The Complete Handbook of Guitar Picks

Chapter 1: Understanding Guitar Picks

The guitar pick, in its most basic description, is a small, flat implement used to strike or pluck a string. That is a functional truth, but it does not begin to describe the complexity involved in its design. Every time a player holds a pick, they are connecting their body to the string via a tiny piece of engineered polymer. That material, its thickness, its shape, and its surface texture all act as a medium or a filter between physical effort and acoustic result. To understand the guitar pick is to understand this interface, and that means looking at what the pick is, what forces act upon it, and what its physical properties mean for your playing.

When a pick strikes a string, it does not simply hit it and stop. The pick is a flexible beam, momentarily held at one end by your fingers and free to act at the other tip. On impact, the flex or rigidity of that beam determines how the energy is transferred. A very thick and rigid pick, like a 3.0mm nylon or Delrin model, transfers a large portion of the kinetic energy of the strike directly into the string. This results in a loud, immediate attack with a sharp, defined transient. The string is displaced quickly and the initial sound is aggressive. Conversely, a very thin pick, such as a 0.40mm celluloid, will bend backward upon hitting the string. This flex absorbs and delays some of the energy.