To preface this, I've just ordered some 20 packs of different picks in order the find the "one" that fits me and my playing style (I played an ESP LTD EC-1000 in Standard tuning, I couldn't test this with heavier gauge or a 7-string guitar).
I test all picks with the following parameters:
1. A fast/heavy metal song
2. Strumming songs
3. Practice pick, ala scales up and down
4. Slow song that requires exact attacks on phrases and is not "shreddy"
Out of all those points, this pick does it ALL except #2 (for me, personally, Nylon is the best at strumming).
Grip got only "4 stars" because there are picks who are superior to grippiness, such as Matt Heafy's Jazz III, that's almost sandpaper-like grippiness and you cannot compare the two. However, this pick will not drop or displace itself in your hand that easily (I am 1,96cm tall, so my fingers are quite long).
This is not your standard "small Jazz III" pick, it is a proper pick (if you dislike the miniature size of standard Jazz III's).
Playing fast parts and heavy downpicks (Creeping Death, Master of Puppets) is not a problem for this pick whatsoever. Fast shreddy parts give proper attack and feel to the notes, without being too "clangy" or too "fat" sounding. The only pick I find superior to Jazz III XL for fast stuff with a good amount of aggressive attack is Hetfield's 1.14 Ultex pick.
As aforementioned, strumming with this pick is... not the best. If you wish to have proper dynamics in strumming songs, that is a chore to achieve with this pick (as you will need to loosen your grip), and the result is that the strums can often feel too aggressive, which breaks the dynamic of the song and makes it sound too repetitive.
Apart from strumming (but you're not looking for Jazz III's for that type of playing anyhow), there are only TWO (maybe three) negative things I can say for this pick:
- If you drop it and you have a similarly shaped carpet/flooring (like I do), you won't have fun looking for it.
- The size of the pick in hand and the top of the pick can be a bit misleading at first, because you will miss out on string skips (especially when you go up to the first 3 strings) as if you're playing old-school Tortex, your hand positioning won't be as "close" to the string as you think it will be. This only takes a little time to adjust however, if you've been playing with Jazz III's or any of the smaller picks - this would be just perfect for you.
- For me, personally, I wouldn't want to play soft notes with this pick (ala blues) where a small amount of attack is required, this is best reserved for those awesome Nylon picks (at least in my preference) - however, take this with a grain of salt as this is purely my personal preference.
To end this review with another positive note: the durability of the pick is astonishing, however, even after becoming "rounded" a bit, it is still very much usable and even after abusing it for quite a while it still has the awesome feel to it. Hence why this 24-pack set will last you for quite some time.
