Become a fingerpicker!

By the time you get two or three metal fingerpicks shaped just right to fit your fingertips, and find a thumbpick that fits you just right, you'll be careful not to lose them.

Your set of picks will be a unique customized possession, not a replaceable commodity like a flatpick, and your whole attitude towards them will be transformed.

I managed to keep a single set of picks for over thirty years, including a couple of years of serious full-time playing (1970-73)followed by a long period of relative inactivity. I lost 'em about five years ago after starting to play a bit more frequently, and had a hell of a time getting a new set to fit right.

I keep 'em in the plastic case that my Shubb capo came in (along with the capo -- there's just room for one plastic thumbpick and two metal fingerpicks in there), and keep the little plastic case in the pickbox in my guitar case. When the picks are not on my fingers, that's where they are.