Burlap and Blues, The Blues Blog

Summary of StoneWorks Picks

This review has been really fun to write. Here is the summary of the individual characteristics that I look at for every product.

1. Delivery and Packaging: 5 out of 5 stars. Sent as expected, in bubble wrap mailer. I have to question a bubble wrap mailer, my goodness they are made out of stone what could happen, they get dropped? Their website tells you not to drop them on concrete.

2. Visual Appearance: 5 out of 5 stars. Cool looking picks. Just like any other cool looking stone. Great variety.

3. Construction: 5 out of 5 stars, Best stone picks I have ever felt in my life. I am very honored that I have the ability to do this review.

4. Ease of use: 4 ½ out of 5 stars. I am giving this 4 ½ stars due mainly to the learning curve from using a regular pick

5. Tone: 5 stars out of 5 stars. Tone from these picks is really neat. It gets the tone that it says it will get.

6. Communication: 5 out of 5. Great guy to communicate with, easy and returns emails quickly.

7. Value: 4 out of 5 stars. This was a very hard value to assign. The picks start at around $25 and go up from there. If you are prone to losing picks on a frequent basis, these picks can be a very expensive proposition.

Guitarists are always in search of the ultimate tone. Seeing that most guitarists use a pick that is 0.08% or less of the value of their guitar, it is now evident to me that this is the most overlooked aspect of tone. $25 may be a lot to spend on a pick, but we do not hesitate to spend $100, $200 or more on a new effect, or even more on a new amp or guitar. The tone circuit starts at the pick, goes through the guitar, the effects, the cable, the amp and the speakers. Any weak point can be a weak point.

Taking the previous comments into consideration, $25 does not seem much for a cable? Maybe high for a pick, but certainly well worth the cost.

Overall Rating 4.8 out of 5 stars. Beautiful picks, excellent tone, takes some getting used to, a tad bit pricey compared to standard cheap-o picks, but well well worth it.

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Additional thoughts –

Up until I received these picks I had only heard of stone picks being used on acoustics. Most of the videos I had seen were acoustic players using a stone pick. This video was one I had actually watched about a month ago.

But never had I thought about using a stone pick on an electric guitar. After reviewing a few other youtube video’s I decided to give it a shot. I chose a readily available backing track on the internet. I chose a thinner StoneWorks Pick for this jam. This is the pick that I chose for this song

I wanted to see if I could get some serious artificial harmonics and wanted to see how the dynamics affected a dynamic filter.

http://burlapandblues.com/bluesblog/reviews/stonejam.mp3

Overall a pretty good clip. The pick performed excellently, no slippage, great harmonics, great speed.

Remember StoneWorks picks can be found on the internet here http://www.stoneworkspicks.com/. . .

Review equipment – Ibanez Jem 7V, StoneWorks guitar pick as above. Keeley Mod DS-1 into Mesa Boogie simulated amplifier.

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Playability

A pick is no good if it cannot be a pick. To be honest, this pick takes a little getting used to. If you have been bending the pick in your fingers for years, you obviously cannot with a StoneWorks pick. I have a few clips to share with you comparing a regular Delrin pick with the StoneWorks Pick.

This is the pick that I used for these tests

This clip is a simple scale first with the Delrin pick, then with the StoneWorks pick.

Scale sound clip. - http://burlapandblues.com/bluesblog/reviews/stonescale1.mp3

It is easy to tell that the StoneWorks pick has a much brighter tone. The tone has a much fuller harmonic wave. At this time I do not have the oscillator set up for video recording, but the difference in the two can be seen on the oscillator.
Next I did some quick and simple strumming (hard) on an acoustic guitar. For the first 30 seconds of the clip I used a regular Delrin pick and the end I used a StoneWorks stone pick.

Strum sound clip - http://burlapandblues.com/bluesblog/reviews/stoneacousticstrumming.mp3

Again note how much brighter the stone pick is when strumming. It certainly takes some getting used to holding the pick. The StoneWorks picks are much easier to hold than other stone picks that I have used. Some reviews complain about the brightness of the pick. If you are not looking for a brighter sound, you may not want

Remember StoneWorks picks can be found on the internet here http://www.stoneworkspicks.com/. . .

Review equipment - Seagull S6 acoustic guitar. Direct recording. StoneWorks stone guitar pick as pictured above.

If you would like to leave a comment, please let me know at http://burlapandblues.com/bluesblog/blog1.php?disp=msgform&recipient_id=1 Thanks!