Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Pick Placement Relative to Sound Hole?

I started paying attention to how I set my guitar and it is almost a natural thing for me to hold the guitar on my left leg I guess I do that with out even thinking about it and have for years . I also play right in front of the cut out of the hole, bridge side of the sound hole . We all do what it best for us and that is as it should be .

My avatar proves that out does it not >??

I think the avatar does agree with your description. What a coincidence! :smiley:

I will add one thing to the pick placement discussion that ties into another thread I posted. For flatpicking, I play more towards the bridge. When I play at church there is a fair amount of strumming (sometimes fast) that is involved. The combination of strumming alot near the bridge with a rigid pick seems to wear the equipment down much quicker. The saddles wear grooves, strings break, etc. While it took an attitude adjustment, it’s not the end of the world… I’d rather have to maintain my guitars a bit more and get more of the music I want as opposed to treating them like fine china and have them stay like brand new until I am put under the ground. Since I became aware of it, I have been able to mitigate it a bit (softer picking hand, not strumming hard real close to the bridge) but I am still touching up the saddle on my stage guitars with every string change.

I find that I am more inclined to be concerned with my pick placement relative to the strings more than anything else. When the pick is not close to the strings, I can’t seem to get any tone at all! But back when I was starting to play the guitar, I did find that my pick was not only close to the sound hole, but often fell right in. :astonished:

But back on topic, I started playing guitar before I knew what felt right to play it. So I have a tendency to change legs and in turn change my posture to accommodate the different guitar positions. The rock side of me wants to play with the guitar resting on my right leg, while the classical guitar side of me want to play on my left leg. Honestly, the left leg position allows my shoulders to be relaxed and level, so is probably a better position ergonomically. In addition, the left leg position more closely represents how I hold the guitar when standing using a strap. In both positions, I have practiced to keep my picking hand away from the top of the guitar so that I can have better control and more power with my picking hand. The actual pick location when it strikes the string for me is near dead center of the sound hole. Back when I was resting my palm on the bridge, the pick would strike near the bottom of the sound hole (brighter tone).

— Begin quote from "drguitar"

The actual pick location when it strikes the string for me is near dead center of the sound hole. Back when I was resting my palm on the bridge, the pick would strike near the bottom of the sound hole (brighter tone).

— End quote

I’m a wanderer in position. In the last couple years I’ve moved the opposite direction (towards the bridge). For me it’s a tradeoff in what kind of tone sounds right to me at a given time. I used to loved the rounder tone more towards the neck whereas lately I’ve been liking the punchiness from moving back more towards the bridge. I also like the feel of picking more towards the bridge. I suspect in a few months I’ll be picking up over the fretboard.