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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Rawhide works well too. Gives a sound in-between finger picking and flat picking. Plus it gets sticky when your fingers sweat.
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.
And you can clip them onto one of the strings when you get done.
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.
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.
Love all the different approaches.
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.
oops.....grinding, shop, you......i hate auto spelling.......
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