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My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal
- Thread starter el murdoque
- Start date
Let me get somewhat heretic and sidestep the dirt pedals for a post.
In recent weeks, I did explore the forbidden art of playing with a pick.
Lo and behold, you can get snobbish with these things, too!
I started out when I collected my P bass from a nut job, and I bought about $20 worth of picks from the shop that did the repair.
I did pick a wide variety of shapes, sizes and strengths to find out what suits my grip and feels right when playing.
The difficult task was, of course, to determine what felt wrong because the size, shape or thickness was wrong through the foggy haze of wrongness that playing bass with a pick radiates in general, so it felt a bit like stabbing around in the dark.
However, when I started googling about some obscure pick I had acquired that had only the name "2LOUD" printed on it, where the texture felt great, and also the thickness was right, but the size was too big for comfort that I stumbled across the world of boutique picks.
A German brand (with worldwide shipping) caught my eye because they did shapes and colors that felt weirdly pleasing to my eye. They go by the name of ROMBO.
Not only did the picks look interesting, they were also quite expensive, too!
Their variety pack with 12 different shapes costs a whopping 35 bucks!
And once you settled on a shape, you can order them in packs of four for around ten bucks, unless you want the "Crystal Brite" variety, which is even more expensive!
Needless to say that I was immediately sold by the idea of taking something rather simple (a teardrop-shaped plastic triangle to strum strings)
and making it needlessly complicated by completely overthinking the whole process and adding different geometric shapes and different textures to the plastic triangle, creating something much harder to make in the process and blowing up cost.
I had a great time exploring the different sizes and was a bit surprised that I did like their Dune shape a lot more than I thought I would, and also their strongest pick, the Jade, felt nice - but ultimately, I only confirmed what I suspected after reading all the descriptions. The Crisp, which is 1.0 mm thick and pictured top left on the right half of the booklet, is what my reluctant fingers agree on most. It has no tendency to slip my fingers or to misalign itself when I use it, and it offers the perfect balance of firmness and flex, so I can play it with control and as little fatigue as possible.
However, the whole process was a lot of fun and I thought I'd share it here.
I am in no way affiliated with the people at Rombo and I paid all my picks full price, as a normal customer - even though this might look like a sneaky commercial at first glance, it really is not.
In recent weeks, I did explore the forbidden art of playing with a pick.
Lo and behold, you can get snobbish with these things, too!
I started out when I collected my P bass from a nut job, and I bought about $20 worth of picks from the shop that did the repair.
I did pick a wide variety of shapes, sizes and strengths to find out what suits my grip and feels right when playing.
The difficult task was, of course, to determine what felt wrong because the size, shape or thickness was wrong through the foggy haze of wrongness that playing bass with a pick radiates in general, so it felt a bit like stabbing around in the dark.
However, when I started googling about some obscure pick I had acquired that had only the name "2LOUD" printed on it, where the texture felt great, and also the thickness was right, but the size was too big for comfort that I stumbled across the world of boutique picks.
A German brand (with worldwide shipping) caught my eye because they did shapes and colors that felt weirdly pleasing to my eye. They go by the name of ROMBO.
Not only did the picks look interesting, they were also quite expensive, too!
Their variety pack with 12 different shapes costs a whopping 35 bucks!
And once you settled on a shape, you can order them in packs of four for around ten bucks, unless you want the "Crystal Brite" variety, which is even more expensive!
Needless to say that I was immediately sold by the idea of taking something rather simple (a teardrop-shaped plastic triangle to strum strings)
and making it needlessly complicated by completely overthinking the whole process and adding different geometric shapes and different textures to the plastic triangle, creating something much harder to make in the process and blowing up cost.
I had a great time exploring the different sizes and was a bit surprised that I did like their Dune shape a lot more than I thought I would, and also their strongest pick, the Jade, felt nice - but ultimately, I only confirmed what I suspected after reading all the descriptions. The Crisp, which is 1.0 mm thick and pictured top left on the right half of the booklet, is what my reluctant fingers agree on most. It has no tendency to slip my fingers or to misalign itself when I use it, and it offers the perfect balance of firmness and flex, so I can play it with control and as little fatigue as possible.
However, the whole process was a lot of fun and I thought I'd share it here.
I am in no way affiliated with the people at Rombo and I paid all my picks full price, as a normal customer - even though this might look like a sneaky commercial at first glance, it really is not.
Rombo order confirmed 
Fortunately, picks are cheaper than dirt (so to speak)
Fortunately, picks are cheaper than dirt (so to speak)
Those look cool! I bought the variety pack of Attak Piks at some point last year but never really tried them much as I've mostly been moving away from using picks- I like the idea behind them but suspect they may alter technique too much for me to get motivated to ever make much use of them, and quality-wise they feel sort of unpolished/cheap. These Rombos look intriguing to me, probably more capable for standard picking purposes, and certainly look boutiquey in the photo!
Many years ago when I was playing with picks about equally as finger style (and exclusively in at least one heavy/fast band) I compared many different picks over a handful of months and the ones that gave me the best balance of feel, tone, and control were the Dunlop Nylon Red Jazz III XL picks- capable of edginess on the attack without clicky/clacky response, or a fatter smoother tone when wanted too and stiff enough for responsiveness with just the right amount of give to not feel like playing with a coin. I also love the grippy texture and size in the hand. The Black version are cool too, but slightly different feel and tone (I actually can't recall off hand what the difference is- gauge and/or material?). I still keep one in my wallet for occasional use (they are also one of my favorites for guitar).
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Those Attak Piks sure look nice, too!
I'm glad I did settle on one model now, so I can stop looking around. I will learn to play with a pick and once it feels less like ... wearing gloves, I might revisit other shapes.
I am glad I prefer a cheaper and more readily available product. For years I am using the Dunlop Ultex .73 (as per recommendation by Carey Nordstrand).
Dear readers of the Jounal,
I have a small request to beg off you.
My 80's metal band has spent enough time woodshedding and we're ready to take on the gauntlet of trying to get small'ish gigs.
To achieve that end, we recorded a 3 song demo in the home studio. Nothing professional - but good enough to give venues an Idea of what we're doing.
If you're interested, I used the following stuff on the songs:
Nuclear Warfare: The main dirt engine on that song is the Meatsmoke - in the Boost channel.
Thunder & Lightning: I also play the Meatsmoke here, in the clean channel, fed by the Fake Plastic Trees and running the gain higher than I usually have it set.
Legions Of The Tyrant: I actually play my reggae board here, so the chain is Xotic BB Bass Preamp - Cali76 - Broughton RFE - Noble.
What I am politely asking of you good people is to leave a like on Youtube. Since we're trying to apply for low tier gigs with those demo songs,
it would give a much better impression for the curious booking person if the videos had a few thumbs ups . . . .
Here's the link and thank you all!
I have a small request to beg off you.
My 80's metal band has spent enough time woodshedding and we're ready to take on the gauntlet of trying to get small'ish gigs.
To achieve that end, we recorded a 3 song demo in the home studio. Nothing professional - but good enough to give venues an Idea of what we're doing.
If you're interested, I used the following stuff on the songs:
Nuclear Warfare: The main dirt engine on that song is the Meatsmoke - in the Boost channel.
Thunder & Lightning: I also play the Meatsmoke here, in the clean channel, fed by the Fake Plastic Trees and running the gain higher than I usually have it set.
Legions Of The Tyrant: I actually play my reggae board here, so the chain is Xotic BB Bass Preamp - Cali76 - Broughton RFE - Noble.
What I am politely asking of you good people is to leave a like on Youtube. Since we're trying to apply for low tier gigs with those demo songs,
it would give a much better impression for the curious booking person if the videos had a few thumbs ups . . . .
Here's the link and thank you all!
Also by the guy in the music shop - who said these were somewhat of a standard for bassists.
When you buy the 72 pack of those, you pay as much as 16 of the ROMBO picks cost
....and you get them everywhere.
Wise choice!
I did fail to find a Kasleder Jellyfish on the used market, so I decided "to bite the sour apple" and order a new one via Thomann, only to see they also have a 2-3 week lead time ATM.
That spineless beast is hiding from me, so I'm gonna concern myself with a swarm of insects and a color with a name that did not age well for now. Two pedals incoming.
That spineless beast is hiding from me, so I'm gonna concern myself with a swarm of insects and a color with a name that did not age well for now. Two pedals incoming.
Back when I was playing indie-dance rock I'd use a pick about half the time and I ended up on the Dunlop Gator Grips as I could keep them in sweaty hands. Usually the .71s or the .58s depending on how quick I'd be strumming, or how close to the bridge I'd play. I played flatwounds on that bass too. They sound great with a pick.
These days I'm on roundwounds, and I only bust out the pick for a couple songs, but i've been using the Dunlop Primegrip Delrin500 .96. Conveniently it's what the guitarists are using too, but I like it quite a bit, and that grip texture locks it in place without having to hold too tightly and play a little more relaxed. Previously I'd find myself death gripping the things.
BUT we're talking about the fanciest picks! Randomly got hit with this video about the BEST of the BEST picks last week. They run $35 - $75 per pick. Flatpicks - Page 1 - BlueChip Picks
I also learned that the original coveted tortise shell picks were made from actual tortise shells. So maybe one day you can track one of those down to see how it stands up?
These days I'm on roundwounds, and I only bust out the pick for a couple songs, but i've been using the Dunlop Primegrip Delrin500 .96. Conveniently it's what the guitarists are using too, but I like it quite a bit, and that grip texture locks it in place without having to hold too tightly and play a little more relaxed. Previously I'd find myself death gripping the things.
BUT we're talking about the fanciest picks! Randomly got hit with this video about the BEST of the BEST picks last week. They run $35 - $75 per pick. Flatpicks - Page 1 - BlueChip Picks
I also learned that the original coveted tortise shell picks were made from actual tortise shells. So maybe one day you can track one of those down to see how it stands up?
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How do you hold a pick?
I very rarely use a pick on bass (in contrast to my sub-mediocre guitar playing) but recently noticed that I have way more control when I turn the sharp edge towards my thump's top and attack the bass strings with a corner of the rounder side... When using the sharper side (with different Dunlop picks), I usually feel less control... Maybe it's just me...
I very rarely use a pick on bass (in contrast to my sub-mediocre guitar playing) but recently noticed that I have way more control when I turn the sharp edge towards my thump's top and attack the bass strings with a corner of the rounder side... When using the sharper side (with different Dunlop picks), I usually feel less control... Maybe it's just me...
Oooh, that's hot! I gotta order a bunch of these some time in the future!
I remember the guitar learning book my sister had when she was a kid - which was already very old by then, printed with ye olde German letters.
In that book, the author claimed that while there are those new artificial materials used for making picks, only the tortoise shell ones are the real deal.
I do that, too. I switched a few years ago and it’s really comfortable for me.
I place it between thumb and index finger, holding it not too tight and not too loose.
I have no real clue, but found that it works best for me when the pick has a little flex and my grip allows for a little give, too.
This here is my haul from the music shop:
The black one that cannot really be seen in the pic is a Gravity pick, which is super hard and has zero flex. It felt weirdly comfortable to play, since I was forced to hold it in a loose grip to allow for it to move when playing. The Dava pick also felt quite good, because it's so small and when you don't have much to work with, you're forced to be more precise. The two white ones felt absolutely great, but are much too large for comfort.
The felt pick top right was something weird. It sounds a bit like playing with fingers.
Then came the ROMBO picks:
Top to bottom:
The red one is way too thin.
The yellow one is also too thin.
The black one feels super nice to play, but the portion that sits in your fingers is just a tiny bit too small for me. It kind of auto aligns when playing and has a very round tip.
The green one feels great to hols, but even though it's actually thicker than the black one before it, it's much softer and feels too flexy for my taste.
The next two, the red triangle and the yellow spaceship are not really comfortable in my hand. At all.
Then comes the missing pick, which is my favorite, and the green one which has a nice texture to hold and also feels good when playing, but is a touch too small. The following three, red, yellow and black all are hard enough to say they have no flex at all, but all of them simply don't feel right in my fingers.
The last one has a depression in the middle which will center the grip on its own and is the nicest super heavy pick I ever played, but these are not exactly my cup of tea. I might revisit those when my technique has improved so I can play with more precision.
I keep it fairly simple pick wise - Dunlop Tortex 1.0 (the blue ones) are readily available and great. My favorites however are Snark picks (Neo Tortoise 1.07 and Celluloid 1.0). Those seem to be discontinued so I’m glad I bought like ten 12-packs when they were available. Should last me forever since I luckily don’t lose picks and they last me a long time.
This looks like the beginnings of “the pick jounal”
I’ve acquired a bunch of picks and can’t find the right one. I’m down to these two. Wish the gator was a little bigger. These slide/grind off the strings in different ways and I get a tone I like better with a little less clickety clack.
