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Dual Guitar Picks


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I was watching a video on dual picks and thought I would check it out.

They kind of simulate the sound of a 12 string guitar on a 6 string. I did some research and could not find any. I know this video was at least 5+ years old, but surely they still make them, right?

Does anyone know where I can find some. I know it would be fairly easy to make some, but I wanted to find some that were already made.

I'm also looking to produce a full rich sound, so what thickness would help me produce that? I'm guessing a thicker pick would help.

 

Ron

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Wow! I found a review video and at least on that one it seemed that they were boutique items rather than widely available ones. That said I guess you'd better start crafting!

As for thickness I'd choose thin ones as they're often better for strumming. You don't pick a 12 string, do you? Something like 0.5 mm with a 1.0 mm spacer in between would provide the grip of a 2 mm pick and a sufficient spacing to simulate the double stringing of a 12 stringed guitar.

[Edit] I had some spare time so I had to give it a try. Unfortunately I didn't have any thin picks at hand so I used what I had. I simply pinched three picks between my fingers with the middle one facing the opposite direction. There was a significant difference between 0.7 mm nylon picks and 1.0 mm abs ones. Also what I noticed was that 1 mm in between may not be enough, the sound was fuller with a 2 mm gap.

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A further look while waiting for the sauna to heat up...

Plectone still shows them on their website but they're sold out. I also found one vendor having had the center block only. What caught my eye is that the center block is at least 5 mm thick or even 6.25 mm which is a quarter of an inch. The demos are convincing! Also, confirming my morning experience the picks they use are thin, 0.5 to 0.6 mm. Getting a couple of 0.5 mm picks and using double sided tape to attach them to a small block certainly is worth the effort!

Twinpicks make a much thinner version with a minimal gap. Again, especially for acoustic guitars the picks are thin and even the "hard" electric picks are only 0.91 mm. Their demos show a difference as well, and the thinner design allows better for picking. What's nice about them is that you can get a mixed pack of four, either acoustic or electric or both, for less than one single Plectone - and that includes shipping!

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@Bizman62, you had a lot better luck than I did. This definitely is something to look into. It also looks like fun. Making one will be fairly easy. Does it look to you that the ends are even or is there a little stagger? If I stagger them I might not have to hold the pick at much of an angle to achieve the same sound, right? I am definitely going to do this.

Thanks for your help.

 

Ron

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1 hour ago, RonMay said:

you had a lot better luck than I did.

Finding things via Google is my super power, no kidding! I can even translate Windows error messages from Finnish back to English accurately enough to find the actual phrase which has helped me tremendously in my job as a troubleshooter.

Looking at the images the ends of both Plectone and Twinpicks are even. That makes them easy to use for upstrokes as well as for downstrokes. If you're going to make ones, feel free to experiment with angles as well.

Actually I found a flatpick with two ends as well, so a biplane with the tips angled might also be worth testing. Like so:

kuva.png.141edd061e40ed8b050a1bdc1ce07c25.png

 

 

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I'll let you know how it turns out I saw somewhere, I can't remember where, that the middle part is is a gummie material that is squeezable and you can vary the gap by "pinching" it closer together. I might make one using a dry sponge, you know the kind that is sort of stiff when it's not wet. I'll also probably use a thicker pick around .80mm or even 1.0mm.

I did find this and found pick alternatives I never even knew about.

http://musicproductionhq.com/guitar-pick-alternatives/

The Pymax looks interesting. Maybe I would stop dropping or flinging picks around. :D

 

Ron

 

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