Where did you get your picks?

[Murphy Slaw]

I forgot to answer the thread title... (got caught up in the cool video)

I got my Blue Chip TD35 nearly 10 years ago from them. It was kind of a joke for my wife who thought she was going to play the mandolin. She dropped the idea and I ended up with a 1933 Gibson A-00 and a Blue Chip pick. Win/win.

I just started using it in the last year because of a studio project and I was hearing "thin pick" syndrome. I am now kind of addicted to the darn thing and bounce around quite a bit with my many instruments.

I also have several Wegen picks (bluegrass and the m100) I buy locally in the 1.0 size. I also buy the Ultex 1.0 locally and have picked up a few Primetones from Sweetwater after reading about them. Haven't decided about the Primetones except they FEEL too pointed, but they LOOK the same. I simply can't explain that.

[jay7347]

My go to picks are my Charmed Life blacks, browns and a red flame depending on the tone I want and whether I'm playing acoustic or electric. I have some Blue Chips that are right up there but I lean towards the CL's. (This is after trying about every pick company and material under the sun outside of real tortoise.)

-jay

[JohnnySmash]

Has anyone on here tried the Alaskan Picks? I have ordered twice here in Thailand and have only received picks large enough for a kid. I have short, fat fingers and need to order fingerpicks from somewhere in USA, I think. I fingerpick with index and middle fingers mostly. Appreciate any advise, help. Thank you, JohnnySmash

[bufflehead]

Since my favorite guitar shop doesn't carry the picks I want in the sizes I want, I order them online. Like beer, I avoid buying picks in anything less than 12-packs. Since I have three guitars, I'll buy at least two 12-packs for each guitar case whenever I order. I order whenever I forget that there are already dozens and dozens of picks in each guitar case.

I try to leave a few picks around wherever I might end up practicing. A side table up in the loft, the navigation station of my sailboat, a stump out in the woodlot. They're like bread crumbs, really, tracking the ephemerality of my existence. I inadvertently leave at least one behind in every venue I play: the coffee tables of friends' living rooms, music stands in bars that host open mics, straw bales at music festivals. I used to leave them on side altars in churches.

For me, a plectrum is more than a tool employed to pluck and strum. It's an artifact, my personal arrowhead, left behind like the meme that Kilroy was here. The detritus of the vanishing civilization of folk music. If I could afford inscribed picks, they would say, "Bufflehead was here."

This is why I prefer cheap picks. They're an acquired taste, like Keystone Light, that require years of practice to master. But in the end, as with anything requiring discipline and repetition, it's worth the effort.

[davidd]

I have loads of different picks, although nothing more expensive than V-picks. I keep coming back to the lowly Fender extra heavy.

[Nymuso]

At the open mic last week someone dropped one of those boutique picks on a dark stage with lots of equipment and shadows to contend with. Everyone was on their hands and knees like the early days of contact lenses when someone would lose one on the field at football practice.

I only use flat picks when I play rock on an electric, which is infrequently. I use Fender 351s, medium. I get 'em from Amazon, about 6 bucks a dozen.

[Vinnie Boombatz]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

At the open mic last week someone dropped one of those boutique picks on a dark stage with lots of equipment and shadows to contend with. Everyone was on their hands and knees like the early days of contact lenses when someone would lose one on the field at football practice.

I only use flat picks when I play rock on an electric, which is infrequently. I use Fender 351s, medium. I get 'em from Amazon, about 6 bucks a dozen.

This is EXACTLY why I would never buy a "boutique" pick. Kind of had a chuckle at that story and can just picture the person scouring that nasty stage floor hoping to find that $40 pick!

[thomasinaz]

Here's a pick story: Because of the recent series of pick threads on AGF I've been experimenting with better quality picks. I've always played with whatever pick I found cheap, usually the give away picks at the guitar stores Haven't got to the $20+ picks yet, but maybe down the road.... Anyways, for the past month I've been playing with Primetones in 1.0 and 1.3mm and Wegen picks in 1.0 and 1.5mm.

I was in Sam Ash looking at Gibson acoustics and they had a really good closeout deal on a leftover 2017 model Hummingbird. I played it with one of the store picks but it sounded thin and just not what I expected, so I handed it back to the store guy. Beautifully made guitar, good feeling neck shape and the finish was spectacular, but it just didn't sound right to me.

That Hummingbird was such a great deal I figured it deserved another chance. Went back in a couple of days and played it again, but this time I brought a Primetone and a Wegen pick. The difference in sound quality coming from that guitar was completely upgraded. Full and rich sounding and definitely what I thought a Hummingbird should sound like. Ended up bringing it home with me. (NGD thread coming soon.)

In my limited experience pick quality does make a difference. Thanks to all of those who have started, and contributed to, these pick threads. They've opened my mind to trying different pick materials and spending a little more $ on them.

[golfreggie]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

My carpet.

After dropping them mid-song, huh?

[guitar george]

Originally Posted by thomasinaz

Went back in a couple of days and played it again, but this time I brought a Primetone and a Wegen pick. The difference in sound quality coming from that guitar was completely upgraded. Full and rich sounding and definitely what I thought a Hummingbird should sound like. Ended up bringing it home with me. (NGD thread coming soon.)

If the pick was the only difference, then, everyone should take a variety of picks whenever they check out guitars to find the one most suitable for each guitar.

[DesertTwang]

I buy my BlueChips picks in bulk here, and then apply my own speed bevel.

[Marshall]

I surf on-line.

I've tried all sorts of picks. fancy ones like Bluechip and Charmed Life picks. They're nice, but at $35 to $50 each I choke on the price. I loose too many. Plus i just plain LIKE celluloid picks.

I'm a #346 rounded triangle guy. Don't like nylon, delrin, acetate, whatchamacallit picks. Just give me a medium gauge celluloid rounded triangle. That being said, I surf on line and when I find a funky colorful celluloid pick (mostly from the far east) I order a bunch. If they come and I like them a lot, I order a bigger bunch. I have a very colorful collection of great celluloid picks. When the grandkids come over they always want to pick out one of grampa's picks. I let them. I got plenty more in the closet.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by golfreggie

After dropping them mid-song, huh?

No, no, Reg. Worse.

I sometimes sand brown picks in a brown leather chair seated on a dark brown carpet.

Come over to my house for a beer, comb through the shag, and you're bound to walk away with about $100 worth of guitar picks.

scott memmer

[Johnny K]

If you ask my wife where she got her picks from she will tell you the magic pick faerie that lives in the clothes dryer in the basement.

[antsdmb]

Ive recently discovered and fallen for the ivoroid pics from Folkway Music in Toronto. Very dry and mellow to my ear.


Mark