Pick your Pick and Day 40

I'll get this out of the way first; the only advice you can really give about picks is to try them out and figure out which you like best.  Picks are like 25 cents, and you're going to wear a pick down and have to replace it eventually, so why not just get a few and test them out.

Other advice:

Thick, hard picks give you a very strong attack on the string.  They are less flexible but make a harder hit on the strings.  Many people that play more "lead" guitar, note for note playing as opposed to chords, prefer to use a stiff pick.  These picks will also tend to wear out faster if you use it for a lot of strumming.

Thinner picks are more flexible.  They are easier to move from string to string in a sweeping motion, so these are very adaptable to chord playing.  They are made to be flexible, so they wear out slower when it comes to strumming.  When it comes to note per note playing, they can actually slow you down a bit.  However more the pick has to be flexed to get past a string, the more effort it takes to strike the chord.  We're talking milliseconds here, but "feel" is subjective.

I personally like a .88 pick.  It would be considered a little bit more stiff than the "medium" side of the spectrum.  The lightest I can stand is a Fender Medium, I do not even like them very much for strumming.  I have a 1.14 pick that is too stiff for me.  They make some that are 3x as thick as that, they are so thick that they generally have a ground out "grip" on them so you don't feel like you're holding a brick.

I've seen videos of people using STONE or GLASS picks.  These have zero flex to them.  I would consider this extreme, but Brian May from Queen uses a coin that is just a tad bit bigger than a US dime.  Billy Gibbons from ZZ top uses a Mexican peso.  Some like Celluloid picks because of their flexibility and the traditional feel of them, but there is also tortex.  Tortex is a rougher plastic that provides a little more grip, this is my material of choice.  If you need even more grip there are specially treated picks with a rubberized surface to them.

Like I said at the start, you just need to try them out to figure out what you like.  Don't be afraid, they usually aren't expensive, and you'll lose many of them before they wear out anyway.  You don't have to be different, and you might want to worry about your strings before you go using a coin.  Work your way progressively towards the ends that you're comfortable with.  I plan on keeping some Fender cel mediums along with my tortex .88's.  Some times you just feel like a change.

Day 40

I've had too many silent(unpowered) nights of practicing chords.  Today I tried out my new amp set up.  I've got my amp elevated, so I've lost some of the low end in the sound.  I have cranked up the bass settings, but ended up just having to take the amp down to the floor when I was doing my metal practice.  I just have to "feel" those palm mutes.  If you keep your practice amp on a table, take that into consideration; you're losing low end.

I am fuzz-strated.  I can't get a fuzz in Rocksmith to sound like I want AND I can't get a fuzz sound from my multi-effects pedal into my real amp.  I guess that fuzz is just too hard to do digitally modeled?  I don't know.  I did put a high gain amp model into the dirty channel on my Marshall, and got an acceptable, but overly complicated Fuzz.  I want a Devi Ever Soda-meiser so very badly.

I finally recorded some of my heavy metal "phrases" I've come up with.  A few days ago I was going to play some for my girlfriend and my mind just went blank on the stuff.  Playing in front of someone messes with your memory I guess.  Anyway, I have recordings of a few of them now so I can just bring that up on my phone and job my memory.  For some reason I kept wanted to make it more "swinging" sounding in the beat.