How to avoid losing picks? Ideas requested pls?

[Charmed Life Picks]

Folks, I could have sworn someone in this thread suggested, with a photo, to store picks in your wallet.

IMPORTANT: Do not do this with casein picks. Casein is rigid with virtually zero flex, like the turkey wishbone we will soon be snapping. It WILL BREAK if put in a wallet that is subject to flex and outer force. I, and others, have learned this the hard way.

No problem with this with Blue Chip, Wegen, Fender, Dunlop, etc. The slight delicacy of casein is almost identical to genuine tortoise shell in this regard. It's one of the properties that makes this material such an incredible plectrum.

Anyway, wanted everyone to know.....

scott memmer

[Photojeep]

I am the proud owner of a Charmed Life brown .60 that is by far the most expensive plectrum I've ever purchased, and the very BEST one I've every played!

When I first got it I kept laying it down wherever was convenient and kept losing it (luckily only temporarily). Now I have a dedicated place it goes when I'm done using it.

I once took it to church and promptly dropped it onto the carpet that is the EXACT SAME COLOR AS THE $%##! PICK... I couldn't find that thing for about an hour. Luckily after Mass I found it as I was packing up to leave.

Now I'm like those who have a high end guitar they never take out.
I'm just too freakin' scared to lose it!

I'm sure in time I'll get over my fear but until then, Dunlop Tortex orange it is...

Best,
PJ

[dgt178]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Well, I was going to say, buy some Blue Chip picks because you won't want to lose them!

Seriously, your value perception will change significantly.

My methodology was to buy some fairly expensive boxes (I use ww1 Princess Mary boxes) in which I keep my picks capo and digital tuner, It lives in the accessory box of the case and always comes out and goes back with the guitar.

The only place that I temporarily lose my BC picks is at home if the phone rings or I need a sudden cup of tea!

.....curious.....do you actually have "tea time" over there?.....

[Earl49]

An elderly friend (age 90 and losing his sight) uses a length of string or dental floss to tie his picks around a bridge pin on his guitar or through the tailpiece of his mandolin. That requires drilling a hole in the center of the pick. Effective, if not the most elegant solution.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

Folks, I could have sworn someone in this thread suggested, with a photo, to store picks in your wallet.

IMPORTANT: Do not do this with casein picks. Casein is rigid with virtually zero flex, like the turkey wishbone we will soon be snapping. It WILL BREAK if put in a wallet that is subject to flex and outer force. I, and others, have learned this the hard way.

No problem with this with Blue Chip, Wegen, Fender, Dunlop, etc. The slight delicacy of casein is almost identical to genuine tortoise shell in this regard. It's one of the properties that makes this material such an incredible plectrum.

Anyway, wanted everyone to know.....

scott memmer

Rev Roy, post #42.

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by dgt178

[/B]

.....curious.....do you actually have "tea time" over there?.....

Yes.

'Tea' as a meal, eaten at 'Tea-Time', is usually a light late afternoon/early evening meal. However, in many households, 'Tea', eaten at 'Tea-Time' has become a synonym for 'Dinner', usually taken early evening.

Just to confuse things, in many households, 'Dinner' is a mid-day meal, hence 'Tea' becomes the evening meal, eaten at 'Tea-Time' between 5pm - 7:30-ish depending on individual's' circumstances.

Tea as a drink, like coffee in the US, is drunk at any time throughout the day and evening. Although a lot of coffee is drunk here, we regard tea as our national drink, rather than coffee. Personally, my consumption of tea vs. coffee is probably in a ratio of 10 cups of tea to 1 of coffee.

[dgt178]

Originally Posted by JayBee1404

Yes.

'Tea' as a meal, eaten at 'Tea-Time', is usually a light late afternoon/early evening meal. However, in many households, 'Tea', eaten at 'Tea-Time' has become a synonym for 'Dinner', usually taken early evening.

Just to confuse things, in many households, 'Dinner' is a mid-day meal, hence 'Tea' becomes the evening meal, eaten at 'Tea-Time' between 5pm - 7:30-ish depending on individual's' circumstances.

Tea as a drink, like coffee in the US, is drunk at any time throughout the day and evening. Although a lot of coffee is drunk here, we regard tea as our national drink, rather than coffee. Personally, my consumption of tea vs. coffee is probably in a ratio of 10 cups of tea to 1 of coffee.

......thanks for the info....wow.....that IS confusing.....I'm almost sorry I asked....LOL.....not really......cheers.....

[JayBee1404]

Originally Posted by dgt178

......thanks for the info....wow.....that IS confusing.....I'm almost sorry I asked....LOL.....not really......cheers.....

[Mrbirdog]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

After Prizen asked:



Mark replied:



I use a similar approach; I have a few of these BlueChip pick boxes:

˙˙˙

I'm not someone who can have one pick, one capo, one tuner - for me it simply works better to have multiples. I've got a capo, a tuner, a strap and some picks in the case pocket of every instrument I ever take out of the house.

I prefer my BlueChip TD-35 picks on my mandolin, and usually use them on my baritone guitar, as well. With my regular six string guitars sometimes I use a BlueChip, sometimes I want a celluloid pick - it depends on what sort of part I'm going to be playing.

Anyway, I've got those BlueChip pick boxes in the instrument case pockets of my mandolin and my baritone guitar, and have another that floats depending on which regular guitar I'm using the most at the moment. I only have one to two BlueChip picks in each box, the rest being D'Andrea celluloid medium-heavies.

This way I can use a BlueChip when I need one, but have the celluloid picks that I like better for rhythm parts right at hand, as well.

Anyway, the only way to hang onto your high dollar BlueChip picks is to put them away in their little wooden box or leather pouch or Altoid tin whenever you're done using them.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

I like Wade have the blue-chip pick box. I have five blue chip picks and I only keep out one at a time the rest stay in their box. Attached to my music stand is a tray where I keep tuners, capo and picks
The tray also has picked holders you push picks in to and holds them firmly until you need them makes it very handy also a cupholder
I hope this helps
Mrbirdog

[C.F. Angee]

Grow your own! Been playing with my fingers since 1988 and I've never lost a pick.

[jljohn]

Originally Posted by Prizen

Mainly due to imminent arrival of some blue chip picks! Any suggestions on keeping tabs on them? I hopeless at keeping picks and don't want to lose these given the price!

Two questions: 1: Do you play only with a pick or do you play with fingers as well? 2: Do you lose your guitars too?

If you play with fingers, this is a bit more challenging, but if you only play with a pick, keep it in the strings. Then, unless you lose your guitars on a regular basis, that should fix the problem!

More seriously, for me, the pick is just one step in EVERY packup process: guitar in the case (check), strap (check), capo (check), pick (check), latch case (check). Done.

Systems make it fail-safe. Figure out what work for you and do it every time. If you are a jeans-wearer and never lose your pocket contents because you've developed a great system, maybe use the coin pocket in your jeans. Or try a coin envelope in your wallet. Or if you play in one place, try a small bowl for your picks and ALWAYS put them in the bowl unless they are in your hand. If you play out a lot, I'd suggest a medium tin or box with a tuner, capo, and pick in each case that you pull out and set next to you while you play, and those items are always either in use or in the tin. The options are limitless, but it comes down to a repeatable and easy system that you will use without fail. I have one BlueChip pick that is my favorite with each instrument, so it stays in the strings, whether the guitar is in a case, on a stand, or in my lap. So it works for me.

[guitarboy88]

Altoids tin.

[beninma]

This is only a problem if you have a bunch of guitars and you leave them out all over the house. If you're in that situation you end up not wanting to store the picks with the guitar.

If you have fewer guitars and you put them back in the case it's really easy to put the picks in a spring loaded pickholder and you put it back in the case every time you finish with the guitar and put the guitar away.

I have a Blue Chip but I only use it on my single acoustic guitar so it goes right back in the case in the spring loaded holder (someone already posted a picture of the holder I have) along with the guitar. The Blue Chip I have is just a little too thick/rigid for my electric guitar so I'm never trying to keep it out to use it on different guitars.

[Muddslide]

I have not yet taken the plunge into higher-end picks. I have a Fender Tru Shell on order so I could try casein picks, but the seller (through Reverb) seems very noncommittal about whether he even has the pick. I was charged $8 for it (not much for a 346 casein pick) but now doubt I'll ever see it.

At any rate, I do hope and plan to acquire some pick offerings from Charmed Life, Blue Chip, Goat Whiskey, EML and Wolfram...possibly others.

I do collect picks (I can't afford to collect guitars), but most are just cheaper ones I've picked up (no pun!) over the years. My only somewhat expensive picks are a couple Golden Gates I purchased during a mandolin phase (but like them for guitar too) and two V-Picks which I absolutely love...I actually found the V-Picks while moving into an apartment. Kismet?

Going back to the 70s, I have mostly used nylon Hercos and various Dunlops. Still like many of those, but I prefer picks over 1mm--and substantially thicker--now.

I don't have any secret, though I rarely lose a pick anymore since I stopped playing live (I hope to get back to gigging again)...I only have one guitar, and play with just my fingers half the time, an electric bass that rarely gets played anymore, and I rarely use a pick on bass, and two ukuleles on which I never use a pick.

So, four stringed instruments. I keep a Dunlop Maxi-Grip 1.5mm in my wallet and a thick Clayton triangle pick woven under the strings of my guitar at the first fret.

I have an old leather dop kit that holds 4 or 5 harmonicas (which I haven't yet learned to play), some old kazoos, assorted junk for tinkering (files, wire cutters, stray old tuning keys and nut blanks and such), a capo, tuner, plus pick pouches. One pouch is solely for thumb and finger picks, one is for duplicates of picks I use frequently as well as a ton of picks just for "the collection."

Then I have a nice little zippered leather pouch in which I keep all my favorite picks I rotate around, plus a set of thumb and finger picks.

[Aaron Smith]

I have a Blue Chip that I use almost daily. I also have picks I don't use made from tortoise shell and ivory and other rare and expensive things that I got as gifts from friends through the years. Despite the fact that I haven't seen some of them with my eyes in seven or eight years, I can tell you exactly where each one of them is right now.

I think there are people that lose things, and people who don't. I've had the same pair of sunglasses since 2001.