Chet's Thumbpicks

[bill_h]

Chet's D'Andrea thumbpicks were on display at the exhibit. Does anyone know what is was he liked about those and why they were his brand of choice?

[keener]

I'd love to hear from folks using the D'Andrea thumb picks, too, Bill. I currently alternate between Fred Kelly slick picks and the Herco combo thumb and flat picks (medium). I have plenty of both so I have no real need to get any more picks, but I do wonder why Chet had a fondness for these and whether they might suit my tastes too.

[craigdobbins]

I don't know about the D'Andrea thumbpicks, but I have a couple of thumbpicks that Paul gave me that he and Chet used. One is a creamy white one that he gave me about 1980 or so. It looks like a National, but there's no name or logo. It's made of celluloid. The other is a Herco flatpick/thumbpick. You can see Chet use one of the white ones in his instructional video, and I saw him use the Herco a lot in the 1990's.

In photos and videos from the '50's Chet is using pretty big, thick thumbpicks, with a longer shaft. It looked like he usually wore them pretty far up on his thumb, too. I always wondered if that was to keep from hitting the front pickup.

In the late '60's and early '70's Chet used a very narrow brown celluloid thumbpick. You can see him use one of those in the Johnny Cash show appearance, about 1970. I think he's wearing one on the cover of the Now and Then LP, too. Paul said when he joined Chet, he convinced him to start using a bigger pick, to get a bigger sound.

Later on, Chet used the little Herco blue thumbpicks for a long time. I have a Frets magazine issue where he talks about how to cut and reshape and smooth the pick to his liking. I have a lot of those, and use them quite a bit.

Well, that's more than you wanted to know about thumbpicks, I guess...

Craig

[keener]

GREAT info, Craig! Thank you.

I still have a couple of the thin celluloid picks ... I keep them for memory sake, since I haven't found a place that carries anything just like them ... otherwise, I'd order several of them. They were great for playing the Gretsch CG.

I am tending to use the Herco's more and more these days, going to the Fred Kelly picks only when I want a softer bass.

Again, great info ... thanks for sharing,
Bruce

[bill_h]

Thanks for the input Craig. That was very informative. As far as too much info on thumbpicks, no such thing on this forum. Especially when it's Chet's thumbpicks we're talking about!

I watched my entire Chet playlist after reading your response, paying close attention to which thumbpick he was using during various stages of his career. I'm pretty sure I could see all the thumbpicks that you mentioned.

Did Chet only reshape the Herco thumbpick/flatpick hybrids?

I wonder if Chet wore the thumbpick way back on his thumb b/c it allowed him to use his fingers more efficiently. I tried on some thumbpicks at the Fred Kelly booth at CASS and the fellow working the booth felt I wasn't wearing them far enough back on my thumb. He felt I was compromising my ability to use the fingers. ( Not sure if it was Fred Kelly or not.) That sounds like a valid philosophy but I prefer to wear my thumbpicks closer to the tip of the thumb. That way I can get it on there really tight and there's no "give" when I really dig into the strings.

Bruce, I've been torn between Fred Kelly and Dunlop thumbpicks for years but I think I've finally settled on Fred Kelly's. It seems they give me a more balanced sound between thumb and fingers. But like you, I'm gonna make it a point to try D'Andrea sometime. If they were good enough for Mr. Guitar, they're worth looking into for sure!