For a while I thought there was something wrong with the way I prefer to hold a guitar pick nowadays. I blame The Cult's Billy Duffy – I read an interview where he not only explained why his love of Johnny Thunders (and being gifted one by the man himself) led him to playing Herco picks, but he used them 'sideways' – picking the strings with the shoulder part.
I tried it and it instantly felt right – especially with the textured grip of the Herco picks adding a chimey Edge-like quality to the sound (the Edge also uses his Herdim picks in this unconventional way with U2). What I lost in the sharper end I felt I gained in being closer to the strings with a more comfortable grip on the pick itself. Was I mad? Well, it seems Nashville guitar ace Guthrie Trapp does it too.
In a new interview with Rick Beato, alongside fellow Music City guitar maverick Tom Bukovac (who just released an instrumental album together), he digs into his approach and there's much to learn. But his pick tip is probably the quickest and more universal insight you can try right now. And his reasoning is solid.
After Beato remarks how much of Guthrie's tone is part of his right-hand picking, Guthrie explains how Tom encouraged him to stop using heavy picks and start using .70mm medium gauge for electric guitar playing. But he learned the alternative way to hold them from someone outside of the rock world.
"The first person I saw do when I was a kid was Sam Bush on the mandolin and he would use a Fender heavy [pick] and when all these other people in the acoustic and bluegrass world were using really thick picks and tortoiseshell copies and whatnot, he'd use the Fender heavy and he'd always use the round shoulder.
There's less dipping down into the strings so you're able to to float across a little faster
"When I started doing that I realised that not only does it sound a lot better to me, I think it's a more direct contact from more surface area and you're not hearing the click of the pick as much," Guthrie explains. "And also there's less dipping down into the strings so you're able to to float across a little faster."
Tom Buckovac concurs: "I definitely think you can play faster with the shoulder," he adds.
Guthrie also explains how he's uses hybrid picking with his fingers too, but uses heavier 1mm guitar picks for acoustic playing.
There's much more wisdom from these two guitar talents in the interview – check it out above and give the sideways guitar pick trick a try for yourself!
Tom Bukovac and Guthrie Trapp's In Stereo album is available to order from Baked Alaska Records.
