The Jam Space is a former 50 seat live music venue, turned RU-vid artist studio. Established in an obscure village amid the Canadian prairies; it was founded by travelling musician Richard Rolland, in 2010. -
This channel preserves the story of building & sharing The Jam Space venue (2010-2020) and provides a platform for me to concentrate my creative endeavours in a post pandemic world. -
Current Channel Goals: 1) 50+ published videos, 2) 500+ Subscribers 3) 50K+ views and 4) 3000+ watch time hours by August 1st, 2022. -
Channel Content Ideas: My original music, iPad Pro content, performing covers & talking about my artistic influences, guitar lessons, videos about going back to school, music gear demos & reviews, live music memories: The Jam Space venue, music appreciation, artist inverviews/showcases, lifestyle, the Rescue My Rig series etc... -
Subscribe to the channel to keep up to date with all of my creative projects here at The Space.
I have both. I prefer the Black Mountain picks for one major reason. The pick part itself extends higher up between the thumb and forefinger. Therefore, when I want to flat pick it gives me more control over the pick. The top of the Bumblebee pick sits right about the BOTTOM of where my thumb and forefingers come together with pressure, and tends to thus wobble more. The Black Mountain extends above this point and so the top is totally within this pressure point. Black Mountain now has: Heavy, Medium, Light, and "Jazz" size/weight picks, as well as 2 degrees of spring tension.
The Bumblebee definitely wobbles and couldn’t figure out why. I configured the Black Mountain’s attack angle using hot water, sanded down the pick a bit and love it. Surprised how smooth it plays as a regular pick. May try the Jazz version for faster finger style picking when I recover from wrist surgery.
Thanks for checking out all the videos! I have to credit Earthquaker devices for putting the drives in loop 1 and modulation in loop 2 - it’s more or less what they designed it for. I will have to put stereo Reverb/Delay effects on the A/B outputs so no loop switch for those when the time comes but I think it’ll be fine. I have a couple of cheap noise suppressors coming in soon. Going to try a simple Rowin noise gate first in the chain to silence guitar noise and replace the NS-2 with a DemonFX ripoff of the ISP G-string II. The NS-2 kept things quiet but I was noticing that sometimes there was a sizeable volume reduction on the front end attack of my notes. Hope one or both of the new pedals will keep it quiet and unaffected… otherwise it’s more $$$ 😅 - Richard
@@TheJamSpace man I really appreciate all the help with technical stuff. Definitely learning. Theres is just gear I wasn't even aware of. That earthquake is really cool. Well it's a work in progress figuring out what sounds best to each individual player. Hopefully those new pedals do the trick!
I'm digging the board! You can fit quite a bit on there with this setup. Very cool. I'm not familiar with all those pedals but i bet they are fun to mess around with.
RIP morley flanger. That's a bummer. But this is a really cool idea and you executed it nicely. Looks sturdy now that you moved bar and mounts. Seriously looks like a pedalboard that you could buy online from one of these pedalboard companies.
My nails are like paper.. On the fret hand 2 split down the middle. I use 3 coats of a clear hardener and one coat of a good matte finish to hide the shine. However after trying (As far as I know) EVERY fingerpick out there.. I find the material of an Alaskan (Style)pick is the closest to a real nail, but without medical tape they give backward and are too frustrating touse. Forget metal. We NEED a plastic like a pick, thickness around.88 or less for medium, that hug the nail like Tiptonic picks, but hang on..Tiptonic is a great product but they fly off (needing medical tape) They don't put enough glue on them (They have a warming disk for application, to soften the credit card type rubber glue) There are 3 Kings with thumb picks, Strum-N-Comfort, Black Mountain, and Fred Kelly Bumblebee. But metal pick for guitarists? No way! Am I supposed to go through life with nail extentions? Everyone complains Fred Kelly's Freedom picks have no extra large.. EVERYONE! And you have to use medical tape them on cause the material does not go high enough and isn't soft like a pick. They hurt. My fingerpicks fly off. I've been playing for over 50 years. **We need a fingerpick like Tiptonic (Material) with removable quality adhesive (but with a long base) affixed to a (large enough) velcro stap like Stum-N-Comfort. That might stay on. Nail extensions just look weird. (but work fantastic)
I have 4 of Cole's Black Mountain Picks coming hopefully this week ! Cannot wait to try them cause my best lifelong friend that lives in Arizona told me about them and he said they are AMAZING !!!! Cole even took time to call me when I had sent a text about the time for delivery cause my post office has misplaced many things over the years !! I did not realize they were coming from BC ! But that says a lot about a company when the owner actually calls you about his products !!!
Some personal observations. Fine products. Black Mountain Heavy for just picking, Medium or Light if you are going to strum too. Bumblebee Jazz Heavy for picking. Nexcare Waterproof Tape for grip on the thumb. If you angle the pick away from straight, glue it there.
I discovered the Blue Mountain Medium only a few days ago and it instantly became my favourite thumb pick for acoustic guitar. A Heavy is on order. If they behave like regular picks, there will be a slight tone difference so it's nice to have the choice. The Bumblebee doesn't stay on my thumb so well. A friend tried both and has the opposite opinion. It's all personal but the Blue Mountain is so good that I would urge anyone to try it, either as a pure thumb pick or for its more versatile nature.
My only concern about these pics as if they rotate while you are doing something like Travis picking? That would be extremely annoying having the pick bounce around everywhere rotating while your thumb Is free, does anybody have any experience with them doing that?
Thanks for the video. I'm a guitar player used to picking with fingers only. Recently took up banjo and I feel that thumb picks are too long and I've had to file them down. I love when you speed up the video!! It reminds me of foamy the squirrel (search youtube and you'll get a good laugh!)❤
I’ve always had trouble hanging onto a flat pick. They just spin around in a circle between thumb and finger. Hopefully one of these picks will make things much better !
My classical guitar teacher used to cut up ping pong balls and shape them and glue them on his nails. I tried it and it’s actually very effective. They last a long time too
I've used them years, but I use the thin one. It works best for flat picking, since it's tied to the thumb instead of free-floating, like a regular pick. Also, FYI, you can get them for left handlers. Great picks!
I don’t know if you ever use dynamics in your playing but it sounds like your just hammering the strings which gives no sense of sound here. The sound is horrible. I can tell from the first two clips your a player but there is zero sense of touch in any of the clips. So all I take away is you like the feel can’t tell a thing about the difference in sound. I usually use the same pick but play each guitar with different touch and dynamics.
I have been using bumblebee thumb picks for a few years and love them, i just tried the black mountain pick today and i like it. I think i prefer the bumblebee though. Maybe because i'm used to it, but i like being able to adjust the pick position and on my acoustic guitar the sound is much better than the black mountain.
Thank you for this review. At the moment I am experimenting with these picks on an electric guitar with 11-49 gauge strings. I have tried the medium, the heavy, and the jazz-tipped. I am not an experienced thumb-picker, but all of them seem to do a good job for picking - they certainly feel very secure. I find the heavy and the jazz-tipped far too stiff for my strumming style, and even the medium is so far proving to be stiffer than I would like. (N.B My normal pick is a Dunlop Jazztone 206, so hardly thin.) I will keep experimenting, but I would welcome a light gauge pick, possibly with the jazz tip.
Thanks for sharing your experience and personal findings Neil. I think there are a lot of folks who would like a light gauge version like yourself. Cole at Black Mountain Picks has been pretty ambitous and put out a number of new products in a very short time so hopefully a light gauge is in the plans. - Richard
I just had the Swiss Things delivered and will start reorganizing my board shortly. I have a Revv G8 and I can’t find any info online on how to add this correctly with the Swiss Things. Do I put this before the Swiss Things since I currently have it as “always on?” Loop 1 would have my distortion/drives as instructed. Is this where I’d put the noise gate? Loop 2 will have my delay and reverb, where I’d kick this on live for leads. I am brand new to loop switchers and am not sure how to properly hook this up. Maybe I’m overthinking it as well.
Clarification, Classic does not mean Indonesia. Classic is just a model in the G&L ASAT range and can be also found in the USA Fullerton California range. Now the G&L Tribute, Those are Indonesia made right now.
Thank you for this comment!! You're right - I didn't have a script and mispoke! My apologies. My model is a tribute and therefore made in indonesia as you say. It is the classic ashtray style bridge and two single coils mfd pickups that distinguish it as an Asat 'classic'. Cheers! - Richard Rolland
@@TheJamSpace Thanks. Nice demo. Great guitars either way. By the way, for the ASAT Classic in the Tribute range it uses the same American made bridge assembly and MFD pickups. They ship them overseas to the factory where the guitars are made.
It really helps to make sure you keep your all your fingers steady and directly over the string the whole time. If you can eliminate all the extraneous motion at the beginning, while you are practicing slowly, then the motions will be much more efficient when sped up. That means higher speed and more precision playing.
I have no idea how accurate the claims are, but I have read in multiple places that these are made by dunlop (mxr) without their branding. Could be bs, but it would make sense as I don’t believe Amazon is actually making these in a factory somewhere and large companies like this tend to do similar (ex. Costco brand items are actually name brand items).. whether it’s true or not for the price of these, it seems to be worth it 👍
I think thats quite possible as the MXR ones only actually have MXR on the extra bit of cable strain relief, which these Amazon ones don't have, and that would be simple to add. I paid £12 for six of these instead of £20 for three MXR ones. I already somehow have one actual MXR one (IIRC it was inside a pre owned bag that I got with a Squier Telecaster) and I can detect no difference in performance at all. I will add that they are NOT identical as in a 1:1 copy , but almost, and they are equally robust. Don't stamp on them and they'll last a long long time. I do wish they had the cable strain relief like the MXR ones, but I'm not complaining. Good gear for cheap beans 🙂
Great review ,don't worry about those cables they will last. Ive got Beyer dynamics even from the early 90's and they still work fine today .I'm a audiophile person "Just use your own words " audiophiles always complain and use big words for mostly " non existent " problems. Regards Kenneth John The Netherlands
Thanks for the kind words Kenneth - glad you like my first impressions video. I hope to have a more in depth review/opinion to share after some more thorough use with the headphones. Thanks again for the comment. - Richard Rolland, Canada
