Menu
ROMBO
0
  • Shop
    • All Collections
      • NEW
      • Bundle Offers
      • Guitar Pick Sets
      • Guitar Pick Sets EcoBlack - 100% recycled material
      • Guitar Pick Gift Boxes
      • Guitar Pick Gift Boxes EcoBlack - 100% recycled material
      • Special Editions
      • Last units
      • Other Guitar Accessories
  • Insights
  • About ROMBO
  • Dealers
  • Contact
    • Contact form
    • FAQ
  • Guitar Pick finder
  • Sign in
  • English
  • Your Cart is Empty
ROMBO
ROMBO
  • Shop
    • All Collections
    • NEW
    • Bundle Offers
    • Guitar Pick Sets
    • Guitar Pick Sets EcoBlack - 100% recycled material
    • Guitar Pick Gift Boxes
    • Guitar Pick Gift Boxes EcoBlack - 100% recycled material
    • Special Editions
    • Last units
    • Other Guitar Accessories
  • Insights
  • About ROMBO
  • Dealers
  • Contact
    • Contact form
    • FAQ
  • Guitar Pick finder
  • Language

  • 0 0

Thick Guitar Picks vs Thin Guitar Picks

+Recent Articles

  • Do Guitar Picks Really Affect the Tone Of Your Guitar?
    18. December 2022
  • Why a guitar pick variety pack is a great choice for beginner and advanced guitar players
    10. December 2022
  • HOW OVER 2000 GUITAR PLAYERS HELPED US CO-DESIGN OUR GUITAR PICKS FOR 2023:
    26. September 2022
  • Common Guitar-related Injuries and how to Avoid Pain when Playing the Guitar
    25. June 2022
  • 7 Essential Guitar Pick Techniques
    27. March 2022
  • Qualities of a premium guitar pick
    26. May 2021
  • How to choose the right guitar pick
    08. May 2021
  • Medium Gauge Guitar Picks
    04. April 2021
  • Thick Guitar Picks vs Thin Guitar Picks
    13. March 2021
  • Understanding Guitar Pick Grip: Essentials
    16. February 2021

Thick Guitar Picks vs Thin Guitar Picks

by Carlos Diez Macia 13. March 2021 3 Comments

Thin guitar picks vs. thick guitar picks. This eternal battle has been a part of every guitarist's conversation for decades. It is time to finally evaluate both alternatives in depth.

 

The thickness of a guitar pick is generally measured in millimeters, and it is an attribute that influences many physical aspects like tone and flexibility. For most players, this is considered the most important attribute when choosing the right guitar pick. 

Thin-vs-thick-guitar-picks

However, after doing some online research, nobody seemed to really know how thick a guitar pick needs to be to be considered as a thick or heavy guitar pick. Where is the line?

Therefore, the first thing we did was to create a big online survey on our Instagram guitar community.

1- What are considered Thick Guitar Picks? Thoughts from the Guitar Community

The survey we created was online for 24 hours on an Instagram story and the participants were asked to answer two simple questions.

Personal preferences - thick picks or thin picks?

This question was the first one, and its aim was to see if guitar players prefer thick or thin guitar picks. Here are the results:

Thick guitar picks vs thin guitar picks

It seems that over two thirds of the guitar players prefer guitar picks considered as thick. Honestly, I thought there would be a 50-50 relation and this surprised me a lot.

What do you consider as a thick guitar pick?

This was the second question, and the guitar players could select different thicknesses they considered to be the “least thickness needed for a guitar pick to be considered as thick or heavy”.

Guitar picks thick

The results showed that on average, a pick must be at least about 1.0 mm to be considered as a thick guitar pick.

These results are very interesting, since the information we found during the research claimed that a pick is considered as “thick” or “heavy” if it surpasses 0.8 mm thickness. We did not find any study or survey with more participants than ours.

Of course, we have to consider that we do not have any way to track more specific characteristics of the participants like skill level, music preferences, guitar type, age, and so on.

Average thickness of guitar picks over time

Additional research on this topic showed that during the past decades, the average thickness of the guitar picks has increased substantially. Thin guitar picks are even considered as vintage by many players due to the tone they produce.

This is no surprise, given that most modern guitar techniques and effects that require thick picks (like shredding) were non-existent during the 1950s and 1960s.

Guitar Pick Thickness

2- Why does guitar pick thickness matter?

The thickness of a guitar pick is one of the most influential attributes.

The guitar pick thickness influences:

  • The flexibility of the pick
  • The tone produced by the pick
  • Volume and body of single notes
  • The pick noise created by the pick
  • The durability of the pick
  • The control over the pick
  • The feedback you will receive from the pick

A minimal change in the thickness of a guitar pick of only 0.2 millimeters (equal to two common paper sheets) is enough to change the properties of a guitar pick drastically.

Thick vs thin picks

3- Thick guitar picks vs. thin guitar picks:

Let's pretend there are no medium guitar picks and create a clear line that divides both thickness ranges, to make the differences between thick picks and thin picks more appreciable.

 

Thick / heavy guitar picks
(more than 1 mm)

Thin guitar picks
(less than 0.55 mm)

Flexibility

Rigid/very rigid

Flexible/very flexible

Tone

Warm/dark tones and mellow tones.

Lighter tones, less bass.

Volume

Provide high volume. Broader dynamic range

Maximum volume is limited. Lower dynamic range

Guitar pick noise

Reduced pick noise

Noticeable pick noise

Durability

More durable

Less durable

Control

High control of single notes

Less control for single notes

Popular techniques

Lead guitar, shredding, sweep picking,...

Rhythm guitar, strumming, tremolo picking

Common type of players

Intermediate and advanced guitarists

Beginners, acoustic guitar players.

 

Thick picks: Summary

Thick guitar picks will provide mellower/darker tones. The common rounded edges that can be manufactured with thicknesses over 1 mm – combined with their rigidity –  increase the bass tones and the volume these guitar picks can provide, while reducing the pick noise the pick produces.

These picks provide more control over single notes and are usually the best option for lead guitarists.

Thick Guitar Picks

Most advanced guitarists prefer thick picks, because in their guitar journey they develop new guitar techniques that can be performed better using this kind of picks. Thick plectrums provide more control when it comes to single notes and complex guitar pick techniques like pinch harmonics.

One of the biggest advantages of using heavy picks is the durability they provide. Nevertheless, the lifetime of a guitar pick is influenced by many other aspects, as we learnt in the article “Durability of a guitar pick”.

Thin picks: Summary

Thin picks are the best option for guitarists looking for brighter tones, especially using acoustic guitars and some strumming techniques on electric guitar.

The flexibility of these picks limits the maximum volume that can be achieved. This can be  an advantage because it works like an analog limiter. This is especially helpful in a studio session, where the maximum volume achieved must be controlled.

Thin Guitar Picks

Most beginner guitar players start using thin picks because their guitar skill set at the beginning includes guitar techniques like strumming.

Note control can be difficult with thin guitar picks. However, some players use this attribute for specific guitar techniques, like in surf music, where a super fast tremolo picking is required.

4- Example of a thick guitar pick: Rombo Jade

Rombo Jade is the perfect example of a thick guitar pick. Thanks to its thickness, a very large bevel edge could be implemented to be as sharp as possible, providing the precision needed when using these kinds of picks.

Thick Guitar Pick

The size is small, a typical attribute of thick guitar picks, and its shape ends with a very pointy guitar pick tip for maximum attack.

5- Example of a thin guitar pick: Rombo Classic

Rombo Classic is the thinnest Rombo guitar pick. In the middle, it is only 0.38 mm.

This guitar pick is extremely flexible and has a medium/large size with a standard 5 mm diameter guitar pick tip.

Thin Guitar Pick

In spite of its thickness, the dynamic range of the pick is great. This is caused by the material used in our picks.

6- The right guitar pick thickness for you

I am sure you already have an idea of your favorite guitar pick thickness. In case you don’t, it is probably because you are at the beginning of your guitar journey.

Is there a wrong guitar pick thickness to play guitar? Any pick you use to get sound out of your guitar can work, if the sound produced is the sound you are looking for. It is entirely a matter of personal preference.
If you are a beginner guitar player, I recommend you start with something like 0.75 mm, as I described here: "Guitar Picks for Beginners"

However, if you are an intermediate player trying to find a way to discover new guitar tones, I do not have better advice than to tell you to try many different thicknesses and start integrating other important aspects of the guitar pick in your decision, like materials, size, shape, etc...

How to choose the right pick

The good news is, you will probably end up having 3 to 5 favorite guitar picks which you can use for different techniques. So, enjoy the journey and be open to experimenting with different tones and textures with your guitar!

7- Current guitar pick thicknesses at Rombo:

For this chapter I included the new guitar picks, which will be officially released during 2021.

As you can see on the thickness scale, there are still some slots missing (for example something like 0.6 mm), we will be filling them in the future, as we design new guitar picks.

Guitar pick thickness

However, we might repeat thicknesses if other aspects change a lot, for example the shape, the sharpness of the tip, the size of the pick, or other grip textures.

8- Variable guitar pick thickness

Another important factor to consider is that some picks do not have constant thickness along its design. But why?

As we did our research back in 2018, we found out that designing guitar picks with variable thickness comes with many advantages.

Let's take Rombo Origami as an example: The guitar pick tip is 0.75, but its hold area is thicker. This simple change makes the pick produce darker and mellower tones without losing much of its flexibility.

Guitar pick medium thickness

In the case of Rombo Diamond, the middle area (where all vertices collide) the thickness goes up to 2.65 mm. We increased this area after experiencing that the relation between the thicknesses along the guitar pick also increases the control over the pick for single notes.

Heavy thick guitar pick

In addition, with more thickness on a given material, you have more possibilities to introduce design elements, like the 3D geometries we use in our picks. These geometries have two positive effects: on one side, they enhance the grip of the pick because of the tilted surfaces, and on the other side, the guitar picks look very cool!

In short, variable thickness will make your picks more versatile and give you extra control.

9- Conclusion

Thick picks vs. thin picks will remain a hot, trendy topic in the guitar community.

However, if you are already an intermediate player with some knowledge about equally important aspects of a guitar pick like shape or material, spread the word to avoid confusion among the newcomers.

We have already discussed the huge variety of different guitar picks you can find online in our article “Guitar picks online” since this can be overwhelming for some beginners.

The best advice I can give you: love both thin and thick picks and try to understand why they are different. Both need to exist in a world where creativity and different tones and styles are needed!

Now it’s your turn, what is your favorite guitar pick thickness?

 

  • Share:



Carlos Diez Macia
Carlos Diez Macia

Author


3 Responses

Duncan Hunter
Duncan Hunter

26. June 2022

Have been using .5 to.6 for 35 years for acoustic playing – have always considered that as medium, thicker sounds “harsh”?

Hornung, Adalbert
Hornung, Adalbert

14. March 2021

Ich benutze verschiedene Stärken und Ausführungen je nach Stil des Songs. Es kommen alle Stärken vor. Dünnere für Strumming dickere zum Solieren. Deshalb war der Try Out Mix von 2019 genau richtig für mich. Von der neuen Kollektion erwarte ich mir Unterschiede im Handling da wieder ganz andere Formen, Verstärkungen und Dicken zum Einsatz kommen. Bin schon sehr gespannt auf den Try Out Mix 2021. Keep on rocking…

Viele Grüße Adalbert

Carla Heim
Carla Heim

13. March 2021

I enjoyed the article a lot! I use mostly 1 mm guitar picks and for me, they are considered to be medium guitar picks. Most of my friends (they play metal) use much thicker picks. It was very interesting to see the results of your survey on Instagram. Great job here!
ps. still have my first picks from your first campaign from 2019, they are durable!!!

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.


Also in Insight ROMBO

guitar-pick-tone
Do Guitar Picks Really Affect the Tone Of Your Guitar?

by Carlos Diez Macia 18. December 2022

Read More

Guitar-pick-variety-pack-different-plectrums
Why a guitar pick variety pack is a great choice for beginner and advanced guitar players

by Carlos Diez Macia 10. December 2022

Read More

guitar-picks-nylon
HOW OVER 2000 GUITAR PLAYERS HELPED US CO-DESIGN OUR GUITAR PICKS FOR 2023:

by Carlos Diez Macia 26. September 2022 1 Comment

Read More

Follow

Judith Heindorf & Carlos Diez Macia GbR

Auf der Steige 29

71686 Remseck am Neckar

GERMANY

  • Shop
  • Dealers
  • Legal Notice
  • Terms of Service
  • Refund Policy
  • Shipping
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ

Sign up to get the latest on sales, new releases and more… 

By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.

Translation missing: en.general.country.dropdown_label

© 2023 ROMBO. registered brand
Powered by Shopify

American Express Apple Pay Google Pay Klarna Maestro Mastercard PayPal Shop Pay SOFORT Union Pay Visa