V-Picks are the brain-child of Vinni Smith, a native Californian guitar player who wanted a better sound. V-Picks are made from cast Acrylic, bevelled and polished to become a truly amazing addition to your playing kit. Yes you might have a few Les Pauls, a few Strats and a few Fender and Marshall amps, but have you ever really kept a collection of picks to give you the right tone for the right tune? Not something most of us think about, yet different picks create a significant range of tones and playing styles that are as fundamental as a change in guitar or amp.

 My own experience is that they are much, much faster to use, I hardly ever drop them (special anti-gravity material I guess) and after an hour of using one I would never consider going back to anything else. Most people I give one to take one look, smile at me and hand them back. The look on their face says "There's no way I can use that". Wrong; these are actually easier to use, easier to pick, easier to strum - and all much faster that you're used to. There's something about the special bevels that let the pick move very fast, so rather than catching on the string as in the case of a regular pick, they deflect the string and the sound comes from the last tip of the bevel rather than the whole pick letting go.

This is the magic of the V Pick; the fact that the attack is so completely controlled means that you suddenly have a wide expressive range of volume at your disposal. You can go really soft and almost caress the strings, sliding over them like a whisper or you can attack aggressively, yanking each note out one by one and torturing it. You can also slide your finger and thumb in and out at the same time, pulling harmonics more easily than a regular pick. There are a lot of highly technical theories but I wonder if you really need to justify why something works .. if it just does.

Picks range from .8mm ultra-light picks to 11.5 insanely thick picks for electric, acoustic, bass, mandolin etc. Here's the claims - I found they were true; make up your own mind.

Vinni has been busy making a collection of videos. I find them useful to show and hear the differences- difficult things to convey on a website ...

ABOVE: Vinni demos the SNAKE and the Pointed SNAKE.

ABOVE: Vinni demos the Freakishly Large designed for Carlos Santana.

ABOVE: ... the Acoustic Pick

ABOVE: ... Screamer