Iron Age Guitar Picks - Coconut Shell & Macassar Ebony Spearheads

The third part of the feature on Iron Age guitar picks looks at the handcrafted spearhead picks made from coconut shell and macassar ebony. These materials are very hard exotic woods, and designed for precision and speed. Check out the video below to listen to some tones using these picks with my Strat into my Blackstar HT20 and Marshall Valvestate 8080, using an Ibanez TubeScreamer for the lead tones.

These picks are shaped like a sharpened J3 type pick, and feature Iron Age's signature double sided engravings, which really aid in the grip of the plectrum, making these things very easily controlled. The sharp point makes these things great for speedy articulated parts, both rhythm and lead, but also for more relaxed open-chord strumming, as seen at the end of the video. These picks are all handcrafted, and taper in gauge from 2.75mm thick down to 1mm at the picking edge.

The tone of the coconut shell pick has a really nice brightness to it, which works well for the type of playing the shape of the pick suggests. The ebony pick is less bright, with a warmer tone and audibly softer attack.

These picks are great examples of why wooden picks are so interesting. The natural finish of wood means holding onto these things is really easy, and the variation in tone when playing expressively is genuinely inspiring. Whilst both picks have their own sound, they react similar for varying dynamics, with more attack and crisp to the sound when you really dig in to the strings and a really pleasant warm tone which retains it's clarity when you back off a bit, hence why I decided to use my Strat in the video review - I love how the single coils can clean up really nicely but with with the help of the TubeScreamer can really get quite crunchy when you play hard.

These wooden picks are really unique in their design, and are aimed to a type of player which you wouldn't usually expect to use a wooden pick, however in my opinion these work great for distorted playing, and feel great in the hand. As usual, remember to check out the Iron Age website and follow The Pick on social media.