Guitar pick harshness

[Justincase]

Enjoy it! Those are good times. My son played Alto Sax from 6th to 8th grade and I loved
hearing him practice. I wish I could get him to do it now.

I grew up listening to my brother learn clarinet...it was an unpleasant experience. I will seriously be surprised if this kid sticks with it. Lol

 

[chrisni]

If you have notes going out of tune depending on how hard the strings are struck, then your playing technique is seriously flawed. Either that or your guitar in in desperate need of repair.

It's not that simple. Go to the Tuner of your Fractal device and then look closely between the small differences in pitch between the pick attack and the ringing note and the difference between very light, light, hard and very hard picking. Of course the very hard picking level is not something somebody usually does, it's just to illustrate the behavior.
If you don't see any difference you have an Evertune or a masterbuilt custom shop alien guitar.

 

[la szum]

This confusing thread on picking advice and technique in theory and practice has me ignoring everyone's advice.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Happens all the time to metalheads and hard rock people when recording.

About picking hard: just take a pattern of notes and play it in loop, same speed, but varying how hard you play, when you reach a certain point, you will sound more like Paul Gilbert. I think he had an exercise about varying pick intensity without changing speed in one of his earl instructional videos.

Yes, of course! I wasn't thinking. If you hit a note hard enough, it goes sharp. Duh
However, your pick attack should be consistent enough, that, even when accenting, you're not making strings go that sharp that it's an issue.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Happens all the time to metalheads and hard rock people when recording.

About picking hard: just take a pattern of notes and play it in loop, same speed, but varying how hard you play, when you reach a certain point, you will sound more like Paul Gilbert. I think he had an exercise about varying pick intensity without changing speed in one of his earl instructional videos.

If we're thinking of the same instructional video, he showed how you can vary dynamics by lowering the pick deeper into the strings, as opposed to picking harder. Makes sense. Imo, the reason/time to adjust the "strength" of your attack, is when you want an accent.

 

[GiRa]

I strongly disagree, The tone is way better and you get used to it very quickly. I know there are some amazing players out there that use thin picks but that is very much the minority. It's like going over to a guitar with lighter strings on you adjust your technique. The important thing is use what works for you.

I do use thick, pointy picks and enjoy what I get out of them. Still, they require some extra control regarding intonation when double/quad tracking rhythm parts.