It's been a while!

It's been a busy few months!

I thought I'd write a quick post to update you on why September passed with no new blog posts or gear reviews.

Since graduating from my degree I have been working full time doing an IT job in my home town. Whilst it is good to be saving some money, it does mean I don't have much time to work on other projects, and unfortunately The Pick has to take a back seat.

However, soon my contract will be up at this IT internship and I am moving on to new things, which hopefully will mean more regular blog posts and exciting gear reviews!

I'm currently checking out the GTC Revpad, which is a multi effects unit which has an accompanying chaos-pad-style touch pad to control any and all variable assigned to each of the effects. I am super excited to share my thoughts with you as well as the creative paths it has led me down.

Well there's my little update, I'm hoping to make posting to The Pick more of a regular occurrence over the next couple of months.

Art Tributes | Van Gogh Inspired Picks

You may have seen the video I released last week showing off the super fancy Art Tributes Van Gogh style strap last week (if not, check it out). Along with the strap, I was also sent a selection of various Van Gogh inspired picks.

These picks are 0.71mm thick, made from celluloid and feature famous works of art from Vincent Van Gogh (Starry Night, Sunflowers, The Langlois Bridge at Arles, Fishing Boats on the Beach of Saintes, Cafe Terrace At Night, The Bedroom). I recently went to Paris to see the amazing band Snarky Puppy (if you haven't already, you definitely need to listen to this album), and whilst there explored some of the many art galleries near my hotel, one being the Musee D'orsay, which features a load of Van Gogh's works. These picks made a nice memento from my trip. The images on these picks are detailed, the colours are vibrant and accurately portray Van Gogh's recognisable style even from a distance. 

The 0.71mm gauge will suit those who are more used to a medium, flexible pick. They are a "usual" pick shape and size, with a matte feel which isn't too dry and powdery like the Dunlop Tortex picks. Because of the gauge (and being used to picks with less give in them), I would be unlikely to use these picks playing lead guitar, as the lack of rigidity feels like a limiter across the dynamics of all my playing, however this is really nice on strumming rhythm parts, especially when recording, to get even playing across each of the strings. The overall tone of these picks is even and not overbearing - there is a bit of a harshness in the attack but this is common amongst thinner picks and its to some people's taste.

The bundle of Van Gogh picks and the strap comes to about $30, and would be an awesome gift to a guitarist who is also an art enthusiast. Make sure to head over to the Art Tribute website and check out more of their products.

Art Tributes | Van Gogh Inspired Starry Night Guitar Strap

Sometimes words aren't necessary...

Head to art-tribute.com to check out more!


(If you want words come back next week, I'll be writing about this strap and some very cool Art Tributes picks!)

Fletcher Pickups | Telecaster bridge & DeFletcher 2000T Neck - Video Demo

Here it is! The video demo of these two Fletcher pickups. Recorded using an sE condenser mic in front of my Blackstar 2x12 cab, Blackstar HT20 head and of course my own telecaster - enjoy.

Fletcher Pickups - Upgrading my HB Telecaster with some Handwound P'ups

As some of you will know, I recently undertook the project of building a Harley Benton Telecaster using their electric guitar building kit. I was really pleased with the results, especially because the assembly process was so simple and the kit itself reasonably priced. This guitar has since become a bit of a project guitar, one I am going to upgrade piece by piece to keep improving its quality and usability.

The first improvement followed a conversation with Ben Fletcher, the owner and pickup builder at Fletcher Pickups. I was intrigued by the description of his DeFletcher2000 T pickups: "Based on the early Gretsch single coils in standard Tele sized pickups. Thick & Long 6mm magnets and thin wire. With clear ringing highs and tight bass". I love the sound of vintage Gretsch guitars with DeArmond pickups, and enjoyed the idea of having one of these pickups in the neck position of the telecaster - a position which is often overlooked, in my opinion, for being comparatively quiet and uninspiring. Ben agreed it sounded like an interesting idea, and suggested a "slightly hotter than vintage" usual tele bridge pickup, wound to compliment the neck pickup, would work well. 

Fletcher pickups single coils are made in the old fashioned way, with fibreboard flatwork and alnico (5) magnet poles. The neck pickup I chose has thicker and slightly longer poles than a standard tele neck, which gives a higher inductance, resulting in clearer bass and highs. The assembled set is coated in clear lacquer to protect the thin pickup wire from the pole and to prevent shorts. The way the thin wire (0.063mm on bridge) is wound around the poles is what pickup makers do to create their unique pickups and makes each design unique. Ben varies the shape of the coil, the way the coil is spread along the magnet and the tension of the wire while doing so, all of which affect the tone. Even the machine used to wind the coil will have an effect. The specific method used by Fletcher Pickups is his trade secret and is, I'm assured, the secret of the bright tone of his pickups!

Installing these pickups to my tele was very simple. The Harley Benton pickups themselves were solderless, so I cut the wires which led to the pickup selector and soldered the cables of the new pickups in place, meaning the HB pickups still had a decent length of wire, should I want to use them again. The wires on the Fletcher pickups had fabric coating, rather than the usual plastic, which made it harder to strip using a conventional wire stripper, but does look cool and isn't much of an inconvenience. The newly soldered pickups worked first time and the process was considerably easier than unsoldering and desoldering wires to the connectors on the potentiometers (something I had fun with when installing new pickups into my Les Paul!). 

Rather than using a spring to control the pickup height in the mounting, these Fletcher Pickups utilise a rubber material which squashes when the screw is tightened - this was easier than a spring mounted design which can comedically fly off when attempting to tighten them. It's considerations like this which really demonstrate the amount of thought which has gone into the design of these products. 

The sound of these pickups is clearly the main attraction of getting hand wound pickups designed to your own specifications - these suit me down to the ground. Both pickups have so much clarity, and in the same way John Mayer described his new PRS Super Eagle Preamp sound (by the way, I am by no means comparing my HB telecaster to that £11k guitar, despite having these epic pickups in!) it just sounds like HiFi sound - it's the 5-6k sizzle which is so revealing and dynamic to variations in pick attack, which I am in love with. The neck pickup is pleasantly scooped sounding, as Ben suggested in the product description, due to the longer magnets and thinner wire, and sings with some gain slightly overdriving the preamp of my amp. Variation in tone is so easily accessible with alterations in pick attack and by sensibly controlling the volume and tone controls on the guitar - with the tone all the way off, the neck pickup is throaty and thick, and rolling down the volume retains clarity and sustain.

The bridge pickup is delightfully honky, with the typical tele ugliness which just loves to scream through a thick and full band mix. With some taming provided by the Ibanez Tubescreamer mini, musical feedback is certainly on tap. One of my favourite tones available is in the middle position with some compression from the Boss CS3 - the unique telecaster mid frequencies from the bridge position appropriately slot in with the smooth and articulate sound of the neck pickup to create a full rhythm sound which barely clips the preamp valves of my amp but feels chewy and lovely to play.

I am really grateful to Ben from Fletcher Pickups for making these brilliant pickups for me. Ben is super nice, really helpful giving advice for pickup choices for different sounds and makes some excellent products for very reasonable prices. Whether you're in the UK, Europe or the US, definitely go and check out his website and his pickups for excellent tones and customer service. Keep an eye out for the demo coming soon!

Morgan Picks - More Pick For Your Buck

This week on The Pick I've been checking out Morgan Picks. This plectrums are made in Denmark using injection moulding techniques to create a variety of styles for a smaller price than is usually attached to boutique-y, hand made picks. They currently offer two models, the SJ1 and MS1, and I have been testing these out for the last couple of weeks.

The SJ1 Morgan Picks are clearly based on the Jazz III shape but is 3mm thick, which we know works really well for alternate picking and lead playing in general. The textured sides will definitely suit those who need an extra bit of grip on their pick and demonstrate the precision of design available by using injection moulding to create them. Tonally, these picks are well balanced with no pronounced treble scratchiness but enough clarity to sound better than the "usual" Tortex style pick, and work and sound really good on both electric and acoustic guitar.

The larger MS1 pick has a similar sound and feel, and has the same thickness and sharpened tip as the SJ1. Usually the larger models of a brands plectrums are more dull sounding, however these two models sound the same, meaning you can choose the size based on what you would feel more comfortable holding without losing the tone you're after.

Aesthetically, these picks aren't really my style. The colours are very primary, with solid red, blue, white and black and what appears to be a glow in the dark delrin used to make them. The font of the Morgan Picks inscription on the grip appears to be a Comic Sans style font, which shows these picks to be designed on the cheap by someone perhaps without a background in graphic design and could therefore use some more investment - as everyone knows, the look of guitar gear is the most important aspect(!). With some more time and consideration, I can see these picks looking great, with the visuals joining the high quality of sound and feel.

Morgan picks are made by two brothers, neither of whom are guitarists and therefore are keen to hear musician's opinions of their products. I think the mentality behind making these picks is a great one, making great quality plectrums at a price which isn't unreasonable if, for example, you regularly gig and have a habit of dropping and losing your pick. Definitely check these picks out if you like the look of them and are looking for a plectrum which is inoffensive both to your tone and your wallet.

Thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed this review of the Morgan Picks. If you do enjoy reading The Pick and feel like you would be interested in supporting it financially, please do check out my Sponsorship Page. Any donations would be excellent and let me continue to work on The Pick.

More Iron Age Picks! AKA The Only Picks I Use

As some of you will know I have recently been exclusively using my Blue Lace Agate stone pick from the wonderful people at Iron Age Guitar Accessories, however the problem was I only had one of them. I am now the proud owner of a few more of these plectrums in a few different shapes and I'm loving them.

I should start by saying that the fact I managed to get through multiple gigs using one single pick shows how easy it is to hold on to them, despite the glossy finish, which looks good but in theory would be more slippery. I now no longer need to take any spare picks to a performance or rehearsals which aren't from Iron Age Guitar Accessories.

Similar I'm sure to many of the electric guitarists in the world, I am obsessed with John Mayer's playing (if you haven't listened to his music I highly recommend checking it out, especially the "Where The Light Is" live album). I love the way his strat sounds when he finger picks; unlike classical finger picking I think Mayer's style is more similar to slap playing on a bass guitar, it has a bright timbre, and these stone picks bring a similar timbre to my playing which I love (but I have been working on my hybrid playing!).

Playing using these picks feels similar to playing with a high wattage clean amp which is just about to break up - it is so transparent sounding that to certain types of players it might feel so present that it is almost uncomfortable, however this suits me totally. The tone is so unique and unlike any other plectrum I have tried - when compared to the "industry standards" of a jazz 3 or a tortex pick, these Iron Age win on every front.

Of the 4 Iron Age Agate Stone picks I now have, I use the 2 blue lace agate picks for general playing - their tear drop shape works best for my style of playing; the wider red agate pick I'd use for any songs where fast legato playing is required without too much accented rhythmic playing, but the pick I was most surprised with was the black agate pick, which is much bigger than any pick I'd usually choose to play with, but which sounds great on acoustic. Despite trying and owning hundreds of plectrums from a plethora of brands in a wide variety of shapes and sizes I had yet to find a pick for acoustic guitar which wasn't the usual bendy plastic style, however this one does it for me. Even though it has a larger surface area, the finish feels similar to the other agate picks so the feel is consistent, and the tone on an acoustic guitar is so evenly balanced - the balance of the strings in rhythmic acoustic guitar playing is one area where thicker, more rigid plectrums usually lack.

It is easy to say that these four picks will be my go-to plectrums for the foreseeable future. If you haven't tried a stone plectrum yet, or like the sound of these particular ones, I definitely recommend going to Iron Age Guitar Accessories. They are really friendly and will happily help you out in choosing the right products for you. They also offer other guitar accessories like kill switches and guitar knobs, neither of which I have tried yet but I'm sure would be great.

Thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed this review of the Agate picks from Iron Age Guitar Accessories. If you do enjoy reading The Pick and feel like you would be interested in supporting it financially, please do check out my Sponsorship Page. Any donations would be excellent and let me continue to work on The Pick.

Harley Benton Telecaster Kit - Part 2

For those of you who missed the last blog post, I have been building an electric guitar using the Harley Benton telecaster kit. Having sprayed the guitar with nitrocellulose lacquer, cut the headstock shape and waited to ensure the lacquer was dry, I moved on to the final stages of assembling the guitar.

Helpfully, the website where I bought the lacquer from also sells a set of sandpapers of increasing grades which are appropriate for sanding down this type of lacquer. This was one part of the process I was quite nervous about; having not done anything like this before I went into it with no pre planning as to what kind of a finish I wanted - the sandpaper could in theory take me to a super smooth mirror finish but I would be happy with a more matte finish. The first grade of sandpaper I used was a rougher one to get rid of the orange peel-like texture left on the finish from the spraying, and this went really quite well. As I moved up grades to finer, more polishing levels I noticed that in a couple of places the finish was waring thin, especially on the edges of the guitar. This left patches where the wood underneath was visible, so I decided to stop where I was, leaving the finish slightly matte but smooth. Fortunately the areas where I sanded through the finish completely are areas which would wear with time, where your right forearm would rest, for example. This is one area which I would learn from if I was spraying a guitar again - I would need to do considerably thicker layers/more coats of the glass and the lacquer itself to get a mirror gloss finish.

Next up was the construction. Unfortunately one of the four screws which hold the neck in place had the cross in the top of it filled with metal, but luckily I had another screw of the same size to hold it in place. The holes in the neck join lined up perfectly with those in the guitar body (these weren't really square, and one was very near the edge of the wood, but this has not been an issue). Connecting up the pickups to the electrics was pretty easy as everything is solderless, however I did think that the wires were unnecessarily long, which made screwing the pickups in with the pickguard a bit of a challenge. Another annoying thing and another example of the cheap price of the guitar is the fact that the jack plate doesn't cover the pre-cut whole in the body.

I strung the guitar with a set of my usual strings (D'Addario 10-52) and the guitar has been coping fine with them. I was a bit nervous about putting these heavier strings on them as the unbranded strings which came with the kit felt really light, perhaps even 9 gauge. The intonation of the guitar was perfect straight away, but the bridge heights did need adjusting to reduce fret buzz and the pickups did need their height increasing.

I was really impressed with the tone of this guitar. The Mexican strat I had last summer was not resonant at all but this guitar is the polar opposite. If you pick a sting you can feel the vibration from the top of the headstock through to the bottom of the body, and this is a massive thing for me - I can pretty much tell whether I'm going to like a guitar if it resonates like this. The tone from the pickups is really nice, classic tele twang in the bridge and clarity and warmth from the neck, works really well with cleans and gains and especially well with compression. I have definitely noticed from playing Squire Strats or Epiphone Les Pauls that cheaper pickups tend to be really overwound, but I haven't noticed this being the case with these pickups. One thing which was annoying to begin with was the frets which were quite scratchy and could do with smoothing with some wire wool or something, however with some playing in this has lessened. When I next restring this guitar I will probably smooth them down a bit.

I am really pleased with this guitar, it plays perfectly fine for a gigging guitar, tuning is stable and the tones are really useable. I'm looking forward to getting to know this guitar, perhaps upgrading it piece by piece and seeing it wear even more with time. If you fancy a project, I definitely recommend giving this one a go, plus you get a cool guitar out of it! I'd definitely try a different Harley Benton kit again in the future.

Harley Benton Telecaster Kit - Part 1

As many of you will know I recently receiving the gift of a Harley Benton Telecaster Kit and as my degree is coming to an end I have been able to begin the project!

The body of the guitar came fully sanded and sealed so was ready for the application of primer. I bought all the finishing sprays from manchesterguitartech.co.uk, and I can definitely recommend that site - Steve was very helpful and patient answering my questions. I strung up the guitar body using an old wire coat hanger to an old clothes dryer in my garden as it is important to spray in a well ventilated area, such as outside. After reading the instructions from the website and doing some Youtubing I had in my mind the basic form of how to spray. This included starting the spray just off the body of the guitar as a buildup of paint can often occur at the beginning of the spray. With long, repeated motions the primer was easy applied. After three coats of primer I was happy the guitar was covered nicely and no grain was visible.

Guitar body with primer applied

I left the primer to full dry for 24 hours before spraying on the nitrocellulose finish. I decided to go for the sonic blue colour, a colour which I've always loved but never chosen for a guitar before, sticking to more traditional reds or blacks, but it seemed right to go for a bit of a different colour for this project. Spraying on the colour I took more care and attention not to let the lacquer build up as I knew this would be visible on the final finish. Again the process was simple and the results were really good.

Applying the sonic blue nitro

Makeshift guitar spraying solutions

Due to the nature of nitrocellulose lacquer, the colour finish itself would be an acceptable top coat, as it has a slight sheen and with some buffing would come up nicely, however I wanted to protect the body of this guitar so decided to add a few coats of a clear gloss lacquer. Again it's a nitrocellulose lacquer, so would not be like the thick poly finishes on some guitar bodies, and hopefully will age nicely. Applying the gloss in the same method as the primer and colour coats was simple. I am now in the stage of waiting for the gloss coat to fully dry - I am going to leave it for a week before buffing the finish to a mirror level of shininess.




Whilst waiting for the finish to dry I have begun work on the neck of the guitar. On the uncut headstock I copied roughly the Fender headstock shape and cut it out using a coping saw. This proved quite challenging, mainly because I haven't done accurate sawing before, but with some sanding I am happy with the results. No one looks at the headstock that much anyway... I also attached the tuners to the headstock, which was easy to do and they look fairly sturdy. This was one area a guitar luthier friend of mine suggested might need pretty immediate upgrading, however I will see how they cope with a set of my favoured 10-52 D'Addario strings.

I am really looking forward to hearing this guitar, it is slowly looking more and more like a telecaster, I just really hope it's usable and playable! Hopefully by this time next week the project will be complete. As well as these blog posts I will also create a video which will show the process of building the guitar as well as an audio demonstration.

Pedals In Parallel? Inspired by the Strymon Sunset

Following the release of the Strymon Sunset dual overdrive pedal and it's possibility to run two different overdrive sounds in parallel rather than in series (as would be normal for using pedals in between guitar and amp or in the effects loop), I have become really interested in the availability of having different pedals running in parallel into a mono amp setup.

As I'm sure many guitarists will testify, the tones which come from having a two amp setup can be really inspiring. The way the guitar can interact with two different preamp stages with different levels of drive and compression as well as the variations in alterable tones by using the same pedal on both amps can create really unique sounds and if I'm playing a larger gig I do prefer to use a dual amp setup. This does take some preparation however, as I use my delays and reverbs in the effects loop and it is not possible to run parallel effects loops (the two preamps will blend in the pedal creating a messy sound) so when I do use two amps one is "dry" with no reverbs or delays and one is "wet". This means before the gig I have to go through my pedals and presets ensuring that the balances on each are correct and working well - basically it's a hassle. When I heard of the Sunset's parallel capabilities I was really interested, as it led me to thinking that similar dual amp tones would be possible with just one amplifier.

To reassure myself that I didn't come up with the idea and therefor owe it to the guitarist community to create and develop a pedal which does this, I did a bit of Googling and found Saturnworks Pedals who make a variety of summing/mixer pedals which could be the solution. My idea is that I could use a pedal which has more drive and therefor compression, such as my tubescreamer, in one "channel", and either a clean (although my clean is slightly pushed) or a Blues Driven channel to retain that upper-mid/treble clarity and string attack.

Issues I can foresee with a passive blend/mixer pedal thing is crosstalk and interference from the two inputs, as well as doubling the volume by simply summing the two inputs, so some sort of active balancing could be required. Routing of the pedals would also be an issue, as I definitely see a place for just having one pedal on, or having one drive pushing into another in series, however my imaginary blending pedal-thing could have a three way toggle which could cycle through various options, such as A->B, B<-A, AB=, giving even more tonal exploration possibilities (especially if each mode was foot-switchable).

I'm currently trying to find out a bit more about if there is anything like this currently on the market, so if you know of anything which could work on a pedalboard then please do get in contact - I genuinely think it could be a very cool way of getting unique guitar tones.

Harley Benton Telecaster Kit - BYOT

Recently I received the Harley Benton Telecaster kit for my birthday. This kit consists of every part needed to build your own telecaster and it looks like it is going to be a fun project! With a basswood body, this tele is going to be quite different to any other telecaster I've played before, but my Gretsch has a basswood body so I've no reason to doubt the tonal quality (yet!).

Obviously the base materials aren't going to produce a telecaster which is worthy of guitar of the year, however with my little bit of soldering experience and never having built a guitar before I think that I'm going to have fun putting it together, and I will of course write blog posts about my progress.

My plans at the moment are to paint the guitar and varnish the maple neck and headstock. Other upgrades of hardware and electronics might come later depending on my opinions of it once I've put it together. After some googling I found the website manchesterguitartech.co.uk which stocks a wide variety of lacquers specifically for guitar - the finish I think I'll go for is the sonic blue nitrocellulose lacquer, hopefully it will be recollective of the retro Fender finishes. I will also stain the maple neck to make it look a bit more professional.

All the pieces of the telecaster come fully cut and ready to put together except for the headstock which is an uncut rectangle shape. This is one area which I am slightly apprehensive about because woodwork is definitely not my thing. I expect I will attempt some sort of Fender-esque shape for my headstock and maybe even write my name on the top!

I will make sure that I write blog posts all about my progression on this project and maybe even record a few videos of what I do. Once I've lacquered the body and the neck I don't think it will be particularly difficult to assemble all the parts, especially because all the cabling is solderless! If you have any suggestions for my project please do let me know, I would love to fit some aftermarket pickups, and maybe even a new bride and tuners to aid in stability, so any advise for parts like that would be brilliant. In the mean time please do check out my Youtube Channel, and if you do enjoy reading The Pick and feel like you would be interested in supporting it financially, please do check out my Sponsorship Page. Any donations would be excellent and let me continue to work on The Pick.

The Pick is on Patreon!

The Pick is now on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/thepick

In order to continue to work on content for The Pick we have started a Patreon account. This enables anyone who wishes to sponsor this blog to get rewards from doing so. If you feel compelled to, please do follow the link above and check out the page!

What Am I Doing?

Some of you may have noticed the irregularity of posts on The Pick recently. Usually posts are uploaded on a weekly basis however over the last couple of months they have been more infrequent and this is due to the fact that I am coming up to the end of my degree, which is taking up a lot of my time. This post will be a little bit about what I'm currently doing and a bit about the future, but I thought I'd begin by talking a little bit about the new guitar gear I've been using recently.

As many of you will know I recently have been using Covenant Cables with my rig, which by the way was perfect timing as slowly one by one each of my Fender custom shop cables are dying and whilst they do offer lifetime guarantee so I could send them back to Fender for a replacement that is a lot of hassle. I really am loving my Remnant Pro cables from the guys over at Covenant Cables - if you haven't yet go check them out, their really nice guys with a great product design. These cables are super lightweight and thin, look great and sound totally transparent.

Also recently I've had a change of primary pick I use for electric guitar playing. For the last year I had been only using my signature V-Picks 5mm wine red colour pick and, whilst I still wouldn't go out without a couple in my pocket, I have been using the Iron Age Guitar Accessories' Blue Lace Agate plectrum. The look of this pick was what first enticed me to picking it up and playing with it again, however the tones available from this plectrum are so much more clearer with an audibly more present attack which means I keep coming back to it. I'd definitely recommend getting yourself one of these picks. And just another quick one, inspired by The Bros Landreth (mainly Joey Landreth & Ariel Posen's guitar playing) I got myself a Dunlop 215 glass slide which has been a lot of fun and sounds great with my Gretsch and some compression from the Boss CS-1.

Now on to the topic of what's pretty much been taking up my life at the moment: my degree. I thought I'd write a little bit about what I'm working on at the moment, should anyone be interested. Alongside my dissertation, which I'll get to in a minute, I am also doing projects in recording and production, sound applications and performing experimental music, and have recently finished a unit about British jazz in the 20th century. The recording and production module is quite self explanatory, record and produce a track and remix it. We are approaching the mastering stage of our recording, and a few of us are individually working on remixes which we will continue to develop until they're due in. For the sound application project I am designing a system whereby a user will put a temperature sensor, heart rate monitor and pace counter on their body whilst they exercise and this data will be used to generate music which aims to encourage the user to have the best possible workout experience. For the performance of experimental music I have designed a program which accepts incoming music from two other performers and, using probability, generates new melodies based on what has already been performed. I have also created the software instrument as well as incorporated some of the audio effects I designed for my raspberry pi guitar pedal.

As I'm sure I've mentioned on The Pick before, my dissertation is about computer generated music and it's successes in composition. As I am nearing the deadline for my dissertation I have pretty much finished my generative system which utilises two recognised compositional methods, algorithmically generation and Markov chain generation. Other than tidying up the user interface, the artefact is all but finished. The bulk of the writing is also complete, with the first draft of the evaluative chapter being completed last weekend. Once this dissertation is handed in it will be a massive weight off my shoulders and (I'm hoping) it will feel like I have so much more free time again.

As well as my uni work I am also working a part time job tutoring English and maths to both primary and secondary school children. I'm just working two days a week, however by the time my second shift is finished I'm pretty much drained for the next 24 hours at least. The work is, however, very rewarding and I really enjoy helping the children learn (but I especially enjoy all the banter with the older/naughtier kids!). I'm not sure if teaching will be something of a full time career path in my future, I tend to enjoy more project based jobs which involve problem solving and ideally something to do with music or audio, however I definitely think it could be something to fall back on.

Along side of the uni work and the part time job I'm also (fairly infrequently) working on my raspberry pi effects pedal. Having completed the prototyping I designed and ordered PCBs (plural, incase I make mistakes), an enclosure and have begun designing what the top will look like. I begun soldering together a basic ABY switch to form a section of the internals of the pedal however the Neutrik jack ends I have been using have not taken the solder very well and therefore there is an audible loss of tone when used (after googling the issue it turns out loads of people have the same problem with these jacks). Because of this I have been talking with Bright Onion Pedals about them sending me the internals from their mini looper pedal for me to use in my project.

I have also recently begun looking into the software of Adobe Premiere Pro, to edit the monthly videos I have been making about the things I get up to, and Adobe After Effects, which is an awesome program for creating visual effects. I am loving learning these bits of software as it's something which is new and satisfies my need to do creative things.

As I'm sure you can understand, alongside all of these things I have been doing it has become increasingly hard to proactively talk to new companies designing and releasing products which would be perfect for review on The Pick, which explains the lacking of content. Hopefully after graduation I will be able to continue to post a regular schedule of gear reviews and tutorials and maybe this blog could become a full time endeavour, which would just be epic. In the mean time please do check out my Youtube Channel to see some of the things I've explained in this post in video form. If you do enjoy reading The Pick and feel like you would be interested in supporting it financially, please do check out my Sponsorship Page. Any donations would be excellent and let me continue to work on The Pick.

Covenant Cables

For the last month or so I have been checking out Covenant cables. Made in Atlanta, Georgia, these cables are custom made without gimmicks but provide great quality cables for working musicians. I was sent a couple of types of cable to test out, a Remnant Pro instrument cable and two 'Pancake' style patch cables.

As soon as I received the package I installed the two patch cables in my pedalboard. These cables are clearly designed to last, with a cable thickness which is bendable and moveable without feeling like it will break after a couple of uses. The low profile flat right-angle jack enables the pedals to be a lot closer together than with a usual patch cable, especially one of this quality. I would be very interested in replacing all of my patch cables with Covenant cables to not only save space but to see if there is a noticeable tone change as I have quite a few pedals on my board at the moment.

The Remnant Pro cable has been my guitar-to-pedalboard cable for the last month. This cable has a rough mesh feel to the outside called "Black Tech Flex" which really helps to avoid tangles and on top of the dark red colour makes for a very sophisticated looking cable. It also eliminates the chance of developing kinks or breaks on the inside of the cable. One element of this cable which genuinely surprised me was the weight of it - it is so light weight! In the past I have used Fender Custom Shop cables which were both thicker and way heavier than this Covenant cable; the difference is huge. These cables are very clear sounding, very high build quality and have a brilliant unique design.

If you haven't yet, make sure you check out Covenant cables at their website and make sure to follow them on Instagram. They are great guys, so definitely head over there and say hi.

Winspear Amber Picks

Some of you may remember that in March last year I reviewed a selection of boutique plectrums made in England called Winspear picks. In that review I had a pre-production prototype model using a new material named Amber which was my favourite of the bunch, favoured for it's unique tonal qualities and the way it grips when your hand starts to warm up. Today I'm checking out 4 more Winspear picks from the Amber range, now their most popular type of pick.

First up is the Amber Shiv. This pick has a wide grip coming to a sharp taper both in width and in thickness, a balance which enables you to have a relaxed grip on the wider, thicker end but retaining precision and accuracy of the sharp tip. The classy looking Winspear emblem on one side of the pick combined with the vertical brushing of the finish really gives this pick a great feel with an obvious grip security, and in my opinion the translucent amber finish looks great - elegant but understated. The tone of the Amber Shiv is nicely balanced, with a clear attack that is not too overpowering.

Secondly I have an Amber Broadsword. Much like the Shiv, this pick has an ergonomic taper which, on my model, begins at 5mm thickness at the grip, a gauge which I am very comfortable with. The broadsword shape is slightly longer than the Shiv, giving it the appearance of the typical plectrum shape, however it does taper to a sharp point much like the other Winspear picks I enjoyed. This pick allows for very dynamic playing, with clarity retained throughout.

Next up is the Amber Standard Shuriken Mini. This pick is the smallest of the selection I have today at 1.5mm thick with no taper, but has three equal corners which can be used for playing, extending the life of this pick by three times! Being thinner and with no taper means this pick has a much more noticeable attack which is great for lead work, and anyone who has become accustomed to using smaller picks would enjoy this pick for it's increased precision, grip and it's bright tone.

Finally I have the Amber Standard Broadsword, tapered from 2mm to 1mm. Much like the Standard Shuriken, this pick doesn't have the same Winspear "W" emblem on it, but rather an engraved logo filled with black, which not only looks great but does definitely give a more textured grip. I enjoyed the tone of this pick especially on acoustic guitar, where it's brightness could have become too overpowering but in fact it didn't. This pick works great for rhythm as it is very balanced across each string and gives a little natural compression to the  sound. On lead playing the tone and precision I have come to enjoy from the Winspear picks is consistently strong - overall this is a great pick!

If you haven't already, make sure to head over to the Winspear website, they have an epic range of plectrums available so definitely check them out, as well as my review of some different models here.  Also, if you enjoy reading The Pick and want to see more variety and more regular posts, please do consider donating or sponsoring. For more info check out the Sponsorship page, but benefits of contributing include the ability to suggest what kind of post or product review your contribution will go towards and your name or company advertisement in the blog, plus it enables me to continue to put time and effort into producing content!