Billy Gibbons Uses Quarter for Guitar Pick?

[song-writer]

Years ago I read an interview in one of the guitar mags where Billy said he uses a quarter for a guitar pick. Don't know if he was joking or not, but no one else seems to touch him for his pinched harmonic growl. Maybe metal on metal helps him get his sound - but I'm sure it would make you go through strings a lot faster - then again maybe he uses heavy guage strings. I am curious if anyone knows of the string guage he uses as well as if he does use coins (full-time or occasionaly ) for a guitar pick? Also, how often does he change strings - hopefully more often than he shaves and less often than he changes his underwear? ............."Just let me know, if you want to go, to that shack outside LaGrange"............ So what if John Lee Hooker claimed ZZ stole the LaGrange riff; all music comes in some shape or influence from previous music - and to me, LaGrange stands on its own as a great ZZ Top classic. Chuck Berry obviously picked up some of what people think is uniquely his from somewhere - probably some backwoods obscure bluesman. I remember an album cut on an early Steppenwolf song where John Kay says, "We stole this thing from Jr. Wells, who stole it from someone else". Now if we can only steal back from Wall
Street what they are getting ready to steal from us.

[Scodiddly]

I've used a quarter once or twice when the alternative was a borrowed medium pick, since I usually use really thick 2mm picks. Dunno about string damage, but back when I was using thin copper picks (stiff but not thick, a good intermediate step when learning to play with heavier picks) the windings tended to get chewed up. But if you're changing strings every couple of hours of playing time I doubt there'd be enough damage to matter.

[song-writer]

I guess Billy doesn't have any problem affording new strings every two hours and having a guitar tech do the restringing for him. I tried using a quarter once, but didn't care for the feel. It didn't matter though that it was always a rounded end, as I most often use the rounded rather than pointed end of a pick, anyway. I think a fair number of players use the rounded end of a pick from what I have read.

[roscoenyc]

he's rumored to use a lot of different currency. the 10p coin and the Peso
(both roughly quarter sized)

[RefD]

he's rumored to use a lot of different currency. the 10p coin and the Peso
(both roughly quarter sized)

he supposedly used a Peso pretty consistently during the 70s.

Brian May of Queen is another coin-as-plectrum player.

[ubertar]

I've heard John Tortollino uses a ball-point pen as a pick to get his distinctive sound. I've even heard he switches to a felt-tip for the legato passages.

[jv]

then again maybe he uses heavy guage strings. I am curious if anyone knows of the string guage he uses as well as if he does use coins (full-time or occasionaly ) for a guitar pick?

I've heard he uses light gauge strings (like .008). He probably has to change them a lot.

[JGriffin]

I've heard the Billy Gibbons and Brian May coin stories from a variety of sources, including the guitarists themselves (in interviews--I've never met either of them).

Gibbons tells a particular story about a guy coming up to him on the street and asking for a quarter. Gibbons says, "oh, you must know me as a guitar player," and the guy says, "no, I just want to buy a cup of coffee."

Anyway, great guitarists, both of 'em.


On the other side of the issue, Lindsey Buckingham and Jeff Beck just use their fingers.

[RefD]

i met Gibbons once, he seemed pleasant enough.

it was either at a guitar show or a used instrument store (i forget which now) in the late 80s/early 90s.

i'm pretty sure he was using a Peso at the time.

[;ivlunsdystf]

On the other side of the issue, Lindsey Buckingham and Jeff Beck just use their fingers.

Knopfler too.

I just saw a Jeff Beck performance on cable a while back. It was some Clapton-organized blues fest in Chicago. Becks' freakin' right thumb is freakin' amazing. He holds his hand above the bridge and the thumb whizzes up and down the strings so fast the camera can't even track it. Holy cow.

[song-writer]

Nils Lofgren also goes pickless. I, myself, use a pick in a hybrid style, also employing my middle and ring finger. I can't see how these totally no pick guys do it without tearing up their hands, especially when chording.

[JGriffin]

Nils Lofgren also goes pickless. I, myself, use a pick in a hybrid style, also employing my middle and ring finger. I can't see how these totally no pick guys do it without tearing up their hands, especially when chording.

I do the hybrid thing too. Sometimes a pick, sometimes the pick goes in the crook of my finger and I use my index, middle and ring fingers.

I have no idea how or when I started doing that.

[The Real MC]

Billy Gibbons is the master of tall tales and he spouts all kinds of BS stories like this one to keep copycats off his trail. ZZTop recording sessions are off limits to visitors for a REASON.

Ever seen the Gibbons "Gearhead" book? Ever notice the distinct omission of guitar AMPS and PEDALS...?

[kayagum]

Richard Thompson is another incredible hybrid picker.

[drewbass]

steve swallow uses a dime. in his search for acoustic tone on an electric bass, he said it was ironic that a metal plectrum on metal strings gives him the most acoustic/wood sounding tone.

drew