New bass-plectrum! what's your opinion?

[Maltodextrino]

Hello!
I have a question:
I am a bass player and i designed a plectrum for the bass. it works on guitar and classical guitar excellent too, but best on the bass!
You can not yet buy it, because it is quite expensive to produce it, and i have to be shure that i find customers before i produce it in a big quantity. But i have tested prototypes, and the form works very fine and allows new technique, which were not able with flat plectrums.
Here you can see some impressions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q42QPAlId_Y
http://home.arcor.de/lakks/1b1a.jpg
http://home.arcor.de/lakks/b1benglish.jpg
(Sorry, for the untuned guitars in the video, there was no time to tune, because the cameraman was in hurry...)

Please write commends and opinions! Would you buy this?

I think it will be cost at the beginning 5 Euros or 5 Dollars a piece. That is a little more than flat-cheap plectrums, but it is very costly to produce a completely new product. and the form i think you will like the form! and you dont need any few seconds a new one. it dont break like flat plectrums...

[Dallas852]

I'd try one out.

[FunkMetalBass]

I'd probably buy one to try it out, but at first impression, the thickness looks incredibly uncomfortable. I really like my picks to have some give as well.

How do they compare to V-Picks? Dunlop Big Stubbies?

[MooseLumps]

I'm sure it will be someone's cup of tea, but I'd have to try one first.

[Meyatch]

I might try one if it was in a music store. Might even buy one for $5 sight unseen. Kind of reminds me of these though
http://v-picks.com/
Which I tried, and didn't particularly care for. Mostly because it gave a mellower tone, closer to using your fingers, which seems like it defeats the purpose of having a pick.

The sounds in your video were good though.

[Meyatch]

P.S.

A bad commercial is worse than no comercial. Tune your guitars and hire a less busy cameraman.

[Sharko]

I do like it. I would like to try it.
However, I have 2 concerns:
1) Is it really significantly different from the Dunlop Primetone pick and the Dunlop Big Stubby pick?
2) You will need to have your promotional materials edited by a native English speaker, but the layout and content look good.

[FanOfAlice]

IMO, it seems to similar to the big stubby pics by jim dunlop. the slap technique in the video looks like it would be difficult to do smoothly. Good luck in pursuing your product but i dont see enough differentiation from the big stubby.

Peace

[drunkenrobot]

I don't play with a pick and highly doubt I ever will. It does look intriguing though.

Can I just say, if you're going to use those posters for advertising, you should get them properly translated.

[ausf]

I'm not a pick player, but I don't see any upside to this over what already exists in the market. Is it better grip that you're trying to sell?

I think the thickness would be clumsy and difficult to get used to. As far as the slap technique, there is no discernible advantage over using a bare hand, if anything, having to grip will actually be slower plucking because you'll lose leverage. The demo is certainly not smooth.

I do like the choice of material though. I'm not sure if I'd want to carry around an assortment for different tones or would spend a lot of cash on basically a disposable (meaning picks, not your product) item.

[Lurker79]

I do like how you gave names to those "techniques". In reality, it's similar to the stubbies, just like a monster truck version. And the price point is WAY too high man, sorry. You know that though. Dunlops by the dozen for half that.

[bommer]

id try one if it wasnt too pricey. and i agree with the comments above, give everything a perfect tune before making the commercial.

other than that, lookin good

[Maltodextrino]

thanks for your comments!
i had never a big stubby or v-pick in my hands. i only know the photos and discriptions in the internet. And the most photos don't show the "profile", the side of the plek... . That make it difficult to compare.
so far i know, the biggest big stubby is 3mm thick. is it right? when it is 3mm thick, then it is completely different to my.
the primetone looks like this: http://www.suncreekmusic.com/images/...one-304_lg.jpg ? It is different too...

V-Pick has a few very good looking and thick plectrums.
you can see one there: http://media.photobucket.com/image/v...t/DSC00059.jpg
I've build a Prototype which looked like these and i saw a problem. I try to explain it:
Where the Fingers hold the Plectrum, the V-Pick Plectrum is absolut Flat. Because of this you can not hold it stable and there is a gap between the Top of the Thump, and the Top of the Plectrum. A String, and specially a Bass string vibrates so much, you can not know where exactly the String touch the Plectrum. So it can Happen that the String get into this gap. and this is not so good...
My Plectrum is ergonomically designed, the part were fingers and plectrum-top blend into each other is better. it is a better "transition"... And: My Plectrum is absolute stable when you hold it with 2 Fingers, because of the Design.

Some thick picks, like Primetone or some V-Picks seemed to have a rounded Top. That looks fine. But again: A Bass string vibrates so much, you can not know where exactly the string touch the Plec. The Top of my Plectrum is formed in a way that it makes no difference if the string touch the Plec at the outer Peak, or near the finger. You can control it anyway.

I hope you understood all i say
The overall design makes the different between my and the other picks.

PS: The "Ripping" Slap-Technique (it is rather like "Popping"...) Technique is quite simple to learn. But to make it fast is a littlebit heavier When you would change from another Plectrum to mine it is like you are changing the Intrument. It is better (in my opinion) but you learn other things and will play in a different way.

[zenrad]

I've had a stone pick for over 20 years - they have their uses but the glassy sound may not be everyone's thing.

A few thoughts...
I started learning classical guitar in '73, the Segovia method. Not many classical guitar players would ever let a pick go near their instruments as they are designed to be played with the fingers and nails of one's hand. The reason I took to fingerstyle bass easily was the years of classical guitar training. I do use a pick for guitar, but never for classical.

The shape would annoy the heck out of me. When I play guitar with a pick I move the pick around in my hand for different sounds, pinch harmonics, etc. I don't like to have very much pick exposed for normal note playing, sometimes more exposed for strumming, your design would dictate how much pick was exposed and that would be awkward and limiting.

There have been stone picks, felt picks, huge picks and tiny picks, metal picks (we used to make picks out of coins that were flattened on railroad tracks ) and bass players have been using picks for decades, so I'm not sure how the "first pick for bass" figures in.

BTW, why all of the up-up-up-up picking? You're going to hurt yourself

Anyway - I don't mean to rag but you asked for opinions. Interesting angle but I don't see the need for one.

[lunarpollen]

Originally Posted by zenrad

BTW, why all of the up-up-up-up picking? You're going to hurt yourself

Hey what's wrong with up-picking??? That's what I do 95% of the time on bass! heheee

[lunarpollen]

Originally Posted by Sharko

You will need to have your promotional materials edited by a native English speaker, but the layout and content look good.

I agree, but there is the "Engrish" appeal of stuff like "this plectrum goes with you throug the hell" ... Heehee ... It sounds exactly like something I would say when doing my "Hungarian exchange student" voice...

These plectra do look very nice though. Not really my thing (a few years ago I would have been very excited, I used to use only the 3-mm Stubby Triangles, but I've recently been using Tortex blue 1 mm picks on bass almost exclusively), but I can see how many people might really like these.

[groooooove]

if you took the time to tune the guitar before recording the first video, maybe..

looks useless to me. move on to your next idea, my friend..

[wideyes]

No, I think there's merit to the idea. Some people are not ready for new ideas because they don't look enough like the old ones. Manufacture a set of them, sell them and give some to people you trust, and then GET FEEDBACK. We all on the forum like to sit here and toss out our opinions like monkeys toss ****, but until it's tangible and we've actually played one, it's all conjecture.

Someone will like it, and the first model is seldom the "winner". If you're willing to take some hard criticism and a financial loss on sending out samples, then you could just have a unique product on your hands.

I think it would be cool to sell them in sets. One of each kind, sample them all!

[tk421]

the cost / cool ratio seems a bit skewed to me ... $5 for one pick? or 6$ for a dozen green tortex / delrin greens?

i know if my 3 year old daughter wanders off with one of my dunlop greens, meh, it's 50c. if she wanders off with a 5$ pick ... that is a loss.

i like lighter picks with a little give. it doesn't look like the profile on these would suit my style. i've tried stubbies in 1mm and 1.5mm and they were just too thick.

[wideyes]

I think the choice of materials is cool. It could really up the usefulness of these picks to have diversity in the arsenal.

Go for it!