My 37-Year Journey To Find The Right Pick - Ask Zac 115

well hello friends and welcome to
0:29
another Ask Zac hope you're doing well
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today we're going to talk about guitar
0:32
picks it's the fastest way to change the
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tone and feel and the way you interact
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with the guitar and so I'm going to
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kind of talk about my
0:43
pick journey through the years from
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i guess 1985 to 2022 that's how long
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I've been playing the guitar
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so yeah and uh and on the way just i
0:55
hope you'll get the just the importance
0:58
of picks and it can't be
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you know overstated just it's such an
1:02
inexpensive way even like some crazy
1:04
expensive pick
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like people you know guffaw over like a
1:09
blue chip pick which i i have and have
1:11
used
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that's like 35 40 bucks it's like still
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these picks you know they make a big
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difference in the way you interact with
1:18
the guitar and it just comes down to
1:20
whether you like it or not all right
1:22
so
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as always i really appreciate you guys
1:26
supporting the show uh if you've been
1:29
enjoying the show please subscribe
1:32
to support the show there's multiple
1:33
ways there's tip jar information in the
1:36
description you can go to askzak.com and
1:38
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1:40
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1:42
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1:45
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1:48
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1:50
and
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you actually get some asks that guitar
1:53
picks from me
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and you get to see the episodes early
1:56
without commercials all right so let's
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just dive in
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again uh you know
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learning to play the guitar you know
2:04
getting into it 1985
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i went to my local music store
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which was called the music man in
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Kingsville Texas
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and the guy opened up a tray of Jim
2:14
Dunlop
2:15
nylon picks
2:18
like this
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and you know and i felt through them and
2:22
so i picked up like a dark gray and a
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light gray one the light grey one was a
2:26
little a little more flexible a little
2:27
lighter gauge
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and used those quite a bit you know of
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course i was mainly strumming and i
2:32
really liked
2:33
the flexibility and plus it was just
2:35
that's what there was
2:37
and also of course i tried you know the
2:39
celluloid you know picks that would have
2:41
been uh you know they're always you know
2:43
somewhat prevalent
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uh enjoyed it uh but you know just kind
2:47
of continued to want to try some
2:49
different picks
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on a side note
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i thought the only way to use a pick was
2:55
to use the point but i found out
2:58
through the years that especially these
3:00
nylon picks whether it's
3:02
dunlop's version or herco or heard him
3:05
or whoever it is
3:07
a lot of guys like to use the shoulder
3:10
part of the pick so that you get this
3:12
raised part and it gets a scratchy sound
3:14
and so the edge has used that but even
3:17
guys is you know
3:19
like uh joe Walsh found out recently
3:21
that joe Walsh has used the shoulder of
3:25
a Dunlop or herco type pick for most of
3:28
his career and
3:29
so i thought that was just really
3:31
interesting so this is you know that's a
3:33
sound you know and it gets you kind of a
3:35
scratchy sound by uh by doing that so
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anyway so i went from from this
3:42
to the next time i was in there and
3:44
wanting to try some different picks i
3:46
bought uh
3:47
this Jim Dunlop tortex pick which i kind
3:51
of liked it but it was it was stiffer it
3:52
didn't have the give to it which of
3:54
course it gave me a stronger and
3:56
brighter tone than the nylon did
3:59
but i i just i wasn't sure that i liked
4:01
it and i didn't like that it just didn't
4:02
have much give to it
4:05
so then
4:06
i really started coming under the spell
4:08
of country guitar players
4:10
and specifically ray flack who was
4:12
playing on you know Ricky Skaggs records
4:14
and playing on other people's records
4:16
too
4:17
but uh you know of course they he did a
4:19
starlix video and in the video he talks
4:21
about his strings and picks and i found
4:23
out that he used these Steve zuk speed
4:26
picks
4:27
that were that were twisted on the end
4:30
and so
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i got some of these
4:33
and so in the same gauge and shape so i
4:35
got the little jazz size and in medium
4:39
and you know of course i mean it was 75
4:41
cents or something like that
4:44
but it was a way for me to be like my
4:45
hero because i couldn't afford a 68 tele
4:47
in a lab series l9 amp and a deluxe
4:51
memory man
4:52
so i uh i got got got these started
4:56
using them and i found that it was nice
4:58
because it did kind of hit the string
5:00
uh better instead of hitting it at an
5:03
angle i mean it kind of hit it straight
5:05
on because that's what the angle does it
5:07
kind of gets it into a
5:08
fun position these are also somewhat
5:11
bright sounding picks
5:13
i didn't like the uh the size of the
5:16
pick and so i ended up getting the the
5:19
full size you know 351 size speed pick
5:22
with the twist on the end so i kept
5:24
using that for a while
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what i didn't like about this pick was
5:29
uh
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you know when i started playing a little
5:31
more acoustic like strumming acoustic i
5:33
really didn't like them for that
5:36
so
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and this this didn't help i started
5:39
taking guitar lessons with a guy named
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pat grogan who i just spoke on the on
5:43
the phone with just yesterday he uh he's
5:46
87 years old and still lives in the
5:48
corpus Christi area
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an amazing player an amazing teacher
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and of course a finger style player
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and so he tried to get me to use a thumb
5:56
pick
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thumb pick i tried so hard to get along
6:00
with it but i was already used to doing
6:02
up and down strokes with the pick
6:05
and so with a thumb pick now some guys
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can do up and down strokes with the
6:09
thumb pick but i was having to do down
6:11
up down up with the thumb pick and a
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finger to get up and down strokes
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and i couldn't strum for the life of me
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you know with with that and so it just
6:21
didn't take off and so then i started
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you know you know i was already getting
6:25
into picking fingers and there i just
6:27
decided I'm a flat pick guy and that's
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what I'm going to go with
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so then i moved to Nashville
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going to Belmont university and of
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course i was consuming all the guitar
6:37
magazines i could get
6:38
and there was a john Jorgensen
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interviewed Reggie young
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in a
6:44
guitar world public publication called
6:46
country guitar it was only around for a
6:48
couple of years
6:50
but i found that uh
6:52
you know
6:53
and again Reggie wasn't like a a huge
6:55
hero of mine at that point
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but i liked him and i liked the stuff
6:59
that he played on and so i found out
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that he used defender medium and he used
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the shoulder of the pick
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so of course i started doing that
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and i found that it really changed the
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sound because it again it's hitting more
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surface area
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instead of the point and it just got a
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warmer sound
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now of course since then i found out
7:19
that Stevie ray Vaughan and many many
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players have used the shoulder so this
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wasn't like some you know
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one like reggie young had invented this
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or anything like that but
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i kind of started doing that and i never
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turned back so from the mid 90s on now
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the pick might have changed
7:36
but i have always used the shoulder of
7:37
the pick i'd
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never use the point
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so and i just found that i liked the
7:43
sound of it better and it was just more
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pleasing
7:47
this is a little faster because there's
7:48
less resistance
7:50
but i just always like the sound
7:53
so
7:54
of course
7:55
going on continued to use and i would
7:57
always waffle between a fender celluloid
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medium
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or a heavy and i'd always just keep
8:03
going back and forth back and forth back
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and forth
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well then i went to work for brad
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paisley
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and of course he was having pics printed
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up by ernie ball who had an endorsement
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with he used their strings and their
8:15
picks
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and so of course you know they were
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plentiful and always around and uh so
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you know they'd end up in my pocket and
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so i'd come home and i'd end up with
8:24
some you know brad paisley picks and you
8:27
know so for many years
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um
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probably at least a decade
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i used these uh brad paisley picks which
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i still have a few of them and they're
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medium gauge
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made by ernie ball they've got ernie
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ball's logo on the back and have his
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name on the front sometimes we would
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print these up that would have the name
8:44
of whatever the current single was and
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uh so
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there's some of those out there but uh
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yeah i use these
8:52
and just as an aside
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i went to uh because when i worked for
8:56
brad it was in the early 2000s so i went
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out and did a couple of shows with him
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again as as to help out his current
9:05
guitar tech just to get kind of
9:07
acclimated
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and i
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was really interesting to find that he
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had switched to heavies and so still you
9:14
know of course you have this is red with
9:16
the black riding on it and ernie ball
9:19
but it's it's heavy gauge and he'd
9:20
always use medium before so i thought
9:22
that was interesting but i didn't really
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i didn't really like it
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now i'm going to show a pick that
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just for fun so because pics have always
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been kind of
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a fun thing for me well when my wife and
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i got married uh i of course had custom
9:38
guitar picks made up and so they say amy
9:40
and zach and then they have the
9:42
the date of our wedding 127.07
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so yeah we just passed 15
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years all right so uh
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then the probably the most recent like
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pick thing that that happened with me
9:57
was uh keith williams of five watt world
10:00
really you know was getting into blue
10:02
chip picks and also i had interviewed
10:04
red volkart and red was talking about
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how horrible
10:08
how how horrible the current supply of
10:10
celluloid pics was and how they just
10:13
weren't right and how they they wore
10:14
horribly and they didn't sound good and
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blah blah blah and of course i have a
10:19
huge amount of respect for red so i'm
10:21
not
10:22
mocking him by saying blah blah blah
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just
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you know
10:25
it was kind of like i took it in and was
10:28
listening to him and he said in the
10:30
interview that he was using a blue chip
10:32
pick well i found out how expensive they
10:34
were and so i
10:36
i kind of uh you know was in a little
10:39
shock when i found it you know they were
10:41
you know thirty forty dollars
10:43
well
10:44
keith williams so believed in the pick
10:46
that he sent me one of his to try out
10:49
and i really liked it
10:51
so uh then i had a couple
10:54
made up that even had the laser engraved
10:56
ask zach logo on there so and i really
11:00
like these these are these are good
11:02
picks the problem was is that i couldn't
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afford to have a bunch of them because
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again they're 30 40 a piece
11:10
and i found that i just really wanted to
11:11
find something that was that was close
11:14
to this that was similar
11:17
yet
11:18
wasn't
11:18
so expensive and so i wouldn't feel bad
11:21
about losing them and so i like to have
11:23
my picks you know in the little pocket
11:25
on my jeans just like most people do
11:28
or you know in my wallet and stuff and i
11:30
just didn't want to lose these
11:33
so i started doing some searching
11:36
and
11:40
what i you know i would i went back to
11:42
celluloid regular celluloid picks and i
11:44
and yes i had to agree with red to a
11:46
degree i found that there was
11:48
lots of different levels of quality of
11:51
celluloid so you could get a celluloid
11:53
pick from one company that would that
11:55
would wear well and sound good but then
11:57
you could get a cellulite pick from
11:59
another company and it would immediately
12:01
get you know
12:02
gashes in it and that would catch on the
12:05
string you just have to throw it away i
12:07
mean they just didn't wear well and so i
12:09
found that the celluloid supply was
12:11
really uh uneven
12:13
to say the least
12:16
but
12:17
i just like the sound and feel of it
12:19
and i kept going in between a medium and
12:21
a heavy gauge like i said earlier it was
12:24
always the thing where the medium had
12:25
too much flap
12:27
the heavy was too hard and i just kept
12:29
going back and forth to finally i would
12:31
just keep medium and heavy picks
12:33
in my pocket and i would switch
12:35
depending just on how i was feeling at
12:37
that point
12:38
well
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i finally just kind of got tired of it
12:42
you know carrying different picks and
12:43
then i
12:44
i remembered
12:45
it's like didn't fender make medium
12:48
heavy picks at one point
12:50
and so i looked up and sure enough they
12:52
did so it was probably back in the 60s
12:54
or 70s that they did this
12:56
but they had picks that were medium
12:59
heavy they're right in between a medium
13:00
and a heavy gauge pick and made from
13:02
celluloid well of course at this point
13:05
it's a vintage pick and people would
13:07
want money for it you know
13:09
a significant amount of money i should i
13:11
should add
13:12
well
13:13
i uh
13:14
from you know doing research on fender i
13:16
knew that d'andrea the pick manufacturer
13:19
had made fenders picks starting in the
13:22
50s and up until the the 2000s
13:25
uh you know and then fender stopped
13:27
getting their their picks from them and
13:29
they started getting their picks from
13:30
from overseas from asia
13:33
so i decided to to look up d'andria and
13:36
see if they had a medium heavy well
13:38
lo and behold they did
13:41
so
13:42
here it is
13:43
and uh
13:44
and i got you know the only way i could
13:46
get it was i had to get a bag of them
13:47
and so i did
13:49
and i loved it it was perfect and so i
13:52
made sure and i played i played on it
13:53
for a while i played some shows with it
13:56
played it on all sorts of different
13:57
instruments i found that it worked well
13:59
on acoustic and mandolin you know i i
14:01
usually like a heavier gauge with
14:03
mandolin but it could work on any
14:05
instrument that i played well it wasn't
14:07
like some horrible compromise and i just
14:09
loved it and i found out they were hard
14:11
to to find
14:13
so then it was like well i'll just order
14:16
some up and what to ask zack logo so
14:18
that's what i did
14:19
so i had a bunch of them made up with
14:21
the assac logo and that's uh and that's
14:24
the pick that i've been using for at
14:25
least the last year or so
14:27
and i love it these uh they wear well
14:31
and they feel good
14:33
and uh and they have enough of the uh
14:36
you know they they have they have enough
14:38
give but yet they're hard enough and i
14:40
just think they sound good and i've been
14:43
very very happy with these and
14:46
you know the hard part was that
14:49
you know you can find medium heavy in
14:52
other materials but the problem was
14:54
finding celluloid and i think
14:56
you know d'andry was only company that
14:58
did that
14:59
all right
15:00
so here's just an aside of you know of
15:03
course a lot of these picks besides the
15:06
medium heavy i got because of people i
15:08
was working with or guitar players that
15:10
i liked or you know whatever the case
15:12
may be and then i have to give like this
15:15
is the one like
15:17
real horror story of picks and i think
15:20
it's hilarious so the pick i hate the
15:22
most
15:23
is this jim dunlop eric johnson
15:27
pick so it says eric johnson
15:29
texas on the back
15:31
and it's like this is probably the pick
15:33
i hate the most i think it sounds for me
15:35
it sounds
15:37
god awful terrible and i know a lot of
15:39
guys like these and i have the utmost
15:42
respect for eric johnson's playing in
15:44
tone and this just
15:46
shows how
15:47
you know the the difference in the way
15:49
you dial in your rig and the way you
15:52
know your hands and everything else come
15:53
into play because of course eric johnson
15:56
uses these picks and sounds you know
15:58
amazing you know i have the utmost
16:01
respect for eric but this is one of the
16:03
worst crash and burn experiences i've
16:05
ever had with trying something that one
16:07
of your heroes used so uh i just say
16:09
that as a funny aside not certainly not
16:12
as an attack
16:13
against eric johnson because he
16:15
certainly makes these works but it's
16:17
just funny
16:18
and but again this was such a small
16:20
investment again you know i don't know
16:22
if it was a dollar or whatever it was
16:24
but
16:25
i highly recommend
16:28
that you you know just if you haven't
16:31
haven't found a pick that you love
16:33
just go to a music store and pull out 20
16:35
bucks and just
16:36
you know buy a bunch of different types
16:38
of picks get different materials
16:40
different thicknesses different shapes
16:42
you know it's like i found out you know
16:44
i hate jazz picks they're just too small
16:46
i mean i think they you know they're
16:48
fine also they kind of sound small to me
16:50
but other people make them sound great
16:52
and i like playing on the shoulder and i
16:54
like celluloid and i like the medium
16:56
heavy gauge but that came from
16:58
playing and experimenting from 1985
17:01
until 2022 so there you have it
17:05
all right guys well i hope you enjoyed
17:06
today's episode and my look at pics that
17:10
i've used through the years and i hope
17:11
you'll see it as a vehicle for you to do
17:14
your own
17:15
pick experimentation and and that you'll
17:18
find
17:19
the pick that uh
17:20
that that works best for you because
17:22
there's so much to the way you have to
17:25
you have to think about the fact that
17:26
that's the way you interact with the
17:27
instrument with your right hand you know
17:30
if you're a pick player and it's just so
17:33
important to you know it's like you can
17:35
use different gauges and it will make
17:37
the guitar feel like it has heavier
17:39
lighter gauge strings because of the
17:41
resistance
17:42
so
17:43
yeah go out there and buy a bunch of
17:44
pics try them out all right guys thank
17:47
you so much see you next time bye