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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