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Anyone make their own picks?

After reading an article about the humble pick, the history, various materials used, shapes, etc, and the predicted affect on tone, I decided to use a piano key top I’d found on the ground near the site of a piano demolition many years ago, and give it a whirl. The piece in question was of course too narrow to make the most common shape, but lent itself to making two teardrop shaped picks on the theme of the fender 358. A bit of shaping, sanding and polishing later, one is done. Photographed next to a common fender pick for scale. Sounds pretty good, bringing out a bit of a sharp bite at the start of a note compared to plastic, it’s also more sensitive, requiring less effort than a fender medium, and far less than a fender thin.

Anyone else made their own?

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Walter on May 26, 2019 at 7:54am

Bruce, Thank you. Not to beat a dead horse, bur argh indeed. I know the smell well from bringing/burning bone, mostly from them people going my teeth. Ivory is Ivory. My sho just jumped to about 100 degrees, trying to work my way up there. Ta know, cutting any real dense wood is scary. it's all about the blade. i squared up a piece of ebony and had to have the blade raise 2.5 inchs. then cut two 1/4 inch fretboards. scary. especially on older table saws.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Walter on May 26, 2019 at 8:02am

oops.....grinding, shop, you......i hate auto spelling.......

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Permalink Reply by Blues Frog on May 26, 2019 at 9:19am

I have a pick cutter and have made a few of those. I've tried a couple different materials just for fun. But recently I have been making picks out of Poly Resin. They give a brighter sound on my acoustic CBG. They tend to get a little flexible when using and get a slight bend where the thumb holds it. So far they hold up nice.

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Permalink Reply by Bruce Young on May 26, 2019 at 9:23am

Love all the different approaches.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on May 26, 2019 at 12:02pm

Been making my own picks for awhile now out of Credit Card blanks that I get in the mail. I cut it out with scissors with a extra bit on top and bend it around a old marker so it will wrap around my thumb. Then I heat it with a hair dryer and let it cool down. Remove the marker and do final trimming.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on May 28, 2019 at 6:21pm

Hi, in many parts of rural and remote Australia this sliced bread wrapper plastic clip is popular as a pick, I used to find them in guitar cases a lot back in the day.

Taff