The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #68496 Message #1154810
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
05-Apr-04 - 09:34 AM
Thread Name: Deering Banjo 'Alaska' picks
Subject: RE: Deering Banjo 'Alaska' picks
The metal ones are better, and the work pretty well. If they are adjusted right they stay on remarkably well, and make a clean sound. You only need a short little bit of nail to hold them, about as much as you probably have on your fretting hand. They're the only fingerpicks that feel like real nails, allowing you to strike the strings up or down, and giving you feedback through your real finger nails.
Only hassle is putting them on, and keeping them organised, because they get flattened if you sit on them, and since your fingers are likely to be different shapes, you really need to know which is which.
And the largest size is particularly useful as a thumb pick with some kinds of playing - the angle at which you strike notes is the same as it would be with a real nail, and completely different from the case when you use a normal thumb pick.
And Dave - if you're trying to shorten a plastic Alaska pick I'd recommend using a nailfile rather than a clipper. (For the metal ones, a real file would do the job.
Here's an enthusiastic write up of them that came up via Google just now. (And they are officially called aLaska piks, just to fool everybody...)