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Every Jazz III Variant, Ranked and Argued About

Phil by Phil, with John interrupting throughout

Here’s something nobody tells you when you fall in love with a pick shape: the shape was never the hard part. The hard part is that Dunlop makes the Jazz III in enough materials, gauges, and grip patterns that “I use a Jazz III” is basically meaningless as a sentence. It’s like saying “I drive a car.” Which car. Be specific. We have opinions.

So we bought a pile of them, played them back to back, and — because we are who we are — tried to figure out why they feel and sound different, not just that they do.

John’s note: Phil insisted on doing this “blind,” which mostly meant he kept losing track of which pick was which and guessing based on vibes. This is not science. I said this at the time.

Nylon — the original, and the one everyone starts with

The standard red Jazz III is nylon, and it’s the baseline every other variant gets measured against. It’s a little slippery under sweaty fingers, which is the one real knock against it, and that slipperiness costs it a hair of energy transfer into the string — nylon picks tend to slide off the string microscopically faster than the stiffer materials, which makes them very slightly quieter and softer-edged in direct comparison. Not a flaw, exactly. More of a personality trait.

Ultex — brighter, stiffer, semi-transparent

Ultex swaps the nylon for a stiffer, harder plastic, and the tonal difference is real: players consistently describe it as brighter and louder than nylon, with more clarity and a snappier attack. It grips a little better too, thanks to bigger raised lettering, though it’s famously easy to lose — the semi-transparent cream color blends into literally any light-colored surface, which is a design flaw nobody asked our opinion on.

Phil’s note: I have lost more Ultex picks to my own carpet than I am comfortable admitting in a public document.

Gator Grip / Delrin (Tortex) — the warm one

This is Dunlop’s Tortex material under the hood, and it’s the softest-sounding of the bunch — warm like nylon, but more balanced, with a gentler string attack that never gets clicky. It’s genuinely the mellow option here: less presence, more roundness, particularly noticeable on the lower strings. If Ultex is the bright, present member of this family, Delrin/Gator Grip is the one who shows up and quietly makes everything sound warmer without asking for credit.

Stiffo — nylon with an attitude adjustment

Stiffo isn’t a separate material so much as nylon with a hardening agent added, which makes it noticeably stiffer than the standard red without fully crossing over into Ultex territory. Community consensus on exactly how it differs from the others is, generously, inconsistent — we found players calling it both “softer than the reds” and “basically the same as Ultex” in the same forum thread, which tells you most people are guessing same as we are, just with more confidence.

John’s note: I would like it on the record that “inconsistent community consensus” is a very generous way of describing what was, functionally, an argument between strangers on the internet.

So which one is correct

If you want the unqualified, no-notes answer: nylon standard is the reference point, Ultex is the upgrade if you want more clarity and don’t mind hunting for it in bad lighting, Delrin/Gator Grip is the move if you want warmth over edge, and Stiffo exists for people who want “nylon, but firmer” without fully committing to a personality change.

Phil’s actual pick is Ultex. This is, as previously established elsewhere on this site, incorrect, but we’re leaving the record intact for transparency.

Next in this series: we take these four materials, in matching gauges, and actually measure the tonal difference instead of just arguing about it. Stay tuned.

References