Natural Picks - These aren't the picks I'm looking for...

Having enjoyed trying out wooden picks in the recent past, such as Purus picks, I was intrigued when I received a couple of wooden plectrums from a small company called Natural Music Store. Their website states that Natural Music is a company dedicated to making "instrument accessories that are cosmetically stunning, and producing products that help musicians achieve the tone they've been looking for", however after trying these picks out, these aren't the picks I'm looking for *waves hand to signify use of Jedi mind trick*.

For a reasonably expensive plectrum ($8 for one pick, with larger purchases costing less per plectrum), these picks feel quite cheaply made. I couldn't tell you what wood was used in the construction, but it is light in colour and weight, and not very strong, which is disappointing. With previous wooden picks I've tried I noticed subtle wear over the first week of regular playing, however I definitely wouldn't have been able to snap one of those plectrums!

Being wooden, these picks do feel comfortable in the hand, with a pleasant natural grip to them, and I expect that some will choose these picks on their feel alone. Unfortunately, I can't imagine that many would choose these picks for their tone. For a 'boutique' plectrum (and by boutique I mean expensive), these picks have a very loud string attack, even what playing gently, which provides the only brightness to the overall tone that there is. The general tone of the plectrum is delicate and warm, which would work really nicely for a variety of settings, especially in acoustic playing, however I really struggled with the volume of the attack noise and string scraping. Whilst many plectrums I've tried for The Pick have striven to reduce the amount of friction between the pick and the string, it seems little attention was paid in this area for Natural Music, with scratchy noises even on the high E string.

It is worth pointing out that this is my own opinion, and I'm sure that some people will really enjoy these plectrums however they definitely aren't for me. As I previously alluded to, I managed to snap one of these plectrums when testing out it's bendiness, which really didn't fill me with confidence regarding each plectrum's life span - I think I'd prefer to use one of the 10-for-£1 music shop own brand plectrums, which is unfortunate, because I have played a couple of really nice wooden picks.

Why not check out Natural Music Store's website - I'm not going to recommend trying out these picks as the retail price suggests a higher quality than these products deliver, but check out their website and let me know what you think! Also remember to follow The Pick on social media, links in the side bar.