Best guitar picks for beginners

What are the best guitar picks for beginners

When you are new to guitar and especially to electric guitar, there are many things related to that.
Think of different kinds of guitars, amps, effects pedals, playing styles, music and more.
What could be the best guitar picks for beginners, might not be the first thing to think about for most people.

In this blog we’d like tell you a little more about all interesting things in the world of guitar picks.

Why would you start with thin guitar picks

Where ever you read about the best guitar picks for beginners, people say that the best guitar pick must a thin and flexible one. In my opinion that is absolute nonsense.
I think that, as a beginner, you should try different guitar picks and choose what you like best.

When choosing a guitar pick as a beginner, it’s important to consider a few key factors like thickness, material, and shape.

Thickness

• Extremely Light – Standard guitar picks usually come in a variety of thicknesses, starting at ca. 0.50mm, up to 0.60mm, which is extremely light and in my opinion useless.
• Light – Between 0.60mm and let’s say 0.70mm we consider as light picks.
• Medium – from 0.70mm up to ca. 1.00mm classify for medium guitar picks.
• Heavy – Anything thicker than 1.00mm is considered heavy in term of thickness of guitar picks.

Guitar pick materials

The materials used for guitar picks mostly are plastics in many different forms, woods, metal, glass and some more.  

The different picks made out of plastics are made of the below mentioned materials. This category of different plastics comes in many options. We wrote more about this in another blog. All these plastics have their own feel and sound.

• Celluloid: Warm tone, traditional feel.
• Nylon: Warm tone, extremely flexible and less volume, good for strumming.
• Tortex: Balanced tone, durable
• Ultex: Bright tone, more durable.
• Polycarbonate / Lexan: less bright, more durable
• Acrylic: More rigid than polycarbonate, so it is more likely to chip or crack when struck with a sharp or heavy object (metal strings).
• Thermoset: Bright and balanced tone with more bottom-end and lots of volume, extremely durable and mostly ergonomic grip. Does not chip when hit or struck with any hard material.

Celluloid picks

Celluloid picks are available in many different colors. The material is very soft, which creates a warm tone because of the soft material. They create less volume opposed to picks made out of a harder material. As a result, you have to hit the strings harder to let the strings ring. Usually with these kinds of picks, string breakage is more common.

Ultex & Polycarbonate picks

The left pick is made of Ultex.
The right pick is made of Polycarbonate.
Both materials classify for the harder types of guitar picks. The flexibility is reduced compared to celluloid picks.

Thermoset picks

ChickenPicks guitar picks are all made out of thermoset, which is a thermosetting plastic.

Thermoset is unique in the world of guitar picks and due to its easy grip, these are perfect picks for beginners.

They don’t slip out of your hand. The thickness and mass of the picks allow you to grip not too firmly. As a result, there is less tension in your picking hand/arm.

Shape and size of the guitar pick

There are a lot of different shapes for guitar picks. From tear drop shape to triangular and the so-called 351 models.
The 351-model is the well-known “standard” shape for guitar picks and this might be your first idea of the best guitar pick for beginners.

In fact, all kinds of shapes will be available in different sizes.
Think of the larger triangular picks vs. smaller triangle picks. And teardrop picks mostly come in smaller sizes.

Popular small picks are the famous Jazz III type picks with sharp tips. Although they’re called Jazz picks, these are the most used by metal- and rock guitarists who play fast and articulate solos.

We also see that our most popular picks are the smaller ones like the Shredder 3.5 & 2.4mm and the Badazz III picks (2.0 – 2.5 – 3.2mm).

Guitar pick tip: Sharp vs. Round

• For more precise picking and articulate notes, you would prefer a sharp tip.
• With round tips the sound may be fuller, which would be a better pick for beginners.
• Round tips may be better for strumming and not too fast riffs. But all depends on your preferences.

Higher level picks

At ChickenPicks guitar picks we have a different idea on (beginner) guitar picks and that’s why our picks are quite thick. It has to do with creating a better sound, allowing you to play more easily and with better ergonomic grip.
This all helps you to let you, as a beginner guitar player, faster play the things you like with a more professional sound.

You might also read our blog on why would you prefer thin- and flexible guitar picks.
Instead of using thin and flexible picks, you could also choose a thick- and beveled plectrum; it may be the best beginner guitar pick for you.

Thickness features of guitar picks

Depending on what you want to play on your guitar, thickness of the guitar pick may have a variety of influences.

• Strumming – At a first glance light picks may work for you when you like to strum some easy chords.
• Single notes – If you are up to take the next step, you’d want to pick more precisely and sound more articulate. For single notes you would want to use a thicker guitar pick
• Solos – Especially when you play electric guitar and you want to play the solos of your favorite guitar players as well as your own solos, you would need a heavy guitar pick. A heavy guitar pick may be a lot thicker. From let’s say 2.0mm picks might have beveled edges for better control and speed.

Guitar picks should not to be thin and flexible.

And this is why:

• Thin guitar picks produce a thinner sound because there is less material to let the string ring.
• The more material, the more mass. And more mass means more sound.
• Thin picks often are more flexible and too much flexibility in a guitar pick causes delay in a picked note.
• Heavy- or thick picks won’t bend and have more mass for a more pronounced tone.
• The flexibility of thick and rigid guitar picks is in your hands instead of being in the pick; this means that your picking hand technique will be developed from the start.
• Besides that, 2.0mm picks and thicker often have beveled edges. As a result, it’s much easier to glide on and of the strings with less effort.
• You do not have to grip the pick too firmly with a thicker and rigid guitar pick. In this case you could try one of these picks: Light 2.2 / Shredder 2.4 / Badazz III 2.5mm.

Recommended: Best pick for beginners:

When you’re new at guitar, there are many things and information that comes by, especially on the internet. Think of the many different types of guitars, amps, effect pedals, guitar picks etc. etc.
In the amount of information, it is difficult to focus on what actually is important for you.

In case to find the best beginner guitar pick, we hope that we can give you the information you need.
We think there are no best guitar picks for beginners; you have to find out what suits you best by trying a hand full of picks made out of the different materials mentioned earlier.

In relation to the price of a guitar and/or amp, the price of a hand full of guitar picks is negligible in my opinion.

How to hold a guitar pick

You should read our blog about the different ways to hold your guitar pick, which may vary on the style you play and if you play acoustic or electric guitar.

In general

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 (curled) index finger.
The index finger should be behind the pick, supporting it.
The point of the pick should face the same direction as your finger read more:

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.

Guitar picks sizes chart

When you want to know more about the picks and their dimensions, please check our guitar picks sizes chart.

What others say about ChickenPicks guitar picks

Musikhaus Thomann
Chicago Music Exchange
Guitarpickreviews.com
Anatomy of guitar tone

About the author

Hi, my name is Eppo Franken and I started to make my own picks in the mid ’80’s.
In 2010 my wife Jolanda and I started ChickenPicks guitar picks, because we’d like to see if others would enjoy them as well.

I play guitar since 1980 and my favorite style is country chicken picking and some kinds of rockabilly.
Send us an e-mail and let’s talk about guitar tone and picks