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12 Feb 01 - 03:32 AM (#396099) Subject: New patent: string-doubling pick From: Steve Parkes I read in last week's New Scientist mag about a patent obtained by a guitarist for a plectrum that's supposed to give the effect of doubling the strings. It sounds like two picks stuck together with a gap between the tips so that the string is plucked twice in quick succession, to imitate the efeect of two strings beiong plucked by one pick. The pieces said it would make a 6-string sound like a 12-string; well, it won't, of course: the four lower strings are tuned in octaves on a 12-string, as any fule kno. I suspect that it won't really sound like the strings are doubled anyway: I don't hear two separate 'plunks' on my mandolin; the distinctive sound comes from the sustain on the two strings, not the attack. All the same, it might be interesting to hear. Any opinions? Steve |
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12 Feb 01 - 03:37 AM (#396102) Subject: RE: New patent: string-doubling pick From: Clinton Hammond I've seen something like this used... and all it did, as far as I could tell was make the guy's playing even muddier... |
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12 Feb 01 - 07:19 AM (#396161) Subject: RE: New patent: string-doubling pick From: McGrath of Harlow Sounds like a slimmed down version of the Strummer produced by Jim Dunlop.
This multipick is designed to enhance any guitar playing-be it Funk, Blues, Rock, Country or Reggae. Created for all levels of guitar playing, it magnifies the quality of the sound. "I love the uniqueness and the sounds the Dunlop Strummer creates. This changes everything. Invention is not dead" - Richie Havens
It's on this Jim Dunlop page, and that's where the paragraph above comes from.
They look vicious, five plectra welded together, but they can be used quite delicately - you can play single notes so that they are heard, but without breaking strings, which you'd do all the time if you leant that hard on a string. Great fun for strumming. It's all too easy though to play much too loudly, so you have to be careful. I wouldn't be without one myself. |
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12 Feb 01 - 11:08 AM (#396295) Subject: RE: New patent: string-doubling pick From: Lady McMoo I don't this is a new idea...I've seen plectrums (plectra?) like these a long time ago. mcmoo |
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12 Feb 01 - 12:40 PM (#396392) Subject: RE: New patent: string-doubling pick From: Rick Fielding Yah, I bought one one of the commercially made ones and have designed a number of somewhat similar ones. Bottom line is that if you actually know how to play, it can be an interesting effect. If you don't, it just makes you sound worse. Rick |