What is the best pick for shredding and speed picking?

Very good question!

If we survey what a few of the fastest shredders around we find a range of thicknesses and types of guitar picks used.

Paul Gilbert uses .60 mm tortex picks because he likes the scratchiness on the wound strings when doing a pick scrape.

Yngwie Malmsteen has been known to use Dunlop Delrin 1.5 to 2.0 mm and Fender Heavy Tortoise shell picks.

John Petrucci uses Dunlop Jazz III 1.5 mm picks and has his own signature model.

Although, the images above make the two picks look similar in size, the Jazz III picks are about 2/3 the size of the Delrin “standard” size guitar pick.

Jeff Loomis on the other hand uses a Dunlop standard sharp 1.0mm pick.

So what does this tell us?

First, we have four very different picks from four very shred-worthy guitarists with picking power in spades. They are all a different gauge, material and shape.

Which should point to an obvious conclusion: fast picking is not all in the pick.

If all that was needed to play fast on the guitar was the “best” or “right” guitar pick then everyone that wanted to play fast would use the same pick.

It’s very tempting to look for the “secret” or “magic trick” to better playing in any single element of a guitar setup. It’s the kind of thinking that goes, “If I just had the right guitar, with the right frets, the ideal radius, the right material, the best tone woods THEN… THEN I could play the way that I want to play!”

Let me say that there is nothing wrong with liking gear or having preferences regarding frets, strings, pickups, wang-bars, etc.

I love gear myself and I want more as much as anyone else.

But…

As far as actually learning and improving my speed and overall playing ability goes?

Well, I know from experience the next guitar or the next amp won’t drastically improve anything. Granted, I’ll be very excited and very happy to get the new toy. But inevitably and quickly I’ll be staring my level of playing ability straight in the face again.

Is Thicker Better?

When I started this article I was leaning towards the “thicker pick is better” opinion. But then I looked at all four guitarists and see that one is playing a .50mm pick (Paul Gilbert) and he is every bit as fast as any of them.

From listening to Yngwie talk about guitar in many of his videos and being questioned about his picking technique I’ve learned a few key things.

One, he always says guitar was something he was fanatical about. There was a drive there to learn and grow as a guitarist and musician.

Two, he says if you really want to play at a virtuoso level it will take hard work. There’s really no way around it.

I think that, many times, thinking about buying new gear is a diversion from actually putting in the time in the woodshed to get the chops we really want.

All that being said, I think the better question would be “Is there a BEST pick for playing fast and shredding?”

I think the answer to that is this:

Find a pick that feels the best to you.

However, understand that once you have that preferred pick, there is still the long hours in the woodshed required to shred with the best of them.

I wrote this article because I was contemplating trying a heavier pick. I think I’ll still do that and then report back with another post detailing the results of my experiments.

Till then… keep picking!

So, what do you think? Does the pick matter in fast playing? What pick do you use? Let me know in the comments below!