We guitar players spend an awful lot of time thinking about gear, and an awful lot of time thinking about how we can sound better – how we can play better. Some of this time could be better spent practising. That’s life. Nonetheless, the guitarist’s mind is rarely idle.
But what proportion of our reveries is devoted to guitar picks, or indeed how we decide to use them? More than our choice of electric guitar, or whichever overdrive pedal is the most transparent, this could well be the most important choice we make.
There’s something fundamental about you pick choice, and in how you address the strings. Eric Johnson agrees, and speaking to MusicRadar, he says there are no shortcuts for working out how to square the circle when it comes to picking. And, no, you can’t overlook pick choice.
Article continues below“Well, yeah, sometimes there is no shortcut. Depending on the type of material you use for a pick, and the way you first strike the pick, that’s the beginning of the whole thing, and you can’t underestimate that,” says Johnson. “That’s what begins the sound and so, to me, the type of pick, the material, not so much the size but the material, and the way you pick the note [is essential].”
The humble guitar pick has undergone multiple evolutionary transformations over the years. In a less enlightened time, they used “tortoiseshell” from the hawksbill sea turtle. If ever there was a case for embracing a fingerstyle approach, that was it.
Then there was the celluloid revolution. Fender’s 351 established what could be considered the industry standard in terms of the shape. Jim Dunlop started playing around with acetal plastics, launching the Tortex (the tortoiseshell pick that was kind to turtles) in 1981.
Manufacturers used have metal, carbon fibre, wood. Brian May uses a sixpence. And Eric Johnson, for the record, uses a Dunlop Jazz Nylon III and even has his own signature variant, with its own unique nylon formula (it's also white, not red).
How he uses it in anger is the subject of much debate and study, taking up curricula in music schools as aspiring young musicians try to get to grips with his “bounce” technique, how he uses principles of economy picking and downward slanted picking – and it is crazy because none of this is top secret.
He even shot a video with Sweetwater telling us how he does it.
“Predominantly the way I pick is, I will pick from the pickguard, the end of the guitar, picking out, where it kind of thrusts the note out a little bit more.” he explained. “I find it gets a little bit better sound especially if you are playing with a lot of distortion.”
Being from Texas, there were no shortage of guitar players who caught Johnson’s attention. But it was the pedal steel guys whose techniques he borrowed, even if that came at a certain cost.
“There are other ways of picking. Like, in my case, the way I like to pick is I’ve watched steel guitar players where they kind of bounce up and down on the guitar,” he says. “And it’s not a very efficient way to pick, but to me it just sounds better, so I kind of try to stick with that.”
As demonstrated in his Sweetwater tutorial, Johnson will also use this pedal steel style for the hybrid attack it gives him, with the fundamental ringing out with the timbre of the pick attack, then the chord tones picked by finger in unison.
For all we associate Johnson with this economy of movement, a technique that’s been workshopped and honed over decades and applied to the Fender Stratocaster or his Gibson ES-335, the pedal steel approach isn’t the most efficient way of doing it, and Johnson’s cites his all-time favourite jazz guitar player, Wes Montgomery, as an example of when his picking (both the approach and the material used, i.e. his thumb) was technically speaking inefficient yet essential to him finding his tone.
“That’s what happened with Wes Montgomery. He ended up just liking the way his thumb sounded,” says Johnson. “He realised very early on that it was gonna be a harder journey to just effortlessly play this stuff. He figured out how to do it, and he is my favourite jazz guitarist of all time. But in his origin of intention, he remarked in articles and he said, ‘Yeah, you know, it’s kind of harder to play that way.’ But he just loved the way it sounded.”
There’s a certain poetry and humanity in a degree of inefficiency; it’s like appreciating the beauty in imperfections, or in the sense that you can be too perfect.
Montgomery could have had an easier life if he borrowed one of Johnson’s nylon picks – a material that is on the warmer side as far as plectrums go, with some of the more modern composites stiffer and harder, and sounding a little brighter, all things being equal.
He had a sweet spot that he liked, and he knew how to work it. He would grab the pickguard with his fingers – there were literally holes dug in because his nails would grab the pickguard so much
Eric Johnson on Wes Montgomery
Speaking to MusicRadar in 2012, Johnson described Montgomery as having one of the 10 greatest guitar tones of all time. Coming from the man who is widely credited for us players referring to our sound as ‘tone’ that is quite the compliment.
“Wes played with his thumb, and so right there that maybe contributed to the unique sound he got from his guitar,” said Johnson. “What he did was different from anybody else.”
Johnson, of course, had to give it a go. Remember in this game, talent borrows, genius steals.
“I’ve experimented with this approach and positioned my thumb right where he used to,” continued Johnson. “He had a sweet spot that he liked, and he knew how to work it. He would grab the pickguard with his fingers – there were literally holes dug in because his nails would grab the pickguard so much – and it’s like he anchored them there. That’s where he wanted his hand so he would get that sweet spot with the thumb. He knew what he was doing.”
For an example of Montgomery’s genius and reference-quality tone, Johnson says to check out the early cut Round Midnight for its combination of “rich lushness” and top-end, and be sure to add 1964’s Movin’ Wes to your record collection.
“Wes' tone sounded like there was a microphone in front of his guitar all the time,” said Johnson of the latter. I always wondered if they put a mic in front of his L5 or something. I doubt they did, but there is a nice, airy, super hi-fi quality to it that just permeates the whole recording.”
Eric Johnson’s Texaphonic UK Tour 2026 kicks off on 22 July in Wolverhampton. See Eric Johnson’s official site or The Gig Cartel for dates and tickets.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.