DOES IT'S JOB, BUT A BIT SCRATCHY

After watching a few dozen videos of finger pickin' masters online, I was inspired... and bought three of these National Nickels and a thumb pick. First off, they're a cinch to fit and put on, one squeeze it all it takes. I had no trouble at all with 'em falling off. One little problem: the metal-on-metal action between the pick and strings creates scratches and screeches every once in a while. So far, with a few days of practice, it's become much less noticable.

Reviewed by gendough on 11/6/2006 who plays Blues.

For fingerstyle, these can't be beat!

I love these picks - they are incredibly brilliant on any guitar, giving songs that folk magic. They fit my fingers perfectly, and allow me to play banjo with ease. A great pick!

Reviewed by coolwhip on 11/2/2006 who plays Folk.

Not the best, but functional

I generally purchase such picks for Scruggs-style banjo picking. The best picks I've yet to find are also made by National, the NP2s. These "Nickel Silver" picks by National are lower in quality. They do not hold to shape very well and do not interact smoothly with the strings (I used nickel banjo strings). I also find these to be more irritating to my skin than others, although this could be a result of body chemistry, and probably varies from user to user. Overall, these picks are okay but not the best for banjo-picking. I've bent one of them into more of a right-angle to use on my middle finger in conjunction with a flat pick (like James Burton) while playing electric guitar. It works pretty well for that purpose.

Reviewed by JugStomper on 10/11/2006 who plays Old-timey, Country, & Rock.

I have used these national nickel silver finger picks since i started to finger pick a couple months ago. At first it felt odd because to me these felt clunky and bothersome. Also sometimes as I am playing the picks would all of a sudden fall off. Aside from the negtaive, these are pretty cheap and if you want to try out finger picking, this would definitely be a good investment, that or you can simply grow your nails out =).

Reviewed by emorapper on 10/26/2006 who plays rock, alternative.

Slick picking

Growing up, I've always admired finger pickers for their coordination and skill (something that I've often lacked), and so as I became a more competent player, one of the things I wanted to do is to start to emulate some of the finger picking styles I had seen dor years, and so I had bought a set of National Finger Picks to start with. While the picks themselves are pretty good quality, at times, even after much time spent getting the picks to fit just right, they would want to start sliding off. Playing along, and when I would least expect it, I'd have one pop off. If you know of a tip or trick for helping keep them on, then they are nice picks and can be used for some really interesting playing, but otherwise expect the picks to not want to stay on your fingers.

Reviewed by Hellmark on 10/17/2006 who plays Country/Rock/Rockabilly.