Grateful Dead Music Forum

Tennessee Jedi wrote:You should market those Minnie Vikings wrist/sweat bands you rock

See, I'm the kind of guy who would rather tell you where you can buy your very own: http://www.amazon.com/For-Bare-Feet-440 ... B000K8CNYS


Although if somebody wants to pay me a markup for the ones I've been sweating in, then by all means I'm open to offers. That's what I call Value Added. Mine were genuinely purchased from the Mall Of America, even.


They also work as a handy place to stash a pick for a song or two.... just tuck it underneath. I'll let you pay me $10 extra for the pickholder feature.

Dan -
You ever play with your fingers ?
I know Phil did both pick and fingers ...
You have a opinion on the subject ?

I have a fresh bag of a dozen...
I'm feeding them to the cat as we speak, and plan to market them along side that high dollar Cat Poop Coffee Bean blend.
It's a no brainer.

Woops...
New band name...
"The No Brainers"

Tennessee Jedi wrote:Dan -
You ever play with your fingers ?
I know Phil did both pick and fingers ...
You have a opinion on the subject ?

Me? Not have an opinion on a bass subject? Surely you jest.


Phil's finger phase was just a brief experiment in 1970/71 or so as far as I can tell. I think when the EB3 got stolen and he switched to the Godfather that was the end of his finger experimentation - Starfires are a little weirder to play fingerstyle, and there's not a good way to install a thumb rest like he had on the EB3. Every so often I think he'll still pluck a chord like a flat-picking guitarist but it's more of a specialty thing.

Personally I'm a fingerstyle player by nature but 100% of the time that I'm in Phil mode, I use a pick. I believe you just cannot get his phrasing to pop correctly without one, and the pick really really helps the band's mix sound like the GD. It also gives an edge to the bombs that fingers can't quite get. Flatwound or half-round strings are also key to his sound, picking on roundwounds is harsh and generally ugly. You can compensate to some degree with your tone knob but it's not quite the same.

Some players grow their fingernails out to simulate a pick attack, like flamenco guitarrists. I've done this by accident on occasion and it works, but I'm not disiplined enough to keep them consistent. There's also something different about the up/down nature of picking vs. the index/middle of fingering... it makes you think differently about how you build your lines especially in how and where you switch strings.

With JGB tunes I always play fingerstyle, and prefer to use something Fender P-bassish with roundwound strings.

You might be able to hear the differences on this recording: http://www.archive.org/details/Fen2011- ... he.Elevens All tunes are my Starfire with a pick, except for Althea which is my Warmoth/Tiger bass with flats and a pick, and Rubin and Cherise which is my fingers on the maple-necked J-bass that I use with Don't Let Go.

Doesn't Billy Gibbons use a quarter?

I heard a guy around here use a metal pick before, maybe silver? dunno but it was some raunchy swamp tone comin' out of that les paul, kinda cool. If you like that tone, the petrified wood would be right up that alley, although $20 is steep for a pick.

TI4-1009 wrote:Doesn't Billy Gibbons use a quarter?

I believe he uses a peso - pretty much the same thing

We play a gig at the Outer Banks of NC every summer and I always find a sea shell that is pick shaped and play at least a tune in honor of the sea. I've found a few that worked really well.

A seashell! That sounds neat. I have seen some out of Deer antler, some other animal bone/antler, OH and saw a guy that super glued chicken talons on his finger nails . That's real chicken pickin' (sorry for the bad pun and I never saw that really).

The silver pick as I remember was very smooth and shaped thin like a 1mm. I think a raised coin is a little too much, but with OD the metal really gives it a unique tone. I am sure it tears the shit out of your strings too.

tcsned wrote:

TI4-1009 wrote:Doesn't Billy Gibbons use a quarter?

I believe he uses a peso - pretty much the same thing

We play a gig at the Outer Banks of NC every summer and I always find a sea shell that is pick shaped and play at least a tune in honor of the sea. I've found a few that worked really well.

If you hold your head next to the sound-hole after strumming, does it sound like the ocean?

Octal wrote:

tcsned wrote:

TI4-1009 wrote:Doesn't Billy Gibbons use a quarter?

I believe he uses a peso - pretty much the same thing

We play a gig at the Outer Banks of NC every summer and I always find a sea shell that is pick shaped and play at least a tune in honor of the sea. I've found a few that worked really well.

If you hold your head next to the sound-hole after strumming, does it sound like the ocean?

Here is a Dunlop stainless Steel,

And these seem new, Aluminum Picks??? I know how the stainless is, I wonder if the aluminum has some promise??

Thanks Rusty! I clicked your amazon link you posted and now everytime i go to amazon they have all sorts of Vikings stuff i might be interested in ...pats fan here

I've been known to wear a Vikings hat with my Brady jersey when the occasion arises. Or wear my Twins jersey and Sox hat to Fenway. It's all good.

playingdead wrote:Scott's a capitalist for sure ... LOL

Me too! I've ended up with a bunch of them and will entertain all reasonable offers. In the meantime, I'm using the Telefunken large triangular graphite picks and loving them.

Edwin