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For years now I have been using the same type of guitar pick, the Dunlop Tortex Standard 1.0mm. When I first began playing I think they were the Delrin Standard Dunlops and tried a couple of Big Stubby’s but never really liked them. Well last week if you read my Twitter feed you will know I bought some new picks, a few Dunlop Nylon Jazz III’s and a few Ultex Jazz III’s. My first impression when they arrived was that they are tiny, I’m not used to picks this small but when I held one they actually felt pretty comfortable and I realised that with my recently revised picking technique I don’t need a large pick anymore, if I still used 3 fingers to hold the pick I probably wouldn’t be able to hold these picks! I spent a few hours putting them both through their paces and so far, and it has only been a week so this may change, the Ultex is my favourite so far, I like that it is more rigid and seems to glide over the strings better, I’ve never really like the feel of Nylon picks. I do feel that these picks seem to improve my picking accuracy, maybe this is because the smaller shape feels a bit more natural to me and less clumsy? Who knows, Paul Gilbert said in a recent DunlopTV interview that he likes big picks so I think it is an individual thing.

I’ve seen so many people saying that once you try Jazz III’s you will never use another pick again, I’ve known for years that Eric Johnson uses them in fact he has his own signature Jazz III now based on a laser-scan of his favourite pick and Joe Bonamassa apparently uses Jazz III’s too. I’m yet to try the new Ultex sharps so I will hold off on whether this is the case for me for a few weeks but it certainly seems possible.

I put a shout out on Twitter to see how many people use Jazz III’s and was surprised at the response, it seems they are a favourite among many guitar players but I want to know what else do people use, what is your pick? and do you think it makes a difference to your playing?

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