Product Description

Manufactured from Lexan providing great strength and durabilitywith a powerful gripping surface for easier handling. Contoured for smooth release, these picks provide an extremely positive attack for super-fast licks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #228 in Musical Instruments
• Brand: Dunlop
• Model: 475P200
• Released on: 2008-05-19
• Dimensions: 1.37" h x 3.07" w x 3.70" l, .2 pounds

Customer Reviews

The Secret Of Speed
Guitarists have for decades taken for granted the shortcomings of common celluloid and delrin picks - that as you play higher up the neck, string tension increases, and the flexibility of the pick comes into play, making control more difficult. It's a bit like driving a race car with thick mittens; driving slow is fine, but things get sloppy as you go faster. And of course if you push too hard, or sometimes just play too long, the pick eventually breaks. Note most rock guitarists with the lineup of fresh picks on a mic stand.

Leave it to science to solve the problem, starting over fifty years ago. In 1953, General Electric created a new super-durable polycarbonate resin called Lexan. Lexan is the miracle material now used in fighter jet canopies, bullet-proof glass, and iPods. And now it's used in picks - the Stubby series from Dunlop.

What could signify strength and speed more than using aerospace industry material to play the guitar? It's certainly a lot different from using normal picks; They sound hard before you even pluck the strings - shake a pack of Stubbys and the clatter is similar to a stack of glass chips. Visually, the Big Stubby certainly looks like glass, and the opaque violet hue with occasional whorls of color is original enough. To the fingers, the feel is of a light plastic, with the textured indentation on both sides providing fantastic grip.

But then you try to bend it. Using both hands, fingers searing with pain, it's unclear if it's the pick or your fingers that are flexing, and it feels as though your bones would break before the pick would. This is definitely bullet-proof glass. Actually playing with the Big Stubby verifies all notions of solidity, with the pick remaining steadfastly sturdy regardless of playing conditions. Strumming some open chords softly, then shredding at top speed octaves up the neck, the pick feels exactly the same. Play low down on a bass, play the high registers of a mandolin, the Big Stubby simply does not yield.

The net result of all this resilience is consistency. Since the pick always reacts the same way regardless of how or where you're playing, you eliminate the problem of compensating for the pick and can concentrate on technique and accuracy. The big payoff is speed - no pick flex means absolute control despite how fast or hard you're playing. The blazing fast runs and sweeps that sounded so sloppy and seemed so unrealistic with a regular pick suddenly seem a lot more achievable when the feel and action of your pick hand can remain consistent.

And unlike metal and metal-tipped picks of ages past, which over time would shave down to a string-breaking knife edge, Lexan isn't as hard as steel or nickel, so your strings are just as safe as they would be with any standard pick (discounting any Pete Townshend "Windmill" maneuvers; putting enough energy into a stroke to break strings with most picks just breaks the pick, Big Stubbys don't break).

After fifteen plus years of trying a whole rainbow of different pick types and thicknesses, these are the ones I've stuck with. Big Stubbys have definitely made me a better player, to the degree that there are some unorthodox pieces I wouldn't be able to play without them. So if you've ever wondered how much your humdrum pick is holding you up, or how much faster you could shred that speed solo, Jim Dunlop has the five-star quality answer for a few bucks.

THE BEST, AND ONLY GUITAR PICKS FOR ME!
When it comes to playing guitar, everything from the wood the guitar is made of, to the pick-ups, to the amp, as well as many other factors determines what kind of tone the notes have. The pick you use is no different; Thin, thick, large, small, picks come in all sizes, shapes, material, and is a part of determining how the note sounds.

The Dunlop 'stubby' 2.0mm is a crucial part of my playing style, and I'm never caught without one in my pocket. I've never been a fan of thin picks becuase they 'give' with the string tension, and large picks are combersome and take up unnesassary space; both can slow your picking hand down.
The 2.0mm Stubby is a small, thick pick that is 'scooped out'(see picture, I use the dark purple one)and is sharply angled at the tip. The area that is scooped out is the 'hook' of these picks.

First, when placing your thumb over the pick, you'll notice how comfortably your thumb rests on the pick, and only a small part of the bottom is exposed for the actuall picking of the string, this reduces tension and helps to play faster. In addition, the edge of your thumb can hang out and can be used for additional muting of the string(again when playing fast).

Second, because the edge of your thumb is able to hang out, it is SSSSOOOO easy to pull of pinched harmonics!!!

Third, because of the indentation of the pick, I have NEVER dropped one of these picks!! Your thumb is kind of 'locked' into the pick and dropping the pick just doesn't happen with these picks(even with a swetty hand, ewwww.)

And last, but still important, If you're into technical playing, these picks are great for picking a rythem and then suddenly shifting to a 'tapped' pattern. The indentation in the pick allows you to free up your index finger of the picking hand for tapping while the pick sits comfortably between the bottom of the index finger the thumb! This is almost impossible with standard picks because as soon as you free up your index finger the pick will fall out of place:( This technique is great for playing fast rythems that involve shifting into tapped arpeggios, triplets, quadruplets and all kinds of other crazy stuff!

I definetly consider these picks to be a crucial part of my playing style, and I can't recommend them enough!!!!!

Fast
I used to use Dunlop Tortex picks. I switched to these just to see if they're better. And they are. They're much faster, they pluck strings more consistently, and its much easier to execute pinch harmonics with them.