joebee - Posted - 05/03/2025:  13:17:09

I recently saw Paul Franklin on YouTube talking about finger picks he helped design with D'Addario. Here's the video link:  Paul Franklin Signature National Fingerpicks   You can look at them on D'Addario's site,  here.

The main thing Paul wanted was to have picks that omit the hole in the face of the pick near where your fingertip frequently lives because he frequently would accidentally hit a string with the edge of that hole. This immediately appealed to me because I do that, too. So I bought a set of these to try them out, and I have tried them.

These picks, aside from omitting the hole, are noticeably stiffer than picks I am used to using. I typically have used ProPik fingerpicks, which are stiffer than the Dunlops I have used in the past, but they are not as stiff as these Franklin picks.  I worried, coming from ProPiks, that they would get a good purchase on my fingers but I played a 2 hour jam with them and had no issues with them wanting to come off. I will probably do some minute adjustments with pliers but they seem pretty good as is.

Overall, I really like these new picks. If you're annoyed by the hole in most picks, you might want to give these a try.

Cheers,

--Joe

JC Dobro - Posted - 05/03/2025:  14:15:08

That’s cool, wish they had a double wrap option - but then again they wouldn’t be Paul’s signature picks if they did.



Amusing that National dismissed his repeated concerns about the holes with “you’re the only guy who’s ever complained…”. I mean, it’s Paul Franklin for gosh shakes :)

Thanks for sharing!

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 05/03/2025:  16:46:52

I ordered 2 pairs a couple weeks ago from The Steel Guitar Forum store (only 20 miles north of me) and they were running a 25% off sale on picks.

I'm glad they don't have the hole in the middle, but I haven't completely warmed up to them yet. I've been using mostly Sammy Shelor fingerpicks over the past 7 ir 8 years, and they are definitely stiffer than the Franklin D'Addario picks and seem to be slightly wider in the blade portion. 

joebee - Posted - 05/08/2025:  14:39:45

JC Dobro - I also have preferred the Pro-Pik style double wrap and those have been my primary picks for a while. But I was surprised at how firmly these picks stay put on my fingers. Not sure why, but they do.

Cheers,
--Joe

joebee - Posted - 05/08/2025:  14:47:06

@MarkinSonoma -

Sammy Shelor fingerpicks 

I had a set of those quite a while ago. They weren't for me; I just couldn't get comfortable with them. Sammy has pretty large hands! I met him at a CBA Father's Day Festival many years ago. They held an impromtu banjo workshop and I was the only player to show up, so had Sammy to myself for about twenty minutes! Got him to autograph the inside of my resonator. Really nice guy.