Chris Thile

I switched from Elixir not that long ago. I had horrible luck with the D strings. I was breaking a D string just about every Punch Brothers set. So I did a blind tasting of different strings with the boys on the bus, the guys in Punch Brothers, and the D'Addarios won out every time. It's kind of that industry standard thing, you know, 'that's what mandolin strings should sound like.' And I think David Grisman is partly responsible for that. I mean, no one pulls better tone than Grisman, and J74s are part of that tone. I'm using EXPs and I have D'Addario modify them ever so slightly for me. I like a hybrid of McCoury and Grisman gauges: .0115 and .016 for the E and A, and .026 and .040 for the D and G. I feel the coating on the EXPs cuts down a little bit on noise.

"The Wegen TF 140 pick. The pick has seven speedholes that you can cover or uncover depending on how fast you want to play." - Thile in an interview with Mandolincafe.com about the picks he uses for his mandolin in 2006.

It’s exceedingly difficult to find a pick that delivers on all fronts, namely feel, tone, and durability. Indeed, before BlueChip, I’d never enjoyed more than two of those three important qualities in the same pick. Though I’m always hesitant to gush, I can safely say that Mr. Goins makes the most balanced, empowering pick known to me. It almost literally sticks to your fingers, thus minimizing on-the-fly adjustments, drives through the string consistently on both up and down strokes, and faithfully transmits what you and your mandolin have to offer tonally, all this while staying at the top of its game for far longer than I’ve ever experienced.