Post by tim on Jan 6, 2013 22:36:25 GMT -5
Carol Kaye posted this on her web forum some years ago about an
experience that Mitch Holder had in getting the right sound for a
movie sound track by changing not the guitar or amp or strings,
but.... his pick.
I thought it was really interesting to know that people are so
technical. Of course that's one reason they're professionals and I'm not.
Anyhow,Mitch says:
The D'Andrea Co. has an article on their website that I wrote about
this very topic. The link is: www.dandreapicks.com/pickarticle.htm.
It's called, Pity The Poor Pick. Years ago I just played jazz and used
one kind of pick. When I started doing studio work I realized what a
difference the pick could make with all the different kinds of
instruments and styles we had to do. We're talking all types of
electrics, acoustics, mandolins, banjos and many things you've never
even heard of. I found that different size picks, materials and
thicknesses could totally change the sound and feel.
Here's a case in point. I got a call several years ago to do a movie
track with Clint Eastwood for Space Cowboys. It was on a dubbing
stage, so there wasn't room for all the cartage cases of instruments,
amps and so forth that I normally show up with. I was told it was ala
Herb Ellis, so I brought a hollow body electric (Howard Roberts'
personal Gibson signature model, the closest thing I had to an Gibson
175) and had an amp delivered. When Clint played the song for me on
the piano, it had nothing to do with jazz, it was for the opening
scene in the movie, where the four 'aged' astronauts are depicted
during their earlier years. It was like a lonely guitar player out in
the middle of the desert playing this song. Panicking wasn't going to
work or telling them I needed another guitar (a flat top acoustic)
wasn't going to work. My solution was to change the pick from the jazz
pick I would normally use to the '351' medium shape that most of you
know as a Fender pick (made by D'Andrea for Fender, they invented the
351), which is what I found out worked best on steel string acoustic
guitars. What this accomplished was to give the acoustic sound of that
arch top a brighter sound, but, more importantly, gave me the feel of
playing on a flat top and enabled me to get out of the jazz mode
completely. Fortunately, it worked and they were happy which made me
happy. Clint is a big jazz fan, I had worked with him before and he
never said a word about the guitar and I certainly didn't either, it
just worked and that was that. Phew, what if I hadn't had a pocketful
of different picks to choose from that day?
That track I did is at
the very beginning of the picture. The subject of picks is a very good
topic and should be studied more by guitarists. Thanks for bringing it
up.
www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/group/jazzguitarists/forum/top...
experience that Mitch Holder had in getting the right sound for a
movie sound track by changing not the guitar or amp or strings,
but.... his pick.
I thought it was really interesting to know that people are so
technical. Of course that's one reason they're professionals and I'm not.
Anyhow,Mitch says:
The D'Andrea Co. has an article on their website that I wrote about
this very topic. The link is: www.dandreapicks.com/pickarticle.htm.
It's called, Pity The Poor Pick. Years ago I just played jazz and used
one kind of pick. When I started doing studio work I realized what a
difference the pick could make with all the different kinds of
instruments and styles we had to do. We're talking all types of
electrics, acoustics, mandolins, banjos and many things you've never
even heard of. I found that different size picks, materials and
thicknesses could totally change the sound and feel.
Here's a case in point. I got a call several years ago to do a movie
track with Clint Eastwood for Space Cowboys. It was on a dubbing
stage, so there wasn't room for all the cartage cases of instruments,
amps and so forth that I normally show up with. I was told it was ala
Herb Ellis, so I brought a hollow body electric (Howard Roberts'
personal Gibson signature model, the closest thing I had to an Gibson
175) and had an amp delivered. When Clint played the song for me on
the piano, it had nothing to do with jazz, it was for the opening
scene in the movie, where the four 'aged' astronauts are depicted
during their earlier years. It was like a lonely guitar player out in
the middle of the desert playing this song. Panicking wasn't going to
work or telling them I needed another guitar (a flat top acoustic)
wasn't going to work. My solution was to change the pick from the jazz
pick I would normally use to the '351' medium shape that most of you
know as a Fender pick (made by D'Andrea for Fender, they invented the
351), which is what I found out worked best on steel string acoustic
guitars. What this accomplished was to give the acoustic sound of that
arch top a brighter sound, but, more importantly, gave me the feel of
playing on a flat top and enabled me to get out of the jazz mode
completely. Fortunately, it worked and they were happy which made me
happy. Clint is a big jazz fan, I had worked with him before and he
never said a word about the guitar and I certainly didn't either, it
just worked and that was that. Phew, what if I hadn't had a pocketful
of different picks to choose from that day?
That track I did is atthe very beginning of the picture. The subject of picks is a very good
topic and should be studied more by guitarists. Thanks for bringing it
up.
www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/group/jazzguitarists/forum/top...
