I shall be going on vacation soon enough which means that people at work will be slowly waking up until the end of the week and start bombarding me with ridiculous amounts of tasks with equally if not even more exaggerated time delay requirements. It's no surprise that the monster oligarchic worldwide conglomerate I work for (it's a long story as to how I got here, one for another time) doesn't offer support nor replacement staff, and that the people I work for in this department really don't care much about the welfare of the lower-leveled employees. But I have written and ranted about this ad nauseum in another blog I run (one where people actually go to and read), so suffice it to say this may be my last post in a while since I will be principally offline during my time off. So let me just right into it,
The plectrum, or pick, is a (generally) inexpensive but impostant piece of gear for the stringed instrument player. I play bass myself, with a but of guitar noodling when required, and the bass I've had the love/hate relationship for over 25 years now (or so) is the Steinberger system Hohner "The Jack" headless bass:
The advantage of this bass is it's size: due to the fact that it is of a smaller design than the traditional bass, it fits in a regular guitar case. The disadvantage, aside from being laughed at by the "cool" and "real" musicians, is that the strings are rare, hard to find, and expensive. Where guitar players and regular bass players have a real myriad of different types of strings to choose from, the Hohner bass, using the pattented Steinberger system, basically has "one". Yes I could custome order strings from the Status graphite company but that would easily cost me triple the price of the "generic" types of bass strings available for "The jack".
But the pick, or the plectrum, is a more affordable piece of gear which can greatly influence the style of playing as well as the sound. I myself sort of went a bit crazy of late with the whole pick/plectrum universe and discovered that you can get all sorts of picks in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and materials. From the common hard plastic generic brand to a unique custom-made out of meteorite fragments (no kidding!), passing through custom logos and design prints to oddball shapes, one can easily get overwhelmed in this universe, and one can just as easily begin a love affair with the sheer artistery of the pick's creation.
Anyway, my style of playing and prefered sound is far from the usual and traditional usually associated with the typical bass player. This is why I have recently ordered a few different types of picks online, in the hopes these will re-envigorate my love for the instrument.
After I purchased a pack of 1mm thick plastic-like picks which fall under the more traditional format, I went with the stainless steel:
Stainless Steel picks are supposedly "indestructible" and will last a lifetime. They are also reputed to literally shred through your strings if played violently for extended periods of time. They also give you a shorter and straigter attack with a more gripping sound.
Next I went with the horn material pick:
Much like the whole turtle shell picks which are illegal for obvious reasons, picks made out of animal material are indeed something which would go against my principals. However most horn-material pick manufacturers (and you can imagine there aren't all that many) used material from leftovers and residues, meaning they don't activally seek out animals to use their horns as plectrum materials. Usually, a buffalo's horns are used for these.
Next, the Bone plectrum:
Like the horn above, this is a bit of a touchy subject as again ot comes from animal parts. But I found a crafter who uses strictly bone leftovers from slaughterhouses who would otherwise just discard the bone leftovers. Bone, a bit like horn (but slightly more so), is also a very hard, very durable material which doesn't bend or break easily and creates a brighter-toned bass sound, or as I like to call it, "crunchy" (a term I used since the 80s).
Finally as a bonus, I got an ebony pick:
People say that a wood pick's sound is unique to the type of wood and how it is crafted, which essentially means that each wooden pick is different. There are nor only articles and websites out there in the internet land dedicated to the pick/plectrum, but I found one blogsite dedicated strictly to wooden picks! The material apparently produces a more subdued sound, a bit more subtle, but warm, and it all dépends on the actual wood used. Ebony is apparently one of the richer, fuller, crispier types of sound which should fall in the "crunchy" required category, which is why I purchased one. It was also crafted by the same artist who did my 2 bone picks.
By the way I haven't tried any of these yet as I am still waiting on delivery of these picks.
Below are two plastic picks I have in my present arsenal. To the left is a barely used pick of medium-large thickness, and to the right is a thick gauge pick (1mm thickness) which got eaten up from playing in the bands A.K.A.inc. (https://www.discogs.com/artist/3623187-AKAinc) and of course the Ze Zinjanthropes Brachycéphales Ft'Gh group:
The plectrum, or pick, is a (generally) inexpensive but impostant piece of gear for the stringed instrument player. I play bass myself, with a but of guitar noodling when required, and the bass I've had the love/hate relationship for over 25 years now (or so) is the Steinberger system Hohner "The Jack" headless bass:
The advantage of this bass is it's size: due to the fact that it is of a smaller design than the traditional bass, it fits in a regular guitar case. The disadvantage, aside from being laughed at by the "cool" and "real" musicians, is that the strings are rare, hard to find, and expensive. Where guitar players and regular bass players have a real myriad of different types of strings to choose from, the Hohner bass, using the pattented Steinberger system, basically has "one". Yes I could custome order strings from the Status graphite company but that would easily cost me triple the price of the "generic" types of bass strings available for "The jack".
But the pick, or the plectrum, is a more affordable piece of gear which can greatly influence the style of playing as well as the sound. I myself sort of went a bit crazy of late with the whole pick/plectrum universe and discovered that you can get all sorts of picks in all sorts of shapes, sizes, and materials. From the common hard plastic generic brand to a unique custom-made out of meteorite fragments (no kidding!), passing through custom logos and design prints to oddball shapes, one can easily get overwhelmed in this universe, and one can just as easily begin a love affair with the sheer artistery of the pick's creation.
Anyway, my style of playing and prefered sound is far from the usual and traditional usually associated with the typical bass player. This is why I have recently ordered a few different types of picks online, in the hopes these will re-envigorate my love for the instrument.
After I purchased a pack of 1mm thick plastic-like picks which fall under the more traditional format, I went with the stainless steel:
Next I went with the horn material pick:
Much like the whole turtle shell picks which are illegal for obvious reasons, picks made out of animal material are indeed something which would go against my principals. However most horn-material pick manufacturers (and you can imagine there aren't all that many) used material from leftovers and residues, meaning they don't activally seek out animals to use their horns as plectrum materials. Usually, a buffalo's horns are used for these.
Next, the Bone plectrum:
Like the horn above, this is a bit of a touchy subject as again ot comes from animal parts. But I found a crafter who uses strictly bone leftovers from slaughterhouses who would otherwise just discard the bone leftovers. Bone, a bit like horn (but slightly more so), is also a very hard, very durable material which doesn't bend or break easily and creates a brighter-toned bass sound, or as I like to call it, "crunchy" (a term I used since the 80s).
Finally as a bonus, I got an ebony pick:
People say that a wood pick's sound is unique to the type of wood and how it is crafted, which essentially means that each wooden pick is different. There are nor only articles and websites out there in the internet land dedicated to the pick/plectrum, but I found one blogsite dedicated strictly to wooden picks! The material apparently produces a more subdued sound, a bit more subtle, but warm, and it all dépends on the actual wood used. Ebony is apparently one of the richer, fuller, crispier types of sound which should fall in the "crunchy" required category, which is why I purchased one. It was also crafted by the same artist who did my 2 bone picks.
By the way I haven't tried any of these yet as I am still waiting on delivery of these picks.
Below are two plastic picks I have in my present arsenal. To the left is a barely used pick of medium-large thickness, and to the right is a thick gauge pick (1mm thickness) which got eaten up from playing in the bands A.K.A.inc. (https://www.discogs.com/artist/3623187-AKAinc) and of course the Ze Zinjanthropes Brachycéphales Ft'Gh group:
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