Joe K. Walsh Demonstrates Eight Mandolin Picks | Peghead Nation

When Peghead Nation instructor Joe K. Walsh was recently in our studio to shoot lessons for his courses, he suggested demoing eight different picks he had been experimenting with. Besides the Wegen TF (which is made from a white plastic with properties similar to tortoise shell) and vintage tortoiseshell pick he usually uses, he also brought along a Bluebird pick made from an antique galalith (also known as casein) material poker chip, an Apollo made from polyetherimide (PEI), a D’Andrea Pro Plec 346 (branded with a Music Emporium logo) made of thermoplastic, a custom casein pick that was hand-made by fellow Peghead Nation instructor Flynn Cohen, a BlueChip TAD-1R 40 (made from a proprietary composite material) , and a Peghead Nation-branded Delrin pick. All the picks have a large triangle shape, and while Joe isn’t sure about the exact thickness for most of them, except for the thinner Delrin pick, they are all similar to the 1mm. BlueChip pick. In this video, Joe talks about each pick, then demonstrates it by playing his Gilchrist F-5, using his Neumann KM-84 microphone to record the instrument.
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[@dr.p3637]

Blue Chip, Tortoise and Apollo are the nicest sounding. I preferred the BlueChip because it seems to have the least pick noise. Smoothest. A tie for me between the other 2. Thanks Joe!

[@crm1492]

Everything matters... It is just a question of how much. The player, the instrument, the setup, the strings, the room, the mic, the PA/amp (both the equipment and settings), the humidity level, pick material, pick shape, pick thickness, pick bevel... When you divide 100% of your tone across all of these factors (and others) the numbers for many of these items get small. That said, small things add up. We play for our own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of others. Anything that increases your enjoyment is worth considering. Full disclosure: 1) I have a quart jar full of picks including Wegan, Bluechip, Red Bear and many others. I just ordered a tone slab. 2) I am a crap player and my opinion doesn't matter, Do whatever you want.

[@SillyMoustache]

The "milk protein/formaldehyde is actually what Casein is made of -pronounced "Case-in", Wegen - Michel is Dutch and I believe his name is pronounced "Vey-gen". I use both Blue Chip picks and Wegen 346 large triangles. Frankly i don't believe the audience would tell the difference between picks, but "might" possibly hear a slight difference in "EQ" bsed on the thickness and mass of various picks, but it is the player who feels best with the pick or picks who experiences the difference.

[@BillNelson-OU812]

I liked the Delrin but the player seemed most comfortable with the Wegen.

[@simon-oy6um]

Personaly i like the dunlop 80 it doesnt flack or ziz 😊😊😊

[@billieg826]

You left off one from your evaluation. Where is the Dawg Pick ?

[@longtalljay]

Love Joe! But would love to hear a more opinionated review! (We don't gravitate to the same pick out of an expensive arsenal for nothing!)

[@amandasteven1400]

everyone compares picks like they sound different... but do they really? i mean, if we couldn't see wat pick he was using would we evn hear a diff? i rather doubt it. to me, the only diff' is how they feel in my lil'hand :)

[@03Venture]

Finally, someone is talking sensibly here!

[@IamtheWV17]

But they do sound different in blind tests... just like your thumb and a pick sound different. They're obviously more similar than your thumb, but they do have different EQ, attack, and string noise.