As I have said in previous columns, guitar picks are the least expensive and most important upgrade you can make to your guitar playing. When deciding on what picks to use try everything out there you can find. Every time I go to a music store I pick up a pick or two I have never used before.
The reasoning for this is if you are going to paint a sonic picture you are going to need many different brushes. My brush of choice and a mainstay in my arsenal are my heavy and extra heavy picks.
ChickenPicks fits this bill perfectly. ChickenPicks are made out of highly-durable thermosetting plastic. They almost have a ceramic like feel to them. The points and edges of ChickenPicks are extra smooth allowing them to easily float over your strings.
The stiffness of the material and the thickness of the ChickenPicks® gives you improved performance.
A ChickenPicks® does exactly what you want; because they don’t bend action/reaction delay is eliminated. It takes less energy to play the riffs you want, and your picking hand and arm won’t tire; you no longer have to overcome the bending action of the pick.
And the greater mass of the ChickenPicks® means you don’t have to grip the pick so firmly – you can hold it lightly between your thumb and finger… it won’t slip out!
Imagine the difference between striking a large bell with a tiny toy hammer, or with a heavy sledge hammer. With the large hammer you don’t have to hit the bell very hard to get it to ring; but the tiny hammer just won’t get the bell moving. Mass matters…!
This mass also makes it easier to pull clear tones from a bass guitar.
Your tone is fuller too, because with ChickenPicks® a broader frequency spectrum is set in motion. Compare the mechanics of your picking with a ChickenPicks® against a conventional pick. With the thinner pick you are creating more high frequencies than mid and bass tones, often resulting in a shrill, harsh sound; you can hear this excessive treble in the tone of many guitar players.
The sound produced by a ChickenPicks® is clearer and fuller. Even when you play extremely fast riffs, you can hear every note ring out. You have much more transparency in your tone with ChickenPicks®.
While these picks were designed for chicken pickin there are a ton of other applications for them. When shredding I found the ChickenPicks extremely receptive to pick harmonics. The ChickenPicks are great for any type of percussive attack on the guitar. I found them to be perfect for George Benson type jazz picking. Benson pops the string almost like a Tiddlywink to get that clear bell like sound he is known for.
ChickenPicks come in two sizes original and light. Which is funny because the light is thicker than a standard extra heavy pick. These picks are incredibly durable so unless you lose them you will be using your ChickenPicks for years to come. ChickenPicks can be purchased online at the this link.
