Why wouldn't you just buy the medium instead of asking for a free bee? They are only 20$. Support the small businesses. Not even gonna watch this video now because of that. Dick.
Hi Al. The Jam Space is a small business that used to provide in person music lessons and host live concerts for small and medium sized local acts. I have earned a grand total of $0 through business operations since the pandemic began in March 2020 and have had to find other employment. The business (building, property taxes, utilities etc) however is still costing me approximately $15K/year despite a lack of business income. One of the things that I have decided to do this year is to begin the transition of my small business into an online format primarily through RU-vid, that with some good fortune and hard work may one day see me cover my expenses and hopefully earn a humble income. As you know, I purchased the original Black Mountain Thumb picks and did a video where I compared it to the Fred Kelly Bumble Bee - these types of product videos can take anywhere from 5-15 hours depending on the experience, preparation and dedication of the content creators. Not to overstate my skills lets just assume that I spent an entire working day on my original Black Mountain Pick video. That is a considerable contribution towards the success of Black Mountain Picks. Further, if you will survey the comments in all of my thumb pick videos you will see that I continue to serve potential Black Mountain thumb pick customers by answering their questions to the best of my ability and directing them to points of sale - This I do because I support the product. These are the types of services that one might expect from a paid employee but I am happy to help folks in this way, and in this limited capacity, free of charge. Before ordering the medium gauge Black Mountain thumb picks I took it upon myself to reach out to Cole at Black Mountain Picks to compliment him on his invention and success and to also explain the difficult position my business is in due to Covid. He was gracious and encouraging and more than happy to support this ‘Black Mountain Medium VS Heavy’ video that you refuse to watch. Cole has produced a lot of great videos over on his Black Mountain Thumb picks page and I encourage you to check them out if you are still interested in purchasing his product. The videos on his page will assuredly have taken a great deal of Cole’s personal time to produce OR have cost him far more than the expense of producing and mailing 2 medium thumb picks to me. I think that he made a wise business decision to partner with The Jam Space for this video, but that’s just my opinion. Ultimately, I am only here to help the people who are willing to accept my assistance. I hope to do more Black Mountain Pick videos in future and I’m proud of the two that I have produced to date. I won’t sensor you and will let your statement remain here. - Richard (small business owner) The Jam Space (small business)
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.
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 !
You’re welcome Serge! I checked out your channel and am a New Subscriber 🙌 It looks like you are using the Black Mountain Heavy pick in your ‘Happy Passover’ video?!! How is it working out for you? Would love it if you could give me a sub as well my friend. Take care! - Richard
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
Try the Medium first. The Light or Heavy might be the one for you but you can find that out later and you won't go far wrong with the Medium. Also consider the Bumblebee.
I've seen your comparisons to the Bumblebee which I did buy and have been enjoying (light standard pick). It fits great. Does Black Mountain have a lighter, thinner pick as well? I like the softer flex for my guitar playing style. I also bought the Kelly speed pick and love that for various songs. It provides a lot of room for finger style picking with all digits. I find that when I have the larger picks in my hands, or even with the Kelly Bumblebee, it sometimes gets in the way, too much surface. I think I will get the BLue Mountain as well. I am going to do one other thing and that is take either the Bumblebee or Black Mountain and modify the shape of the pick so it more resembles the speed pick with just a smaller tab.
Black Mountain has a new product on their website they are calling Jazz tipped (I think more pointed) but I’d assume it is as thick as their heavy pick. The lightest pick they offer is the medium but they fail to mention the gauge of any of their picks so it’s hard to know if it is going to work for you unfortunately. I had always wondered what the tooth pick sized speed pick prong was for - I guess you are that use case. I was considering giving their slick pick a try because it is slightly angled towards the head stock of the guitar when your thumb is in playing position (that might also help you not to make contact with the thumb pick with your index finger?) Something to consider I suppose.
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.