Old Picks!

[Looburst]

Any fans out there of older guitar picks? Like these late 1940s patented Bob Clifton Tu-Way picks!

[Rodger]

OK... those are cool

[HHP]

Those are pretty cool. Most picks you see from back then are pretty bad idea, design-wise Seen old mandolin picks that were very long and narrow.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Very cool looking. Any idea what these are made of? Celluloid?

[Tico]

I burn old picks that are no longer useable.

They light up like little torches and burn fast ... but for safety hold them with a metal tweezers before you light them with a match.

This is for those old-fashioned Fender pics.
I've no clue about picks of nylon or those $3 billion dollar newfangled pics.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

For some odd reason I am still in possession of the pick that I got with my very first guitar over 50 years ago.

[gfspencer]

Those are so cool!

[Looburst]

Yes these and most picks, prior to the 1950s, were made of Celluloid. The others were made of genuine Tortoise shell. I don't use these picks, only collect them.
If you don't already know, these are very flammable indeed! They should be stored in a breathable container.

[acoustigoat]

I picked up a fun little book on the history of picks a couple months back. Pretty cool to see all the designs and materials.

[Looburst]

Yep, I've owned the same little PICKS book by Will Hoover since it first was released back in 1995. A great read and very informative too.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by HHP

Those are pretty cool. Most picks you see from back then are pretty bad idea, design-wise Seen old mandolin picks that were very long and narrow.

Same here. I've had a few antique taterbug mandolins pass through my hands, and there are often picks in their case pockets. The ones I've seen most often have been in the shape of the elongated teardrop picks on the top and middle rows of this photo:




whm

[Silly Moustache]

Yeah, I've got some funny shaped celluloid stuff and some shop bought TS just like WHM's - very small, very thin - totally useless.

[AndrewG]

Originally Posted by Looburst

Yep, I've owned the same little PICKS book by Will Hoover since it first was released back in 1995. A great read and very informative too.

The same chap who invented the infernal machine which sucks my picks into oblivion?

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Yeah, I've got some funny shaped celluloid stuff and some shop bought TS just like WHM's - very small, very thin - totally useless.

Well, I have to think that while those picks are totally useless for the way you or I might play, they must have appealed to a lot of players back then or else they wouldn't have sold as well as they did.

Bear in mind that you and I are coming from more of a mid-to-late 20th Century folk and bluegrass style and approach to music. But back in the 1920's, nobody was playing like that, not yet, anyway. What would have been more common would have been the sort of light classical and popular sheet music tunes of the day. Mandolin orchestras would have played lots of tremolo-heavy pieces at slow to moderate tempos. Those thin long picks would have worked well for playing simple tremolo parts on all four string courses at the same time.

I have more experience with that type of pick than just finding them in old mandolin cases, too. My first musical instrument was mountain dulcimer, and coming from an area in western Missouri where the dulcimer is traditional, those were probably the most common pick in use for dulcimers when I first started in 1974. I had a few of those and flapped away at my dulcimer strings with them.

I never cared for the noise they made flapping against the strings and dulcimer fret board, and I didn't like how easily they broke, either. It didn't take me long to gravitate to Fender mediums, and then eventually to medium-heavies.

But lots of dulcimer players still use those long flappy picks, so they must like them.


whm

[HHP]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Well, I have to think that while those picks are totally useless for the way you or I might play, they must have appealed to a lot of players back then or else they wouldn't have sold as well as they did.

Bear in mind that you and I are coming from more of a mid-to-late 20th Century folk and bluegrass style and approach to music. But back in the 1920's, nobody was playing like that, not yet, anyway. What would have been more common would have been the sort of light classical and popular sheet music tunes of the day. Mandolin orchestras would have played lots of tremolo-heavy pieces at slow to moderate tempos. Those thin long picks would have worked well for playing simple tremolo parts on all four string courses at the same time.

I have more experience with that type of pick than just finding them in old mandolin cases, too. My first musical instrument was mountain dulcimer, and coming from an area in western Missouri where the dulcimer is traditional, those were probably the most common pick in use for dulcimers when I first started in 1974. I had a few of those and flapped away at my dulcimer strings with them.

I never cared for the noise they made flapping against the strings and dulcimer fret board, and I didn't like how easily they broke, either. It didn't take me long to gravitate to Fender mediums, and then eventually to medium-heavies.

But lots of dulcimer players still use those long flappy picks, so they must like them.


whm

I saw classical mandolinist Marilyn Mair uses something odd. The picks are called "Pettine" and she get s them from Gary Wagner. From the webpage, some are oddly shaped but she ain't no slouch so there must be something to it.

http://www.marilynnmair.com/notes/20...-the-pick-guy/