Tipping the balance
Sharing some examples of different picks that you can buy on the shelves today (note the Precision Pick is my very own, worn-in!) You can see the variety just in these 5. Shape, size, sharpness, grip pattern, material.
In design, each element of the pick is so important to playing. It's the right combination that a player will find helps them better they're own skills. In this post let's talk about one of those parts, the tip...
Smooth mover
The tip is critical to your ability to move and strike consistently. It is the most important element for precise and clear notes. How acute the angle of the tip is changes the amount of 'scrape' and widening it increases this, whilst a narrower harder end will yield clearer notes. But as you narrow it you equally find transitions from string to string much harder (otherwise we'd all use keys or something right?) So the goal is to balance sharpness and ease of use.
The traditional approach to deliver movement, with a flat pick is to have a more rounded edge and tip to allow the pick to slip. The way we have approached this is to give a sharper tip which requires very little effort for a positive strike. To to keep it easy to use, we've then taken a '360' approach to the shape rather than the flat-pick method, to enable smooth transitions.
It's an ever-last!
The second element of the tip - which impacts your wallet - is how useful a pick remains! If you start with too much sympathy to string transitions you'll find your picks go blunt quick, which can contribute to bad habits. Tradition starts with a wider tip which becomes exposed to this problem. So in our opinion starting sharper is better, that way you get ultimate sharpeness, and then a very usable profile for a very long time. (Look at the pic on the article to see a Precision Pick worn-in, it's now at the same point as the start for other designs).
The Precision Pick and Conclusion
You can try some of these points with our Precision Pick. It specifically has 3 usable tips to allow for different sounds / playing styles and increase use per pick. As we always say, the pick is critical to your playing style and sound! The tip is just another key part of that ingredient.