Hi folks,
My first post in this forum…
I’ve been playing mandolin for a couple of years now, mostly strumming chords, but playing a bit of lead now and then. I’m using a standard guitar-type .88mm plectrum, but I’m getting a bit frustrated with it. I’ve tried a smaller plectrum too.
I wondered if it’d be better to try one of those ring type thingys, or do I just need to keep on keeping on?
Just like a poor waiter, I’d appreciate any tips 
Luckily, picks (mostly) are cheap. Go buy a bunch of them in different sizes, shapes, materials, thicknesses. If you take a mando to a friendly store, they might let you road test some picks.
I have some which I really like (can’t tell you the name, 'cause it’s nearly worn off: maybe McPherson). These are three sided with a hole in the middle for better grip. Each corner of the triangle has a slightly different shape:rounded, pointed, elongated, and each gives a slightly different sound and feel.
My favorite is a genuine tortoise shell pick I got back when I was learning guitar in the '60s-- before the material was banned.
As Paul says, they are mostly cheap, so you can try a bunch. There are a few in the $20-$60 range, but you can do a lot before you get into those to help yourself find your perfect pick. Most important, decide what it is about your current choice that’s not satisfactory, and express that in useful terms. Is it too thin, thick, soft, hard, large, small? You you not like the tone it generates? Too much noise? Too little volume? Not enough control? Get into the details of what frustrates you and go from there.
If you hang out at the mandolin cafe, it won’t be long before the inevitible plectrum thread comes round again, usually swiftly followed by its customary sidekicks, the ‘is it immoral to buy a genuine tortoise pick, if the tortoise was actually hunted as food, not for picks?’, ‘tortoise picks–were they the sh!t?’ and ‘how good is a fake tortoise pic?’ threads.
Mando Cafe is more bluegrass focused than ITM or folk. Many bluegrasser players prefer very heavy picks (1.5mm, 2m or more). For that genre I also prefer heavy picks.
Many ITM mando players (and tenor banjo players) prefer light picks around the gauge you mention or lighter. For ITM I prefer the lighter picks, although I can play ITM happily with one of my bluegrass picks.
My point, I suppose, is that you might want to bear in mind that the Cafe members’ wide preference for heavy picks is partly a bluegrass thing. Don’t feel that you have to use a slab just because you’re a mando player.
I’m with Paul and Tim about trying a load. If you’re anything like me your favourite will change regularly.
Ring type thumbpicks don’t work for me at all on mando. Yuk.
Oh, a thumbpick is the ring-type thingy? 
I’ve tried them with a mandolin. Ditto the yuck. I thought if I put it over my thumb and then squeezed it like a regular pick it wouldn’t slide around. It doesn’t, but it’s also in the wrong position or me. Might work for you though, who can tell? Try it when you try all the others. Why not?
Thanks folks,
I’ve bought a thumb pick anyway - I’ll give that a go and some other picks too.
Picking a mano requires up and down picking. For this, a thumb pick isn’t any advantage that I can see. I used to play a lot of fingerpicked guitar, and a thumb and finger picks were great, but I use only a flat pick on my mando and octave mando.
I’ve been trying different picks. Someone gave me a very thick pick that was almost round. I would play with it and sometimes end up on one of the flat edges because I really couldn’t tell. It felt like I was playing with a comb. Too thick and hard. It even made a lot of plasticy noise.
Now I’m trying one that is thin, flexible and very pointy on one end. I like that one a lot better.
I still haven’t figured out how to hold it right. I try it this way and that and watch what other people do, but my results are variable at best.
I used Dunlop nylon 1 mm on mando for ages and they’re still the most comforable to me. However I like the tone I get with Dunlop JD 204 much better. These are small, thick, round-pointed picks. My triplets really pop with them. The .80 gauge white Clayton picks are great too.
I don’t see any advantage to using a thumbpick on the mandolin, unless you’re planning on fingerpicking, which isn’t out of the question I suppose.
Im glad I read this. I thought I was crazy preferring a little thinner pick than a quarter;) The mando cafe is all about them. My fav is this crazy multicolor pick triangular. I am not really a bluegrass fan, dont hate it just not my thing.
I really like the ITM stuff, even though there seems to be nobody around me here in Hou. that plays it.
Steve
The thinner the strings, the harder the pick, that has always been my personal rule of thumb. For mando and acoustic steelstring guitar I use fairly soft and yielding picks (~.70mm) as I like the kind of twangy sound I get with them. For electric guitar, I always use Jim Dunlop Jazz III picks (the black ones), but I wouldn’t dream of using those on an acoustic instrument. High string tension and hard picks always make me feel like I have to play softly so I won’t break the strings. But all this comes down to personal preference and style. I just find it a lot more comfortable using softer picks on instruments that are strummed a lot, like mandos and acoustic guitars. As has been said, just get a bunch of different picks and try 'em out. Also, you don’t have to use the same type of pick on every song. I don’t see why you can’t use a soft one for strumming and a harder one for stuff that involves a lot of cross-picking. Or vice versa – YMMV.
I really can’t play mandolin or steel-stringed guitar with hard and thick picks. That goes both for rhythm and melody.
Too much force required, I can’t understand how some are comfortable with it.
It takes a bit of getting used to. The thing is that the flex comes from the grip, not from the pick itself being bendy. That’s one of the reasons for the mandolin pick “power grip”. It puts much more skin surface area on the pick allowing secure grip while still keeping fairly relaxed and not pinching hard on the thing.
I use that grip most of the time for mandolin in any style - even on the lighter picks I prefer for ITM. But with heavy picks of >1.5mm (which really do pull a much more substantial tone from the instrument) I don’t know how anyone could play with any other grip. If I used the standard guitar pick grip the pick would be across the room in seconds.
My favourite picks at the moment for bluegrass or rock and roll mando are Blue Chip 1.5mm triangles ($35 each, but incredible picks), 1.5mm JazzMando Proplecs (lovely, but a bit soft and easily scratched/chipped) and Wegen 2mm.
For ITM, in order of weight (high to low) I like standard green, yellow or orange Dunlops.
On all my picks I bore or punch a paper-punch sized hole in the centre to aid secure grip.