Great post. I agree. Three English guitarists I can think of right off the bat that use just the very tip end of the pick are May, Iommi, and Gilmour. All 3 have killer tones. As you stated, it's WHERE you do that as well. Those three guys tend to pick up around the top pickup. They are also getting some of their sound in how the string hits the thumb after it hits the pick. If I'm double picking - obviously I leave more out. Other than that, I sort of do it like the ones mentioned.Hink wrote:Empty Uranus wrote:You know - so many people look at me with a strange look when I say "you'd never believe how much the sound has to do with the way you hold your pick"..... He's a prime example.Hink wrote:no when I said listen to Brian May I meant listen to him...I mean I can hear his tone anytime I want...I want to listen t him. I imagine it would be quite riveting, he is quite intelligent. I'd be contenet just to ask a few questions and listen to what he has to say....
Shhhhhhhh - don't let that get out.
actually Brian May was the inspiration behind my making brass picks, which I use less than 50% of the time.
I tried different coins including a penny (which I figured was the U.S. equivalent of what he uses)...however I dont think there is a universal "right" way to hold a pick. That's not saying that I do not agree with you, I'm just saying that varies a lot from one person to another, and from one style to another. For me picking is done with extreme finesse, but I also feel it's one of the most important parts of playing. How you attack the strings and where you attack them are quite important. But not always how you hold the pick, many players don't even use a pick. I worked very hard many, many years ago to learn to squeal without a pick...it's amazing how that strengthened my ability to do squeals with the pick.
In some ways the guitar is this extremely precise instrument and in other ways it's totally an illogical sloppy instrument. Picking laterally along the strings you find that it doesn't take much distance in either direction to make large tonal changes (and pitch changes with pinching out the squeals). How you hold the pick is should be based on what works best for you (ever see how EVH holds a pick?) Myself I grip the pick very close to the tip most of the time and expose more of the tip when needed. However, the pick is only a small part of it...of course there is palm muting which kind of obvious to begin with. But also what else you're doing with your picking hand can create interesting tones.
Like for example, it's easy to know where the natural harmonics lie across the neck and you have frets to mark where they are. But those natural harmonics can be achieved right on top of the body as well...they only thing is you have to have to memorize where...but you can't memorize by looking, it has to be by feel. I think as much dynamics (or more if you're good at it) comes from just that...how you attack the strings and where. Many guitarists I have played with pick at the same spot all the time...in fact you can see it on their strings and sometimes the bodies as well. Myself I am equally adept at picking anywhere between about the 17th fret back to up tight against the bridge and my right hand travels between yhe end of the neck and the bridge.
Picking on the neck is reserved for specific circumstances, but is a cool technique. For instance in some tunings bending the higher strings together two at a time and picking, fingering and bending fast on the neck (which means following the strings as you bend) creates some incredible tones. Also, countering the pick direction on a single string with finger vibrato (picking on the neck) creates some nice sounds as well as speed illusions...the former (bending two strings together while picking on the neck) is a technique I picked watching and listening to Gary Moore...done proper it's over the top but sounds great, done poorly it's nothing but string masturbation. Of course there are times when picking further down the neck is cool too.
Another cool technique is to train you middle and ring finger (the pinky I usually reserve for the volume knob) for the "way over done" tapping. You won't find many examples of me tapping in the tradition sense. Instead I like very slow taps combined with fairly deep bends (again it means following the string with your tapping finger), it creates an inside out kind of feel (the end of my song Plight of a dreamer as it fades has this).
so please forgive when I say
is very accurate but also very generalized and a tad bit of a simplistic explanation, there's just far more to picking than just the grip. Often I find that many teachers do not teach the value of the right hand enough...we wont even get into the principles and benefits of back picking, and what back picking can do to change the mood of a chord or a composition.you'd never believe how much the sound has to do with the way you hold your pick
FWIW I can whip out examples of these techniques at will if anyone is confused I'll gladly post up some examples.
That being said, when I go over to a Strat, I absolutely LOVE the trebley, gritty Blackmore sound. Nobody uses that sound enough. I get pretty tired of all the top pickup, SRV sounds, as it's just too common. I'll pick a Strat right down there ON the bridge - just to make it as bright and irritating as possible.
Other guitarists that pick high with just a TINY bit of pick - Billy Gibbons for one, and Barry Bailey of the Atlanta Rhythm Section.
I wouldn't know what teachers do or don't do, as I'm 100% self-taught (hell - I don't even tune to standard), but over the years, you start figgerin' out these little things.
) I had a plexi head (100 watt)....I traded that for a boogie head (SOB, 100/60 watt) in 86...it got stolen in either 89 or 90, both those sat on a Hi-watt 4x12 with fanes...now I have a Marshall tube pre through a power amp...it sits on a 4x12 angle cab with celestions...I tried the pre into the POD cabs, it was okay...I haven't tried it with an impulse though... 
j/k of course, but this did happen to my half brother...his son (who is now grown) started drumming young, by the time he was 10 he was playing with the high school band (by the time he was 13 he played guitar more)...dumbass even bought his kid timpani...so he and his son would play all the time in a small room...his kid was quite loud for a child...add to that the fact that my half brother also owned his own construction companies (yes plural because he's a moron)...never did he wear hearing protection until it was too late...he heard more hiss in his ears than came out of his amp, with a space chorus 
...I'd point out the hiss and he couldn't hear it at all...he use to laugh at me when we worked together because I wore headphone type hearing protection...somehow I don't think he laughs anymore...