(Some of this post is taken from my book, “No Fail Guitar”,
,
available on Amazon) I’m finishing what I started in the
last post and discussing picks and amps for beginners.
-PICKS: There are a lot of picks out there! All shapes and
sizes and prices; from free promotional picks to $10 stone
picks and all points in between. In my book, I got to the
point and just recommended you buy standard shape thin
picks to start, because they were cheap and easy on your
wrist. Now I would like to expand a bit more…
WHY DO I HAVE TO USE A PICK? You don’t! classical and
fingerstyle guitarists either don’t use picks at all, or in the
case of folk/blues finger pickers, use finger picks. Also
some legendary players like Wes Montgomery (jazz), or
Jeff Beck developed unique, expressive styles using just
their fingers and thumb. As a self taught player, I played
without a pick the first 6 years, even gigs when I was 16
or 17. However, I found that a pick enables you to pick
down and up which is faster and more efficient, you can
play harder and louder (and cut through the band), and
finally, it saves your fingers (I was breaking my finger
nails after a 4 hour gig). So if you want to play classical
or fingerstyle exclusively, or forge your own creative
path, feel free, I’m just sayin’.
TYPES OF PICKS: Jim Dunlop USA Nylon picks come in
a variety of thicknesses, from .38 MM to 1.0 MM. The
size is printed on the pick, along with a raised waffle type
surface that allows a better grip. .38 MM is paper thin
and I use it a lot with my beginner students, who generally
have low wrist strength. They can move up the thickness
scale gradually, until they find the best fit. Faster more
experienced players generally prefer a heavier, “jazz” style
pick because it gives more control. Also, jazz picks are
smaller which allows for a better grip. I use Jim Dunlop
Jazz II’s, which are 1 MM thick. Heavier picks take some
wrist strength, so I would hold off on these until I’d been
playing awhile. Other manufacturers make fine picks;
Fender, Clayton, Gravity among others. Jim Dunlop is
the easiest brand to find around here, so that’s what I
use. Also, if I change my last name to Dunlop, I will have
personalized picks!
AMPLIFIERS: At the beginning stage you want fairly
small and cheap, you won’t be playing on stage any time
soon! $100-120, maybe a little less, will get you a 5-10
watt* amp with a 6-10 inch speaker. While more is generally
better (more watts, bigger speaker) quality and actual sound
count the most. Try before you buy! Also I think speaker size
is more important than power. An amp with a 6 inch speaker
is going to sound dinky no matter what. Fender, Peavey and
Roland among others, all make good inexpensive amps. If
you bump up $50 or so, you can get a Marshall MG series
or Fender Champion with 20-30 watts and a 10-12 inch
speaker. You could play small gigs with those!
*watts are how an amps’ power is rated, more watts equals
more power.
TESTING THE AMP: Turn on the amp with the volume
down and without any cables plugged in at first. Turn up
the volume half way and listen for any loud humming or
hissing (not good). Now turn the volume back down and
plug in your guitar. Turn the knobs. Do they feel solid and
well built, or cheap and cheesy? Ask the salesman how to
get distortion, that heavy rock crunch we all love if that’s
important to you. In fact, if you don’t understand anything
about your amp, ask. Write down the answers if you need
to. It’s much easier to pry information out of that pesky
salesman before he gets his hands on your dough! You
will also need 1 0r 2 cables, and a cover would be nice.
(Although I have used trash bags in a pinch.) See if they
will throw it in as a package deal. This post is the end of
my back to basics. Next, more weirdness!
