This section covers glass and stone picks including gemstones, polished and pretty…
These glass and stone picks all impart a glassy tone that can be soft.
They are often quite squeaky, depending on how you use them. I find the squeal can be distracting and even annoying. However, some songs aren’t the same without such a tone. The combination of sheer hardness and extremely finished surface makes strings glide and resonate while doing so. It can be a shimmer or a mouse squeak.
Glass is NOT a “natural substance!” you might exclaim.
Well, that isn’t exactly true, since glass-like substances are created by lightning or great heat. Lava is like glass. Still, suffice it to say that I listed it here because it’s so much like stone. Glass and stone picks are almost identical, though where the stone can be brittle, glass that isn’t thick enough might shatter. When producing glass (speaking as someone who has done glass blowing), the material has to be carefully temperature controlled when manufacturing it.
These rock picks (yup, Rock baby), well: They roll off the strings easily but slowly and this would be great for that “held-back” rhythm in your blues playing or Jazz. Glass and stone picks, rock and roll. See what I did there?
Hard rockers can wail with this but holding on to them during firm strummings can be difficult, try a grip material, one I’ve reviewed here even. A more rounded tip of such hard picks will make strumming more possible. Yes, a sharp tip isn’t that practical or durable. There are some gemstones that can work with a sharp tip, but they have to be tough in order to handle it. Gemstones are pretty and valuable due to their beauty and rarity.
Growing up wandering the forests of CT I stumbled upon a LOT of crystalline rock such as Garnet, I’d love to get a Garnet pick, but I’ll have to search for one and review it!
Glass and stone picks are hard as steel. Your tone will be firm but mellow unless you use a very sharp tip. Some materials are not only hard but brittle, so must come thick. Not all of them are prone to shattering, but the cost of the material will affect this. There are glasses that are very tough and resilient, I used to work with a number of different glasses in optics and we use the different types because of their various indexes of refraction. This helps some problems in optics but introduces other problems because some of the glass shatters easily. Not all glass is the same, far from it!
The same is true of stone, if the stone is amorphous it may resist shattering, or if it is a very hard and durable gemstone, like diamond or ruby (there are manmade gemstones, the first lasers were made from them) can handle moderate strikes from things like guitar strings, but you do know how they facet gems, right? They cleave them sharply with chisels and hammers and other devices.
There are some truly lovely versions of these glass and stone picks. Some are patterned gemstones or patterned glass and such. Generally, they are NOT textured and will be slippery.
I’m presently adding to my collection so more on these later, I will be sure to update this page here. I have a Red Agate that was a gift and loved it right from the start, but there is a strong squeal to the tone. It is well-rounded tonally and brightish. I’ll talk about it at some point in the review blog here.
Now for Bone and Horn…
