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FOR BEGINNERS: Strings, Picks and Amps 2

November 30, 2018 By Jim Beckwith

(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!

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