Strumming pick

[spychocyco]

I've admittedly never been much of an acoustic player, and when I do play acoustic, I tend to use my fingers because I like the sound better. As the days have gotten warmer, I've found myself playing acoustic more because I can take it out on the patio and play while my son plays in the back yard.

For as long as I can remember, I've used Dunlop Tortex .60mm picks. They became my favorites years ago after I experimented with tons of picks ranging from paper thin to thick enough to stop a bullet and in all different materials. They've got a perfect balance between flexibility and attack to me, and I still love them for my electric and single note stuff on the acoustic. The problem is that I'm beginning to strum more things on acoustic. When I play something with heavy up-and-down strumming, my old faithful picks are slipping and sliding all over the place on me. It's like somebody's oiled these things. I don't have any other slipping problems with the picks, only when I strum. To be honest, I'm not sure if it's a pick problem or those glassy-smooth calluses I have on my thumb and index finger from using them to pluck for so long.

So, I'm thinking that I either need a pick with a little more texture that will give me a better grip (probably) or perhaps a lighter weight pick that will have less resistance as it hits the strings. So, does anyone out there have a favorite strumming pick that they'd recommend I try?

[Kevin Taylor]

I use the Jim Dunlop .60mm for just about everything (mostly using the side of the pick rather than the tip)
On acoustics, if it's extended strumming or hard strumming though, I'll switch to a lighter Jim Dunlop .38mm using the tip.
For extra texture I use DAVA Control picks by Dave Storey. He also makes a multi-gauge pick that lets you adjust the tips flexibility depending on how hard you grasp it. So you can use it for both leads and strumming.

[light487]

Yeh I use 0.84mm for just about everything and I find them to be light enough for the majority of my strumming and firm enough for the majority of my picking. As Kevin said, if I am going for more strumming than picking I will tend to select a lighter pick but as I don't use my acoustic as much I tend to just stick with the one thickness... 0.60mm is about as thin as I like to go though. The 0.60mm was my favourite for a long time but it's the 0.84mm that is my favourite now...

For extra texture I use DAVA Control picks by Dave Storey. He also makes a multi-gauge pick that lets you adjust the tips flexibility depending on how hard you grasp it.

I have a few like that not sure if it's exactly the same thing but I thought they might come in handy so I grabbed a few but I've hardly even used them. I also have an aluminium (aluminum for you Americans :)) pick as well.. not much good really unless you really do want to hear the scratchy sound of metal-on-metal.. sounds dreadful to me though... I have a little plastic bag in my hard case with all my "emergency" and odd picks.. but I usually just use the same 2 or 3 picks over and over..