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On picks and bevels Additional Material: Photo album of all picks used in trial, including a series highlighting bevels https://goo.gl/photos/cR7hP3kuf6HXu23v6 I would embed the photos, but this article is already quite long. I can embed on request. Picks in this trial: .88mm Tortex .88mm Tortex Wedge 1.38mm Jazz III stiffo and carbon fiber 1.4mm Ultex Sharp 1.5mm Tortex TIII (no bevel) 1.5mm Tortex TIII long bevel “sharktooth†1.5mm Tortex TIII short bevel “JIII†Personal experience: Picks up to about 1.0mm with no bevel Used only for comparison. I feel like most players are familiar with these picks. See other articles for more information. .88mm Tortex and Wedge Picks >1.0mm with no bevel Only useable when played perfectly parallel to string. They sound slightly darker than thinner picks. Noticeable increase in fatigue (possibly due to increased drag?). When angling the pick, string noise becomes louder than actual note. Completely unusable. Stock 1.5mm Tortex TIII Picks >1.0mm with long bevel (“sharktoothâ€) My instinct is that these picks would have the shortest time in contact with the string (that is, the string would glide off the string the easiest and fastest). They sound darker than thick picks with no bevel (again, noticeable only when A/Bing). Ultex Sharp and TIII “sharktooth†Picks >1.0mm with short bevel (e.g., Jazz III) Repeated testing shows that it is in fact this bevel that has the shortest string contact. Tone, regardless of material, is the darkest of all - a hair’s breadth darker than the “sharktooth†beveled picks. Jazz IIIs and TIII “short bevel†Reason for this writeup: In searching for a new pick, I found it very difficult to tell if certain picks had a bevel or not from online photos. Sometimes it was very easy to tell, but not always. This wouldn’t be a problem if there were a large guitar shop in driving distance, I could just go try some out for myself. But as many of you know, large guitar shops are increasingly hard to find. There are only “mom and pops†within 50 miles of me. Reason for trial: I have used Jazz IIIs exclusively for many years. I few years ago I discovered the Carbon Fiber Jazz IIIs and have been using them for both live and studio use. Once accustomed to Jazz IIIs, I find them useful them for everything, even acoustic strumming. However, of late I’ve been exploring more fingerstyle playing, and I settled on using a thumbpick but wasn’t happy with any I could find in local stores. So, I bought the Chris Broderick pick clip - however, my beloved Jazz IIIs are too short. So the hunt began for another pick. I knew I liked picks with bevels, but I had no idea how important it was until I ordered some Tortex TIII 1.5mm picks, and to my dismay discovered that they do not have the Jazz III’s bevel (the “TIII†refers only to the angle of the tip - it is otherwise a typical, stamped tortex pick). Trying to use a pick this thick with no bevel proved useless and painful. I generally try to avoid modding my gear - I prefer to find something that comes stock the way I want it (for me this is about being able to duplicate the results - never being dependant on something I did and can’t replicate). However, I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty, and with a pile of useless picks sitting around, I grabbed a nail file and got busy. A few minutes later I had the “sharktooth†TIII. I was initially pleased with this result. It sounded and felt very similar to the ultex sharps, both in and out of the pick clip. (it is now my go-to when asked to use a pick on bass by a client) Further use left me feeling it “wasn’t quite right,†and that’s when I took a closer look at the jazz III bevel, and found it much shorter and sharper that I thought. Out came the file again, and the result is now my #1 pick. I’ve made a few more, and I can always just grab a ultex sharp (which sounds and feels VERY close) in a pinch. It feels almost exactly like a jazz III, that happens to be compatible with the pick clip. It’s also a little easier to control when strumming (though strumming is a little tricky with the pick clip, because I have so much of the pick in the strings that the bottom of the clip tends to snag the strings, so when I have a whole gig of strumming I take it out of the clip).