National Golden Gate NP-1 Finger Picks – Stainless Steel – Dozen, Small, Silver

National NP2SS Stainless Steel FingerpicksINTRODUCTION: Metal fingerpicks protect your fingers and produce a loud, clear ringing tone when plucking a metal string. They are typically used for playing acoustic guitar, dobro, banjo, or steel guitar.I have purchased and used all the picks in this review. I compared them on Gretsch Lap Steel Guitar, Martin Acoustic Guitar, and Gibson RBT Banjo strung with Dunlop and Fender extra-light strings.COMPOSITION: National NP2 Nickel Silver fingerpick alloy usually contains 60% copper, 20% nickel, and 20% zinc. Contact with Nickel may pose a very slight carcinogenic risk.RECOMMENDATIONS: Metal fingerpicks can make a string sing and add to your enjoyment of the music you make.INTRODUCTION: Metal fingerpicks protect your fingers and produce a loud, clear ringing tone when plucking a metal string. They are typically used for playing acoustic guitar, dobro, banjo, steel guitar, or autoharp. Unfortunately, metal fingerpicks also make a clicking noise on the stings, they rob your finger tips of some feeling, and they decrease your ability to control the volume of the plucked string (dynamic range). I have purchased and used all the picks in this review.METAL: Stainless Steel alloy usually contains iron plus 11% chromium, and sometimes 8%+ nickel. National NP2SS fingerpicks are not magnetic, probably indicating the addition of nickel.COMPARISON: I compared the National NP2SS Stainless Steel fingerpicks with National Nickel Silver fingerpicks, Dunlop Nickel Silver fingerpicks, National Brass fingerpicks, Dunlop Brass fingerpicks, ProPik Split Wrap Brass fingerpicks, and a variety of plastic fingerpicks.DESCRIPTION: The National NP2SS Stainless Steel picks are 0.025 inches thick with a single band and flat wings that hold the slightly rounded paddle around your fingertip. They were stiff and the most difficult to fit of all the fingerpicks tested.SOUND: The National NP2 Stainless Steel fingerpicks were loud and bright — that is, they emphasized the treble end of the fundamental tone of each string. But listening carefully, I could hear a lot of high harsh, treble overtones above the fundamental that were hard, wiry, and unpleasant to the ears. These contributed to the brightness of the sound, but in an unpleasant, unnatural way. The harsh overtones were present in all my guitars and banjo, but your experience may be different.CONCLUSIONS: All metal picks sounded louder than naked fingertips and plastic picks. The National NP2 Stainless Steel fingerpicks sounded loud and bright, but they contributed more high harsh overtones than any other pick I tested. These harsh overtones were not present in the brass picks.RECOMMENDATIONS: Metal fingerpicks can make a string sing and add to your enjoyment of the music you make. However, I did not like the sound of the National NP2 Stainless Steel picks and I will be playing with brass fingerpicks and my bare fingertips from now on.I hope this review has been helpful.