0mm Tortex picks). I do keep one of the Tortexes stashed in my jeans pocket for junkets to sample the merch at local guitar stores - they’re decent, yet cheap enough that if I lose it it’s no big loss (contrariwise, risk-of-loss why the Banjo Ben pick doesn’t go along on guitar store junkets).

Just started fingerpicking when Ben’s initial fingerpicking lessons came out - so far, I’m going all-natural fingers, no Thumb or finger-picks, even though I have a set in my pick-case of each of my two respective guitars. I strictly use the fleshy parts of my thumb and fingers - I find the fingernails of my right picking hand are more hinderance than help, and so keep 'em clipped short, maybe not as relentlessly as for my left fretting hand, but enough to keep the nails reliably out of the way. I have no trouble getting good tone with just fleshy finger pads; rather I find it more challenging to cleanly fret notes for fingerpicking than flatpicking, especially with using the thumb vastly more often to fret the 6th string fingerpicking than with flatpicking (only rarely use the thumb for fretting there).

Finding the right picking material (pick or finger-part) seems to be 1/3 materials science, 1/3 technique, and 1/3 taste, and everyone comes up eventually with what seems the right mix for their purposes.

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#30

One BIG downside to Blue Chip picks (apart from their being rather expensive) is their brown color would be the perfect choice if the primary goal was camouflage. Just try to find it if you inadvertently drop one on a red-brown oriental rug. Supposedly the material they are made from is infeasible to make in a different color than mud-brown, which is why they aren’t actually blue.

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#31

So true. My BC CT55 gets lost all the time on my cherry kitchen table. Thinking about implanting an RFID chip in it so I can find it with a scanner.

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#32

Paint it, haha! I’m gonna paint mine the color of Pringles.

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#33

Ha i see what u did there!! :rofl:

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#34

Always been a mystery to me, why Blue-Chip picks are actually Brown…….hmmmm

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#35

I don’t have any quick witted puns, unfortunately, but their color choice was clever as a way to drum up business…

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#36

From the BlueChip website:

The specially formulated material used to create BlueChip Picks is brown as a result of the complex chemical makeup and processes it undergoes. BlueChip picks is named after our machine shop, Blue Chip Machining. Unfortunately there is no way to change the color of the material without changing the chemical makeup. Odd as it may seem, BlueChip Picks only come in brown.

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#37

Thanks for these Jake I watched them all.

I’ve always been interested in what real tortoise shell sounds like and how much work you have to put into maintaining these picks.

I got some “natural” material picks a couple of years ago - different types of bone and horn. I don’t think I appreciated them fully - but can seen how they do give a more balanced tone. I’ve not used them much.

In reality I tend to pick up the last one I played and keep them in a small bowl or woven in my strings - I’ve added in a couple of the buffalo horn ones to bowl to experiment with them more.

If you ever get the opportunity it would nice to see some lessons from you.

Maybe they’re on the site already but I haven’t found them.

Thanks!

1 Like
#38

Great and thorough discussion. My question is not related to picks, though. I’ve seen both Jake and Ben with guitars that have a steel bar between the nut and the tuning posts. Is that some kind of string lock or just a handy place to store a capo? Sorry if it’s a dumb question, but I’ve been playing a long time and have never seen that. Also, I’ve been playing a long time and learn something new in every one of these topics. Thanks!

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#39

Welcome Allen! It’s a type of capo that stores behind the nut.

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#40


Hey Allen Welcome here. This is the cheapest version of that capo design.

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