New Wegenpicks?

littlemark

My initial thoughts on the new grey picks were that they felt and played well, like all wegens. But then it started to sound dull. I had old strings on, so that makes sense but it is seemed more dull then my other picks. It might have been my ears playing tricks on me. I was annoyed and changed picks.

When I changed my strings I couldn't hear a difference at all between the original wegens and the new grey ones. So it was either my ears being silly or perhaps the new material resonates different with older strings.

I'll keep playing and messing about. But they are solid picks. Great bevel as always. No wear issues yet.

lorenzop

I had Michel send me 1 of each GP250 and 350. First shipment the envelope was torn and empty of picks, second shipment arrival exactly coincided with a kidney stone in transit and moments of abject pain. The kidney stone is still clinging after 4 weeks.

Also a disclaimer - not a good evaluator because I never met a guitar or accessory I didn't like - at least a bit.

Having said the above - I really like the sound, weight, shape and material of the GP250. It's thick and solid, yet light, and the point (more pointy then 350) provides me string accuracy. The GP250 is contoured, but not so much it can't be played inside-out should I pick it up wrong. The GP250 is my new favorite pick.

littlemark

Oddly I think my complaint about it sounding less good with dead strings is still true. I think maybe it has to do with the weight. The smaller mass doesn't let the string resonate as well. Again with anyway dead strings.

Plays great though

billyshakes

Like @lorenzop , Michel sent the GP250 and the GypsyJazzPick (3.5mm). I always carry a 250 in my wallet in case I'm out and need a pick and lately found it useful for lead playing. Otherwise, for the longest time, I played the 3.5mm standard GJP with the tip rounded off a little more to play rhythm exclusively. For the pictures below, I used a GJP with the normal tip intact.

The most noticeable thing for me was the weight difference of the new material. The grey material is noticeably lighter than the original material. In the case of the 250, significantly. I only had my kitchen scale, but the most refined measurement showed the following: Old GJP: .09 oz New GJP: .07oz.

I also measured them a second time and both rounded to .08oz. Without any scale that offers better accuracy, I would say the old GJP is probably closer to .085 oz and the new GJP is near .075 oz. That would explain why the scale rounded up or down accordingly. When I measured my oldGJP with a rounded tip, it consistently measured .08oz, which would make sense if it had a little more material removed.

For the case of the GP250, the old measured .07oz and the new GP250 measured .03oz. So, for those familiar with both pick types, the new GJP would feel about the same weight as an old GP250, but still have the same size profile of a standard GJP.

In terms of pick profile, I placed the old & new of each side by side. Of course the new picks are the same thickness as their corresponding old pick by design. However, it does look like there is a little variance in the amount of bevel where the old GJP (white) seems to have a little more rounding on the attack edge whereas the new GJP has more rounding on the non-attack(trailing) edge of the pick. The pictures below show only the tops of the pick, but I saw no noticeable difference if the picks were flipped to the other side. Also, you can see the new GJP has a significantly larger circle indent grip. These differences might be design updates from the ~20ish years that I've had these originals or might be new to this design.

For the GP250, I think the shape and bevel were nearly identical. One noticeable cosmetic thing was that the material in the grip indent on the new pick was so thin that some light was visible from behind. (In the picture you can sort of see the tan tablecloth behind it--that isn't light glare, it is almost translucent there.) The original GP250 (black) doesn't really allow light to shine through but mine does have a few pin holes in the groove that may or may not be original to the pick creation. None of this affects performance.

So there you have it. As others have indicated, wear testing might take a lot longer to assess fully. But, I've always considered my Wegens to be immutable for the type of wear I put them through. These new ones don't seem any different. Buco played them for a few weeks and I did the same and there isn't really any wear evident. For the few weeks I've been playing them, I didn't really notice much performance difference between the new and old other than the weight. I'd play something with the old and then play something with the new and not hear much difference nor feel like they performed any different. Just that one was lighter than the other. There's my 2 cents worth. Thank you @Wegen101 for giving us a chance to be part of this process.