Need to get a grip on your guitar playing? These guitar picks will literally have you covered!
With these gripped picks, you won’t have to worry about them slipping out of your fingers while you’re playing, and here, you’ll find some of the best picks in different shapes, materials, and grip styles that you will always feel comfortable and secure using.
Table of Contents
1. Fender Mojo Grip Celluloid
The celluloid Fender 351s are among the most popular guitar picks, but sometimes that plastic can get a little slippery for many people.
Thankfully, Fender has created a version with a removable rubber grip, adding extra material for your fingers to hold onto without making your guitar pick thicker overall. Essentially, with these, you get a bigger surface to hold onto, which can make your playing feel more stable.
2. Fender Wavelength
If you don’t really like the idea of the large rubber grip on a Fender pick, these ones are a bit more traditional when it comes to grip.
This celluloid pick uses a wavy pattern embossed into the plectrum to help you hold onto it. It’s less aggressive than some of the other grippings here, but it can make a difference if you already enjoy using Fender picks.
3. Dunlop Gator Grip
The Dunlop Gator Grips are made from a plastic known as Delrex, which is similar to their Tortex ones (they’re both Delrin-based); however, the main difference, which you might have noticed right away, is the coating they have.
The matte finish on the Gator Grips is what helps give these picks their name, and I happen to enjoy using the standard-shaped ones as one of my favorite bass guitar picks as well. However, if you’re looking for a coarser surface, look ahead at some of the other Dunlop picks I can recommend.
4. Dunlop Max-Grip
The Max-Grip line of picks are some of the greatest of all time; they have a satisfying amount of grip on both sides of the pick and come in two of the most popular shapes – the Jazz III and Standard.
With their pointed tips made for precision, the Max-Grip Jazz IIIs are some of the best picks for shredding, and the Nylon Standard Max-Grips are very versatile plectrums that are great for acoustic guitarists, electric guitarists, as well as bassists! I use these regularly because they’re so well-rounded (literally and figuratively) and super reliable picks you can count on for anything.
5. Dunlop Flow Standard Grip
Although these say the word “standard” in the name, these Dunlop picks are anything but that in terms of features and shape.
These beveled picks are made of ultex and have a sharp tip much like the Jazz III and are excellent for people who need a precise pick attack that cuts right through. With the grip, these picks feel great even in thicker sizes.
6. Cool Picks Cat Tongue
If you’ve ever been licked by a cat before, you’ve probably been alarmed at how scratchy and sandpaper-like it felt on your skin. While the grip on these isn’t quite as abrasive as that, that’s what Cool Picks was going for when coming out with this pick, hence its name.
The grip on this pick will help ensure that it won’t be going anywhere, and being a nylon standard plectrum, these are ones you can use effectively for any style of guitar playing, much like the Dunlop Max-Grip Standard Nylons.
7. D’Addario Nylpro
The D’Addario Nylpro picks are a nice alternative to the Dunlop Jazz IIIs, even though they are nearly identical in terms of functionality.
A lot of people prefer the Nylpros because they are a little bit larger than the Dunlop Jazz III picks, without getting as big as one of the Jazz III XLs. I’d say the grip texture is quite comparable too. Overall, these are ideal for people who like the sound that Jazz-shaped picks produce but think the original Jazz IIIs are too small for them.
8. Pickboy Ceramic Grip
Pickboy’s Ceramic picks are quite unique in a couple of different ways. First of all, ceramic isn’t a material you see used every day when it comes to guitar picks, which makes sense because their blend of ceramic and nylon is their own idea. The end product is a very durable yet flexible and great-sounding pick.
Now, let’s talk about that grip pattern itself. Unlike many of the others in this list, which use more of a treading design, this one actually uses a pattern of bumps that are spaced apart. To me, it resembles some of those anti-slip floor mats, and I wonder if that was intentional. Either way, it makes sense why these provide excellent gripping for your fingers.
9. Pickboy Pos-A-Grip
Pickboy Pos-A-Grips come in a handful of different shapes and materials that you can find in a lot of other plectrums on the market, but its primary distinction is its gripping feature.
Instead of adding or engraving grip patterns to the pick, these ones technically take away some plastic from it to help you get a better hold of it. I find that these holes also help the skin on my fingers “breathe” better and don’t get as clammy while playing. However, if you have a tiny drill bit, you can always try drilling holes into a pick to see how it feels for you.
10. Clayton Cork Grip
If you thought the previous two guitar picks were really unique, I believe the Clayton Cork Grips are definitely the elephant in the room when it comes to most guitar picks with added grip, but they definitely work!
The cork is spongy and comfortable, while the large hole helps the skin of your thumb or index finger (your preference) grab onto it really well. It’s definitely not rigid like the other picks, but they are effective, and it’s nice to try something a bit different once in a while if you’re interested in experimenting.
Conclusion
Whether it’s a pick slipping into the soundhole of your acoustic or flying out of your hand while you’re hammering out some riffs, it’s always annoying losing control of your guitar pick.
Thankfully, there’s an abundance of great plectrums out there for you to try, and these are by far some of the best guitar picks with grip that you will come across.
No matter the shapes, size, and texture, there is the right pick for you, and if you’ve been playing for a while already, chances are, there’s a style you find comfortable already and need a little extra support. In that case, you might also benefit from something you can add to the surface to make it more grippy, but I find just having gripped picks from the get-go is more convenient.
Hopefully, you find one of these picks to be one that you can always depend on to not only give you the type of sound that you’re looking for but to always stay in your hand while you’re performing in any situation.