You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose...

... but, you can't wipe your friends on the couch.

No scooter, bike, boat, dolphin stuff in this post - it's all about the picks.  Well, taking your pick of the picks.

Guitars get all the attention.  Oh, amps and PAs, too.  Straps and strings.  I have my favorites.  But, the pick you pick makes a difference, as well.

I ran some tests today with a variety of picks.  Well, not so much "tests," because there was nothing scientific about it... I played different guitars with different picks to see what sounds the best (to me).

Is there really a difference, you ask?  OK, you probably didn't ask that.  If you aren't a guitar person, you probably didn't make it this far in today's post.  Yes, there is a difference.  What you see above are different manufacturers, sizes, materials, thickness... and cost.  The cost range in the picks above is from less than $1 to more than $25.

If you're still reading, now you're asking: Does a $25 pick sound 25 times better than a $1 pick?  Well, there is more to it than that.

Also, I prefer different picks on different guitars.

Starting the top left: a Gravity Gold Series, a Tusq, Guitar Moose Pro Sticky-Pick (carbon fiber), a Charmed Life Brown Series, and a Dunlap Prime-Tone.  Bottom row, left to right: a "no name" pick trying to look like tortoise-shell, a home-made acrylic pick, a Gravity Classic acrylic, and a Taylor heavy.

Yes, they all sound different.  The material and thickness matter.  While any of them would work, I find the Gravity Gold is my favorite on my Emerald X7, and the Gravity Classic 1.1mm and the Charmed Life brown 1.15mm tie for favorites on the X20.  All three of those picks fall into the "premium" category.  Nice rich sound, very little pick noise (the sound of the pick striking the strings).

Least favorite would be the Dunlap Prime-Tone and the faux tortoise-shell, due mostly to the overly bright sound.  The others fall into the "OK" category.  The Guitar Moose pick (top row, center) is unique in that it has a sticky thicker material where you hold it, carbon fiber on the bottom.  The Taylor is a typical celluloid pick (think: Fender heavy) that is less than a buck... this type of pick is what most guitar players use, and it sounds decent.  I used something similar to that for over 4 decades - a Wabash Blue, which you can still find used on eBay for about $12 and up.  Back in my day (insert your own old-guy joke here), I used to buy these by the fist-full (and break a couple each night).  I think a gross of them was less than $10 in my mis-spent youth.  Who knew cheap guitar picks would appreciate in value?  ;-)