I stumbled across this while fooling around with pick techniques...

Hold the pick (I was using a hard pick) very loosely, almost to the point where it wants to fly away from your fingers, and strum mildly hard. What this did for me (using an OM2H) was that it took some of the prominent metallic fundamentals out of the tone and brought in more of the wood and the scrape of the strings typical to the Martin sound. FWIW, I was strumming at the bottom of the sound hole, although it seems to work in other places as well.

I tend to underestimate just how much you can change the sound of the guitar by altering the pick attack.

I wonder if you use the same technique on a Martin guitar, if you can make it sound like a Collings?
While using a Collings pick, of course.

Of course I am just kidding, sorry boss, I couldn't resist!

It's actually pretty amazing the difference in sound and tone you can get from both the picks themselves and the technique used.
I end up "picking" all over the place, even during some songs to get the desired sound or "effect". I have had non players ask me what the heck I was doing with that?
Pick material and "weight" can also make a huge difference in tone. I'm sure I will never really get to explore all the possibilities. I think most of us just find something we like and stick with it. Even though there might be a better answer out there if we looked.

It's called technique. Same thing in fingerstyle. A lot of tone is determined by angle of attack, power of attack, distance from bridge - more economical and quicker than pin changes, popsicles and the like. .
Rick

I have always found that the best way to make a Collings sound like a Martin is fill it with mud and throw a blanket over it!

quote:

Originally posted by Guitarhak:
I have always found that the best way to make a Collings sound like a Martin is fill it with mud and throw a blanket over it!

Now, now, Guitarhak we don't want to offend our good friends up in Nazareth. To achieve this same effect I start with a dozen freshly used tennis socks, then.....

quote:

Originally posted by rick-slo:
It's called technique. Same thing in fingerstyle. A lot of tone is determined by angle of attack, power of attack, distance from bridge - more economical and quicker than pin changes, popsicles and the like. .
Rick

This wasn't so much a technique as it was a test in laziness - to see how lightly I could hold the pick before it fell into the sound hole.

quote:

Originally posted by Papi:
I wonder if you use the same technique on a Martin guitar, if you can make it sound like a Collings?
While using a Collings pick, of course.

I'd pay dearly for that pick!

in the interest of empiricism and scientific methodology, I stuffed an oven mitt in the sound hole of my CJA (I cook on Sunday afternoons anyway). Yep. Killed the midrange, choked the sustain. Straight outa Pennsylvania. Or Kalamazoo-zoo-zoo.

the guys in my band are always threatening to stuff a towel in my D-1A

there's nothing like that band camaraderie, telling one another to stuff it. part of why band longevity is like a lasting Hollywood marriage: rare. Really rare. Great when it happens though, regardless of the brand of the guitars.

I have yet to play a Collings that sounds remotely like a Martin. This is not a bad thing. If you want a Martin, get a Martin. Apples and oranges.