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.

Iron Age Guitar Picks - Stone Picks!

I recently received quite a large selection of Iron Age guitar picks to review, including picks made of interesting materials such as carbon fibre, copper and stone. I've decided to split the review of these picks into a few different pieces, so I can focus more on the individual products, as they're all so unique and interesting. Today's review is of a couple of the stone picks.

First up is the Blue Lace Agate plectrum. This pick is made of agate stone, an extremely hard material which works great for guitar picks, as it turns out! I love the look of this pick, it has light blue, white and grey stripes in the stone, as well as the gold Iron Age logo engraved on one side. The pick is very slightly heavier than I'm used to, however I'm enjoying this attribute. The pick is polished with a very high grit, so the finish is super glossy and has very little friction on the strings, and the Iron Age website states that these picks are super durable.

When I tried this pick during a rehearsal over the weekend, I enjoyed the engraved logo on the one side as it increased the amount of grip the pick had, but also the material itself holds really well. The tone of this pick is bright but with enough bottom end for clean lead playing, but the area this pick really shines in is rock rhythm playing. Due to the frictionless feel and treble-y tone, fast strumming is articulated well and sounds great, without the muddiness of too much low end. This pick retains it's bright tone through playing very light to very heavy, an interesting feature which I haven't really come across before, but it would work really well in a variety of scenarios.

The other stone pick I received was the Jazz 3 Turquoise stone pick. The Iron Age website does not specify what stone this pick is made of, however the finish really is stunning, with an intense turquoise colour interrupted by dark blue veins all over, and of course the indented gold Iron Age logo. The material of this pick feels just as smooth as the agate pick, but is more grippy, which works very much in it's favour. This pick also has smoothly tapered edges, being 2.75mm in the middle down to 1mm at the striking edge.

The tone of this pick is very well rounded, with pleasant highs and a really lovely warmth, and is reminiscent of picks made out of bone which I have recently tried, however with a clearer attack. The jazz 3 shape will of course attract a specific type of player, those perhaps more lead focused and more likely to utilise fast, alternate picking, and I think this pick makes a great alternative to the more flimsy, thin sounding dunlop model.

I have very much enjoyed trying out these iron age picks. As the first stone plectrums I have every tried, I am impressed, they offer unique tones and feels which are all very usable, and I think both of these picks will be kept in my regular use pick arsenal, which is of course ever expanding!

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Eigen Plectrums - Custom Printed Picks

I recently received a package of Eigen picks, custom printed 1.5mm celluloid plectrums with 'The Pick' on them. This picks do not feel like budget printed picks, but rather appear to offer a middle ground between low level, mass printed plectrums and high end hand made custom picks. Eigen Plectrums offer a variety of gauges in it's standard guitar range, from 0.46mm to 1.5mm, and they also offer specific plectrums for bass, custom wooden picks and their EPGrip picks, which offer more grip than their standard range.

The picks which I received are a standard pick shape, and feel pretty comfortable in use. I went for the thickest picks they had as I am used to a thicker plectrum nowadays, and I think this fact makes it feel higher quality. There is a small amount of give in the strength of the pick, meaning it isn't too aggressive with heavy strumming, and I've found that this works well for acoustic playing, where my 3mm V-Picks custom plectrum feels too heavy-handed.

This pick has a nice, well-rounded tone, with no over accented highs or lows, but rather a balanced overall tone. This feature works equally well for both chord and lead work, and also works well as a reference pick. For example, when going from this pick to my Dunlop Tortex 1.14 I notice how scratchy and lacking in warmth that particular plectrum is, and when going to my custom V Pick I notice how much more volume, brightness and overall dynamic control that particular pick has.

Whilst the tone is definitely usable, I wouldn't describe it as unique, and I don't think that many guitarists would be buying a batch of custom printed plectrums for their tone, but rather the look of the plectrum. After a week of regular use, the graphic on this plectrum has not worn away, and remains as crisp and clear it was when I first got it - even the URL, written in tiny font under the logo, is as clear as it was.

As well as the good graphic recreation, the time between me emailing them the logo and me  receiving the plectrums was very impressive, seeing as they were shipped from the Netherlands to the UK and arrived with me five days after emailing the graphic I wanted.

I think it's fair to say that Eigen plectrums aren't designed to be the highest quality musicians tools, however they would make a great gift for the casual guitarist you know or perhaps as a wedding favour or something like that. The printing is high quality, the shipping is impressively fast, and the quality of plectrum is higher than I expected, so why not check them out!