Brand new aluminum pick and I really like the feel and tone I'm getting, but after no more than 10 minutes of playing I had this: {} These strings are several months old, and at this point I'm not sure if this is coming off the pick, the strings or both. At $70 a set I'll stick with a nylon or plastic pick if aluminum is going to chew these up. Just wondering what you guys think. Maybe I should just keep playing and see what happens lol.. Thanks for any input, Mark
TI's are nickel, right? Isn't nickel softer than aluminum? Regardless, I think you should indeed keep playing and see what happens. If you like the results of that pick with those strings, that's all that matters, right? If it brings the funk, it can't be wrong.
looks like it's coming off the pick take the pick and rub it back and forth in a napkin to see what happens.
That looks like aluminum dust to me, it gets on everything and is particularly hard to get off when mixed with oil. If you look at the end of the pick you see it's getting polished by the strings creating dust, while I've never rubbed a piece of nickel on a piece of aluminum to see which got more polished, I use a steel pick, and an aluminum pick on all my basses except the one strung with NEONs and I don't notice any abnormal string wear even on the tape wounds. So I think you should be fine, if this is something your thinking of getting more into you might look into anodizing the picks so you don't have to deal with the dust.
Me too. Yes. No. Nickel is quite a bit harder then pure Aluminium. However tempered Aluminium alloys can be pretty hard. Did the package of the picks say anything about "aircraft aluminium" or something? Than its probably made of 6061 aluminium alloy and the hardness will be closer to Nickel. Huh? No. The wedgies are made of rubber and the Claytons are rubbercoated, sans feltpicks, that's as far away from a Aluminium pick as you can get.
In that case, are those fancy polished stone picks any good? I have one around here somewhere but I won't find it until I'm not actually looking for it.
I use horn picks sometimes, I haven't tried stone, your best bet is to buy a whole bunch of different types and find the ones that work best for you.
Stone and shell are pretty bright, and should stand up to wear pretty well on flats (the flats may wear first). Horn as less bright, and should hold up well, too.