Beveled guitar picks

Short summary

Beveled guitar picks are thicker picks with tapered or slanted edges designed to glide more smoothly across the strings.
The built-in bevel can reduce resistance and make fast picking, single-note runs and strumming feel easier, without requiring the player to manually angle a flat pick.
Beveled picks are typically at least 2.0mm thick and can provide improved speed, control, comfort and a more defined attack.
The material and thickness also influence tone, durability and feel. ChickenPicks takes the concept further by combining beveled edges with Thermoset, a highly rigid thermosetting material, creating thick picks designed for precise picking, clear tone and reduced hand fatigue.

Choosing Beveled guitar picks

Beveled guitar picks are (mostly) thicker guitar picks (plectrums) designed with a shape that narrows at one end, as opposed to a traditional flat edge.
In some cases, only the tip is beveled, but many picks have beveled edge all over.
Another word for beveled may be tapered.

Slanted angle picking

Slanted means that the pick is turned slightly clockwise or even counter-clockwise.
This helps the pick moving flawless on- and off the strings. This prevents the pick from kind of snagging to the strings and slow down the picking.

You might have noticed that many guitar players, while using standard flat picks, play with a slanted angle, when playing fast single note lines.
With standard flat picks I mean Dunlop or Fender medium guitar picks or any other brand of course.

Built in slanted edge

With beveled edge picks, you don’t have to turn the pick for slanting. The bevel is some kind of built in slanted edge. This is one of the reasons these picks play easier than thin rigid picks.

At least 2.0mm thick

Already said, beveled edges will be featured with thicker than usual picks. Let’s say with at least 2.0mm thick boutique picks. This beveling can be applied to one or more sides of the pick.
The main purpose of the bevel is to make it easier to glide on and off the strings making it easier for you to play guitar.

Boutique picks

As we are talking about thicker- and special created picks, most picks classify for boutique picks.
Most of them are hand made or hand finished and made out of a special material, other than standard plastic.
We wrote a blog about boutique guitar picks, with the pros & cons. Of course all the products classify for bass guitar picks as well as mandolin picks as well.

More comfortable than you might think

A beveled guitar pick feels very comfortable, even when we’re talking about small picks or even significant larger picks.
At a first glance, especially when you are familiar with thin and cheap plastic picks it might feel weird. But within 5 minutes you don’t want to get back to the cheap flappy guitar picks.

Best guitar picks for acoustic guitar

Although acoustic guitars are different to electric guitar at some point, there is no specific guitar pick for acoustic guitars.
Finding out what the best guitar picks for acoustic are for you, means that you have to check out different models, thicknesses and materials.
In another Guitar Essentials we wrote some useful guidelines for choosing the best picks for acoustic.

The pros

• Improved Speed and Control: The beveled edge allows the pick to glide more smoothly across the strings, reducing resistance and making it easier to play fast single note lines and even strum funky and rocking rhythms.
• Better Tone: Boutique beveled guitar picks produce a cleaner, more defined attack on the strings with less pick noise. They produce a pronounced loud and bright tone with lot of bottom-end, of course depending on the materials
• Comfort: The bevel can make the pick feel more ergonomic, fitting the natural curve of the player’s fingers better and reducing hand fatigue during long playing sessions. Most boutique picks are extremely rigid, because flexible picks will affect you playing and in a negative way.
  For more information you should check the 9 reasons to consider thick guitar picks.
• Variety of Bevels: Guitar pick bevels can be customized to suit different playing styles. For instance, a right-handed player might prefer a different bevel angle than a left-handed player, and some picks may feature bevels designed for specific techniques like sweep picking or strumming.
  
  Standard for both left- and right-handed guitarists
  At ChickenPicks guitar picks we only have identical beveled edges, usable for both right- and left-handed guitar players and whatever playing style/techniques.

Made from different materials

Boutique picks can be made from various materials, including plastic, nylon, acrylic, and even metals and wood. Each contributing to the overall feel and sound.
Usually most of the boutique picks are made of acrylic or some other synthetic material.

ChickenPicks guitar picks

ChickenPicks guitar picks are unique in the world of picks, because they are made of a thermosetting plastic called “Thermoset”.
This is the hardest kind of plastic you can imagine, which makes it longer lasting.

My story on beveled guitar picks

When I was 17 or 18 years old in the mid ‘80’s I wanted to play a heavier pick for better sound.
I played a nylon 0.6mm Scotty’s pick until then. But the heavy picks back then were no good boutique picks. Only a 2.0mm Dunlop (the purple one) and it did not fit my needs in terms of comfort. And it sounded dull as well.
Read my full story here.
Actually at this moment it is the Regular 2.6 in the ChickenPicks guitar picks range.

Best guitar picks for beginners

When you’re new to guitar, you might want to know what is the best guitar pick for beginners;
In another blog we wrote, you may find all things that are interesting for starters and especially which ones are the best guitar picks for beginners.

Better grip using pick grippers

Regardless the brand or shape of the pick, it remains important that your pick stays stable and does not slip or turn between your fingers. Gripperzz are specially designed for the best grip on your guitar pick. Gripperzz are small soft rubber grip stickers in the shape of a guitar pick.

How to hold a guitar pick correctly

Place the guitar pick on top of your index finger with a little less than let’s say 6mm sticking out past the fingertip. The pick is sandwiched between the thumb and the side of the index finger.
The index finger should be behind read more…

Better tone

These picks deliver a pronounced loud and bright tone with lots of clear bottom-end, because of the higher mass of the material in combination with the thickness.
The sound of ChickenPicks guitar picks is clear and bright and it works well on how to make your guitar sound better.

Besides the a guitar pick, you may need a good distortion pedal (a.k.a. fuzz pedal) for getting the right edge on your sound. Some guitar amps may sound too clean for several kinds of music.
According to many people, one of the best distortion pedals could be the EHX Big Muff from Electro Harmonix.
When you amp is too loud for certain venues or at home, you may need to use an attenuator to mute some volume.

Perfect bass guitar picks

ChickenPicks guitar picks are all perfect bass guitar picks. Check the guitar picks size chart for your best fit.
The thickness and material will let the strings sound great on bass guitars.
Bermuda III-XL (alias The Bass Pick) officially was developed as a bass guitar pick, but many electric- and acoustic guitar player use it as their favorite guitar pick.

Less hand fatigue / less effort for fast single note runs

Because you don’t have to grip too firmly, there’s less forearm tension. When playing with thin picks for many hours, it may cause hand fatigue. With thicker and heavier picks this won’t happen.
And because of less forearm tension, it is easier to play fast riffs with less effort.
You will be amazed how easy it is to shred and how good it sounds.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Guitar essentials

In guitar essentials we write about interesting things every guitarist should know a bit of, especially when you’re new to (electric) guitar.
We definitely don’t dig deep into theories or technical aspects.
You will find many scientific documents about anything somewhere on the internet.