Those splendid people at Jim Dunlop have offered to sponsor George from Dark Company and Flicker and The Bastard Sons of Dennis to the tune of a regular and goodly supply of 3mm Stubby plectrums and strings.
George has used the Jim Dunlop 474R3.0 Stubby Jazz 3mm for well over 20 years and recommends it to his guitar students. He has also given away a lot of the ones that he has used as gifts to fans over the years.
A spokesperson from Jim Dunlop told us: “These plectrums are made from a special material called Lexan (originally owned by General Electrics, now Sabic) and was created for NASA, and for building construction (glazing and domes in modern architecture). Lexan is very strong, very durable, and all the while being a very light material.”
Dan at Blueprint Studios, our web design specialists, is another guitarist who uses the 3mm Stubby, although many of the musicians that The Bastard Sons of Dennis encounter on their journeys don’t use them. When a plectrum has been forgotten and George offers one of his, it is usually refused. Mr Lijkkes and Maxx refer to them as ‘Devils Toenails’ as they are hard and thick and purple.
Aside from the obvious virtues of being hard and thick and purple, George says that he has never yet broken such a plectrum, although he tends to wear away the points after a while. He says that he likes their size because he only has to squeeze one a little to fatten out his thumb and achieve a pinched harmonic. The grip has improved and become more reliable over the years. He claims the tone is sweeter and more consistent too as there is more string and less ‘clack’. A softer pick gives more ‘clack’, such as one would hear with a playing card in one’s bicycle spokes.
As the plectrum does not bend, the hand moves and the string gives way, rather than there being a compromised situation of both string and plectrum flexing under the player’s hand movement. As such the Stubby is perfectly suited for super-speedy lead runs, which can be muffled or imprecise if a softer plectrum has not had enough time to assume its proper shape in time to play the next note.
George is clearly somewhat chuffed by this development and will continue to use and endorse the Jim Dunlop 474R3.0 Stubby Jazz 3mm.
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