Using Finger Picks on Tele?

Kenny Radas · From: Edwardsville,IL,USA

I give up trying to play with a pick and 2 fingers. Just when I get my nails shaped and sounding like I want I usually break one, usually at the worst possible time. I double on pedal steel so I am already used to using a thumb pick and 2 metal finger picks. How many of you out there play with this technique? Can you give me any advice on adapting it from pedal steel to tele? Let me know your pros and cons of using the thumb pick and 2 finger picks for guitar. Any pro players use this technique? Feel free to throw at me anything else you feel that might help me make the transition easier. Thanks in advance.

Russ Tkac · Posted 11 Feb 2006 12:47 pm

Al Perkins played with thumb and finger picks on guitar when I met him back in the 70's.

Andy Greatrix · From: Edmonton Alberta

I've been playing that way for thirty years. I pick block.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I've been using fingerpicks like this for the last 17 years. I'm semi-pro these days, but have done it for a living. My nails are just too weak to rely on. I was primarily a flatpicker for 20 years before that, and just up and did it one day.

My advice is to just put the things on nice and tight, and leave them there - eventually, they'll probably get comfortable. I found the .025" thickness picks that most people use for dobro or steel are too heavy for typical light-gauge (.010-.046 or .009-.042) Tele strings. I prefer .020 Dunlops, and when starting out used .015 or .018 to keep the "pain quotient" down. But YMMV.

PS - James Burton uses flatpick plus a single fingerpick on his middle finger.

[This message was edited by Dave Mudgett on 11 February 2006 at 01:26 PM.]

Chris LeDrew · From: Canada

When I double on tele I just leave the picks on. I just got used to it, and now I really like it. I pick block as well, with some palm blocking every now and then. My only problem is that I hit the pickguard every now and then, causing a ticking noise that sometimes comes through the pickups. But in the heat of the moment, that stuff is buried in the mix anyway.

The main reason for using the picks on the tele, however, is definitely because it takes too long to take them off and put them back on during a set.

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

I've done this for so long I can't remember not using finger picks. I played pro in the Los Angeles area for almost 25 years before moving to Virginia 20 years ago and always have used the thumb and fingerpick thing. My main guitar is an '83 Tele with a P/W B-bender and fingerpicks are the thing for me. I think I can play single note lines as fast this way as most flatpickers can. There are some techniques which you can incorporate which sound great. James Burton plays with a flatpick and one finger pick. He sometimes will grab a string from both sides with the pick and fingerpick and snap it for a special sound. Some players of note who use thumb and fingerpicks are:

Duncan Cameron.....played with the Amazing Rhythm Aces until doing a long stint with Sawyer Brown. Duncan plays as well as anyone around this way.

John Cipollina.....great guitarist in the 60's rock band QuickSilver Messenger Service.

Eddie Adcock.....Great banjo/guitar player who uses the same picks on both instruments. He played lead with David Allen Coe on electric for a while.

Amos Garrett....remember Maria Muldair's "Midnight at the Oasis"? That was Amos. In an interview in guitar player magazine he said that he used only a thumbpick on recording sessions, but on live shows he used both a thumbpick and two fingerpicks.

Bob Warford....Great Tele B-Bender player who worked and recorded with Linda Ronstadt among others uses a flatpick along with two metal finger picks.

Cliff Gallup....Great guitarist with Gene Vincent and the Bluecaps. Remember that great solo on "Race with the Devil"? Cliff also used a flatpick and two metal fingerpicks.

Have a good 'un........JH in Va.

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Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!!

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 12 February 2006 at 12:52 PM.]

Barbara Hennerman · From: ** R.I.P. **

Ray Flacke uses super glue on his nails to keep them from breaking. He said something like, "Not sure if I'm going to die from injesting anything or not....."
NOT an exact quote, but he mentions it on one of his instructional videos.

[This message was edited by Barbara Hennerman on 12 February 2006 at 06:12 PM.]

Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

Jerry, you forgot Robbie Robertson---I THINK I read somewhere that he used a flatpick and two fingerpicks.

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

My favorite way of playing standard lately is with bare fingers and a thumbpick modified to work well with upstrokes too. BUT: I do play with the fingerpicks too, mostly to practice "three-pick" patterns I find hard to think about clearly when I'm sitting at the steel. The main thing I notice is that the picks hit the strings at a different angle on guitar than on steel, so I bent up a pair specifically for use on guitar - the tips are angled over sideways towards the thumb. If I was trying to double using the same picks for fast changes, I think I'd be able to play steel with the "guitar" picks easier than guitar with the "steel" picks. I have to change the EQ around to use picks on standard guitar too, the picks are more trebly and it requires some tweaking.

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

well for me, for the past 30 years it has been NO picks. Pick off the finger tips , not the nails.

I don't have to ever remember if I brought a pick or not..I haven't even bought one in probably 15 years !

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TPrior
TPrior Steel Guitar Homesite

Tim Harr · From: Dunlap, Illinois

I use a thumb pick and two old national finger picks when I play PSG.

Tele: I play with a thumb pick (herco blue)

Jazz Archtop: I use the Dunlop Jazz mini picks thick ones. They look like little triangles... red ones

Chris Spencer · From: Mt Juliet, Tennessee, USA

There's a guy from Springdale, Ar named Earl Cate that plays an Old Tele with a flat pick and 2 metal finger pick. He get a real sharp bitting sound. The released some albums in the 70s on Electra-Asylum. You can check out Earl and the Cate Brothers at www.catebrothers.com

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

For some odd reason I use fingerpicks on steel, lap steel, dobro and banjo - but can't use them on electric or acoustic guitar. I've tried thmb/fingerpick combos, flatpick and fingerpicks - it always feels "wrong". FWIW I never could fingerpick AT ALL on guitar - picks or no picks. And that alternating-bass thumb thing always has eluded me.

But I hybrid pick (or did when I was able to play guitar) and used a flatpick and the middle & ring fingers - short nails, so finger "meat" mostly, nails when I wanted to dig in hard.

Dave Zielinski · From: Pennsylvania, USA

i switch between tele and nonpedal all night long, and eventually, you'll get used to it. If i JUST play steel on a gig, i use a thumbpick, and 0.018 dunlops on my index and middle finger. If I pickup the tele or switch alot, I drop the middle fingerpick and stick with the thumb and index finger. I came form guitar to steel and learned alot of the Merle travis picking with thumbpick and single fingerpick. After a while it becomes a second nature thing when playing either a tele or a steel. Jsut stick with it, don;t be afraid to do what works for you, not what someone tells you to do..
Have FUN!

Chuck Cusimano · From: Weatherford, Texas, USA

For over thirty five years, I have used a flat pick, and two metal finger picks on Tele. I like the way this enables me to "pull" some big fat chords, (simular to a steel) and also play a tic-tac type of bass notes, and an up stroke on chords at the same time. It is complementive to a 4/4 shuffle rythem (IMHO).

I also like the crisp notes I can get from Metal finger picks. I have been using Brass Jim Dunlop finger picks for nearly thirty years, and don't want to go back to the steel ones. (edited cuz I don't TIPE so purty good)

[This message was edited by Chuck Cusimano on 16 February 2006 at 09:52 AM.]

John Ummel · From: Arlington, WA.

I remember seeing a guy play at the Riverside Inn a few years back and his fingerpicking sounded really good. I went and talked to him on break and he showed me he had a kit of false fingernails women use for fashion purposes. He'd glue em on and use em to pick with. Sounded great.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

off topic for "Steel Players" - moved to the "Music" section.

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