“Exploring the Picker’s Choice 1118 words
Picks are very personal and worth taking a closer look at. What kind of picks do you use, and which electric guitars are most suitable for fingerpicking? The great majority of us use flatpicks. Some of us play Nashville-style with a flatpick plus our fingers, or a flatpick with one or two plastic or metal fingerpicks. Then there are those of us who use a thumbpick and our fingers, or thumbpick and fingerpicks. I’m one of the guys who uses a thumbpick and fingerpicks. I use a National or Dunlop white plastic thumbpick, filed down (but more on that later) and two Dunlop 020 gauge metal fingerpicks. There are many great models and styles available from National, Dunlop, Fred Kelly, D’Andrea, and other manufacturers.
Which electric guitars are easiest for us guys who use thumb- and fingerpicks? The question came about because, although I do use flatpicks with my Strats and Teles, I was having trouble striking the guitar tops when using a thumbpick. Besides the loud clacking, it messed up my playing. It was a song-stopper.
So, what are the variables that make it either harder or easier for us to use thumb- and fingerpicks on an electric guitar? The three most important things I learned from measuring are: the length of the thumbpick, the height of the strings above the guitar top, and the space between the pickups. String gauge is not a factor.
On an acoustic guitar, finger-style players are concerned with the width of the strings at the nut. Wider is better. A 1 ¾” or a 1 7/8” inch nut will be easier to pick and finger individual notes. Electric guitars vary very little at the nut. Most are either 1.650 or 1.687. As it turns out, there is also very little variation in the width of the strings between the first and second pickups. 50mm seems to be the magic number here. This also makes perfect sense, because if most electric guitars are the same width at the nut, most necks will be close in measurement, including string spacing at the pickups.
I decided to measure a cross-section of instruments to see which are easiest to play with fingerpicks. I measured 1 – width of strings between pickups one and two, 2 – Distance from the strings to the guitar top at the center of the first two pickups, 3 – Distance from the strings to the top of the first pickup, 4 – Distance from the strings to the top of the second pickup, 5 – Space between the first and second pickup. I didn’t measure the nut because they are mostly all the same, and are narrower than acoustic guitars. As it turns out, the distance between the strings and the pickups is not a number that impacts our playing. The pickups are way too high, and you really can’t pick over the top of them with a thumbpick. At least I couldn’t. So that makes the distance between pickups very important.
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The Epiphone Emperor has considerably more space between the pickups than
the Fender Stratocaster.
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Most archtop guitars like the EPI Emperor have more space from strings to
guitar top than solid bodies like the Fender Stratocaster
I also measured the length of the thumbpicks themselves. It turns out that the shorter picks do not come in contact with guitar tops as often as the longer picks, and of course that makes sense. Every millimeter that you remove from the thumbpick is like adding a millimeter to the space between the strings and the guitar top. I also find there is more control with a shorter pick. It’s less squirrely.
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The photograph shows five thumbpicks, points ranging from 12 mm to 5 mm long. (10 millimeters equals .039 of an inch. 13 millimeters equals .51 of an inch.) The smaller the pick, the more freedom of movement. You have to decide what the optimum length is for your playing style. That should come first. It’s very easy to file down any plastic thumbpick using sandpaper, a small file, or even using metal cutting pliers first, and then sandpaper to remove rough edges.
But exactly what is the best distance from the strings to the top, or the space between pickups? Some of us play without any wasted movements. We put our picking hand in exactly the same position each time. I’m one of those guys. However, some of us are all over the place. We are highly animated, dance about having a grand old time, picking wherever our hand decides to go. So for lively pickers, you need more space.
It isn’t too hard to predict what the results would be. Before measuring I guessed that the higher the string from the guitar top, and the wider the distance was between the pickups, the better the instrument would be for picking. Yup, that was it.
The Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster that I love to flatpick, gave me some trouble fingerpicking. Robbie Robertson eliminated the middle pickup of his Strat because he was always hitting it with his picks. He usually played with a flat- and fingerpicks, and the middle pickup got in the way of his technique. Strats and Teles average about 10mm between strings and top of guitar. You can still use a thumbpick, but you have to file it down to a nubbin. A long thumbpick will constantly hit the top of the guitar between the strings.
I found that the point at which any thumbpick can be used successfully on any guitar is a 13mm distance between the strings and the top. All Les Pauls were fine. The easiest of all were the hollow-bodied archtops such as the Epiphone Joe Pass Emperor, the Gibson L5, or Gretsch guitars. The closer the pickups are to each other, the more restricted your picking movements will be. I found the distance of 50mm (there’s that magic number again) to be ideal. I put my hand in the same place each time, but your mileage may vary. The Emperor has a huge 83mm gap between pickups, and the strings are 21mm above the guitar top. This is actually greater than the distance from the strings to the top of my Martin acoustic, which is 12mm by the bridge. Naturally if you pick over the sound hole on an acoustic, there is no problem.
For all you thumbpicking shredders out there, don’t despair. In general, archtop, hollow-bodied guitars have more space, but not all solid bodies are created equal. The Ibanez RG6003FM has a string height of 13mm and the pickups are 54mm apart. The Schecter Demon 6 has a generous height of 16mm, and the pickups are 53mm apart. Both these guitars were great to fingerpick. There are many other solid-bodied guitars with similar spacing. By modifying the picks we use, we can make our playing easier regardless of the instrument we choose.
(PHOTOS UPON REQUEST)
(THE CHART BELOW SHOWS ALL THE MEASUREMENTS DISCUSSED IN THE ARTICLE)
GUITARWIDTH OF STRINGSDISTANCE OF STRINGS DISTANCE OFDISTANCE OFSPACE
E TO E AT CENTERPOINTTO GUITAR TOPSTRINGS TO STRINGS TOBETWEEN
OF PICKUPSAT CENTERPOINTTOP OF 1ST P.U.TOP OF 2ND P.U.1ST & 2ND P.U.
Epiphone Les Paul50mm13mm4mm3mm60mm
100th Anniversary
Fender Deluxe54mm10mm6mm5mm42mm
Player’s Strat
Fender Deluxe50mm9mm3mm4mm95mm
Tele W/Bigsby
Epiphone Joe50mm21mm5mm4mm83mm
Pass Emperor
Hagstrom Viking50mm19mm5mm4mm63mm
6 string W/Bigsby
Hagstrom Viking53mm14mm5mm3mm62mm
12 string
Martin RG16CE55mm12mm (by bridge)
Acoustic 6 string
Epiphone50mm14mm4mm3mm70mm
Sheraton Pro II
Epiphone Les Paul50mm14mm5mm4mm67mm
Plus Top
Gretsch G5622T48mm17mm6mm4mm58mm
Double Cut-A-Way
Ibanez RG6003FM52mm13mm5mm4mm54mm
Solid Body
Schecter Demon 650mm16mm5mm3mm53mm
Solid Body
Fender Tele53mm8mm3mm3mm95mm
FSR
Fender Player’s50mm10mm7mm6mm42mm
Strat
Gretsch G5420T50mm22mm6mm5mm58mm
Hollow Body
(NOTE: OF COURSE THE FORMAT COMPLETELY BLEW OUT WHEN I TRIED TO COPY IT INTO THIS SPACE. IT REALLY IS A GREAT LOOKING CHART)
Many thanks in advance for your time and consideration.
All the best,
Joe Randazzo
8 Woosdide Drive
South Burlington, VT 05403
Tel. 802-864-6662
e-mail: wordsmiths_communications@msn.com