Dragon's Heart Guitar Picks Spotlight!

Ever since I saw my first Dragon's Heart Pick I was intrigued by the original shape and the really nice, classy design, so when I received a package of them in the post I couldn't wait to try them out. I was given four different types of Dragon's Heart Pick to try, the original, Pure, Hardened and GT. All four of these picks are predominantly made of the same material, polyamide-imide, but with varying amounts of other materials in each of the picks, giving varied tone, feel and speed.

The first thing you'll notice about these picks is the shape. Each pick has three playing sides for different styles. In general, the pointed side is for lead playing, the rounded side for rhythm playing, and the in-between side for a bit of both. Starting with the in-between side, this part of the pick feels like the everyday tip - the tone isn't too bright or too dull, the pick skips quickly over the strings, and feels great. The pointed part has a more obvious attack to the sound and is generally louder, whilst the rounded side has a great natural compression, making strumming and rhythm work sound nice and even.

The Original Dragon's Heart pick is made of polyamide-imide like all of these picks, but with a 12% graphite content. This makes playing fast, alternate picking runs a dream - graphite has a very low coefficient of friction, reducing the amount of force required to play each string, which means as well as speedy licks being easy to play, strummed rhythm parts don't have any scratchy, annoying sounds, and this effect can be further enhanced by using the rounded tip. On their website, it states that this pick last for over 1000 hours of playing time before the edges become too worn to play with, and whilst I haven't tested each of these picks for 1000 hours each, I don't doubt it - this material is tough!

Next up is the Pure Dragon's Heart Pick. This pick doesn't have any added materials to the product, and exhibits the unaltered tonal qualities of the primary material in all these picks. The attack of this pick is notably softer, but other than that, it is tonally very similar to the original. These picks are very easy to hold, with a material which is naturally very grippy and engravings on both sides, and whilst they may be a bit thicker than some are used to (2.5mm), I've found that thicker picks are easier to hold onto. Because of this, I'd say this pick would be great for someone who doesn't know where to start in their search for their perfect plectrum, or a beginner - either way, this pick is tonally balanced and easy to hold.

The Hardened Dragon's Pick has a 30% glass fibre content along with the same polyamide-imide material in the others, which extends the life of this pick to 1500 hours of playing time. As well as increasing the durability, the addition of the glass fibre has increased the brightness of this pick, something I really enjoy as it gives me more tonal variation by playing dynamically. The attack of this pick is also a lot more audible, although not too much as to become an annoyance, but this works really well for lead parts, and paired with the increased brightness, this allows you to really push your guitar amp in the same way as an overdrive pedal might do, which is great, I think this pick might be my favourite of the lot!

Finally is the Dragon's Heart GT. This pick is 30% carbon fibre, which makes the product play very fast, but still maintains the same grippy surface. Compared to the Hardened pick, this has a warmer tone, and the attack is less obvious, but you can still really push the input of your amp with this pick.

Overall, these picks have a really cool, innovative design which isn't by any means gimmicky but work great to give a varied feel and sound. In general, I'd say these picks are for rock/metal guitarists, because of the pure unaltered speed you can play at with limited resistance, however the three tip choices make these picks great for varying dynamics, so I could see these working really well for the blues too. The quality of the build of these picks is great too, and coming in at just under $9, they're well worth checking out!

Do you use Dragon's Heart guitar picks? Which model do you prefer? Let me know in the comments. Remember to follow me on social medias to see when a new blog post is up, and share with all your guitarist friends - it's greatly appreciated!