Lost Plectrum

Subject: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:10 AM

I was at a folk club last year, can't remember which one or where it was, but I was the bloke who played an acoustic guitar. I have only now just realised that I must have dropped my plectrum there, because I can't find it and I've searched high and low. Does anybody know if a plectrum was handed in at their club? I can't remember what colour it was. I don't really want to have to fork out the money for a new one, so I would be grateful if people in could check out the dusty corners of their clubs and down the back of the upholtery for my plectrum.

Cheers

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: open mike
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:30 AM

shake your guitar..maybe it's in there...good luck getting it out...

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Brian Peters
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:33 AM

There are special elves that steal plectrums, same as for biro pens. I doubt you'll see your old friend again.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST,Tom Bliss
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:39 AM

There is also a special elf who swaps the buttons on my concertina around while I'm playing it.

I found a plectrum at a folk club once. I'd return it to you but I've lost it.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Paul Reade
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:41 AM

You could write a tune or song about it - after all Beethoven did something similar once with Rage Over a Lost Penny

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:44 AM

It'll be in your waistcoat pocket. It's always in your waistcoat pocket.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:57 AM

It's what that little pocket inside the right front pocket on your jeans is for.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: MikeL2
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 08:01 AM

hi

I found a plectrum but I sold it on Ebay.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: treewind
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 08:07 AM

Down the back of your sofa, of course.
Failing that, it will turn up the day you buy a new one.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 08:17 AM

You must have played the famous "Faded Memories Folk Club" located on 457 Nowhere Close im Alzheim DSIS...

Hope you`ll be able to recover it before your next gig which will take place in about another year, am I right?

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Hamish
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 08:52 AM

I have an infallible method for avoiding this problem. Buy a pack of twelve (plectrums, of course. Don't be silly). Since I did that, I've never needed them.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST,Uncle Rumpo
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 09:10 AM

I usually find long lost plectrums several months later
wedged tightly under the fluff and sticky oozing debris
between the folds of flab concealing my belly button..

I suggest that should be the first place any other lardy middle aged or older
guitar players should look
for small missing musical equipment items.

..or check the folds of fat under what used to be your buttocks
in case you sat on it....

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 09:13 AM

pay for them by credit card, and you can use the credit card instead in the interim while they are arriving in the post.

As a non guitarist I have a collection of collected plectrums, here take your pick.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 09:19 AM

Remove the front panel on your clothes dryer and check inside. It takes a while however when all else fails that where I usually find mine.
Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 09:34 AM

Plectrums?
or plectra?

Nigel
Tongue firmly in cheek!

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Darowyn
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 09:41 AM

Hamish is right. That method works, and the more plectra/plectrums (depends whether you are Greek or not) you buy, the fewer you lose.
I once bought six at a bargain price at an auction, and then discovered I'd bought six dozen.
Now that I have 72 of them, I'm confident that even my Grandsons will always have one, even on to the third and fourth generation.
I wonder if there'll still be guitars in those days...
They'll still be arguing about the definition of folk for sure!
Cheers,
Dave
PS If you are Clive Gregson, and lost your plectrum at Biddulph. I've got it- taped inside the "Mischief" LP sleeve.
D

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Bernard
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 09:51 AM

Aah... 'the bloke who played an acoustic guitar'... that narrows it down a bit... but the plectrum I found was multicoloured, so it couldn't have been that one!

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Raggytash
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 10:02 AM

It's a well known fact that lost plectrums transmogrify into wire coat hangers, I've bought dozens of plectrums over the years and lost most, I've never bought a wire hanger and have dozens of the damned things, maybe there's a wizard or which somewhere who can reverse the process

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Raggytash
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 10:03 AM

Which ??? That should read WITCH

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: matt milton
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 10:05 AM

I stole it from you. I had coveted it jealously from the moment you entered the club. I bided my time, waiting until you'd finished performing, had a few drinks and let your guard down then, quick as a flash, lifted it from the headstock where you'd left it wedged between the top two strings.

You can have it back for 500 quid.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 10:17 AM

It was a tortoiseshell plectrum wasn't it?
I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to come in and help us with our enquiries.
Tortoises are an endangered species, and consequently possession of plectra or picks made from tortoiseshell is illegal.

So please turn yourself in and save us the trouble of having to come over here.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST,Ian Gill
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 11:13 AM

Learn to fingerpick but don't play in any of the sessions around the Black Country or you'll be counting your fingers on the way home...

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 11:18 AM

I think I've got it, I've got fecking hundreds of 'em, people give me them, even total strangers stop me in the street and say ' I've found this it must be yours '

So send me your address Andrew and I'll send you one, or a cheque for 40 pence to buy a new one.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 11:35 AM

I found it, Andrew. It was in the gravel of the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant on Interstate 70 east of Kansas City. I'm sorry to say that it was badly scratched and a little warped by the time I found it.

We don't call it a plectrum, we call it a pick. (Plural is picks or picki.)

I happened to be talking to a truckful of women friends at the time. I gave it to the driver and said, "If you get stopped in Raytown, this will see you through." She accepted it with a smile.

I don't know why I specifically mentioned Raytown. The same would apply in any town in Kansas or Missouri.

The bad news is that you are simply going to have to buy another pick.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Zen
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 11:39 AM

Here's a good way of ensuring you never lose one again (tax and shipping not included).

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 11:43 AM

hahahhahah What a way to start a good day.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 11:44 AM

I've got a lovely little pink one. Mrsleveller sometimes plays with it as well.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Acorn4
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 12:31 PM

The Law of Plectrums

Whatever colour your plectrum is, the carpet on which you drop it will be the same colour -this includes bright orange!

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 12:42 PM

I once had a tortoiseshell plectrum. I felt guilty about it-and I suspect led to my losing it. Within three weeks it was gone. It is possible, of course that I had nothing to do with its disappearance; it may have taken that long for the tortoise to get out of sight.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 12:45 PM

"It's a well known fact that lost plectrums transmogrify into wire coat hangers, I've bought dozens of plectrums over the years and lost most, I've never bought a wire hanger and have dozens of the damned things, maybe there's a wizard or which somewhere who can reverse the process."

I remember a sci-fi short story where the next step in the process took place -- a couple of guys who made bicycles discovered a bike they hadn't made among their inventory, and realized that the mass of coat-hangers they used to have had been reduced. They replaced the hangers and within a fortnight or so had yet another bicycle. They turned this into a business plan, and ascribed it to alien life of some sort.

My problem with plectra (flat-picks) is that I use different kinds for different instruments. Basic Fender mediums for guitars, but bone or tortoise-shell for mandolins. I don't like tortoise for guitar, and ditto using plastic on mandos. I prefer brightly-colored plastic for guitars, too, so they show up on most floors, but tortoise-shell is tortoise-shell, so I'm very careful when I have one of the mandolins out, as I really don't want to lose one of the "real" ones.

The ban on real tortoise-shell is a ban on selling them, so I can keep and use the few I have (bought at the Des Moines Music Shop in 1964!) but can't replace broken or lost ones. I do have some buffalo-horn or bone ones (from Viet Nam via eBay), but tortoise is the shiznit for that kind of pick.

Bob

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 01:56 PM

I went across the folk club,
And Andrew was a sleep?
I put it to you.
I went across the folk club.
and Andrew was asleep.
I went across the folk club ,
Andrew was asleep.
I nicked his pick,
He was in trouble deep. (Well for strumming anyway.

It takes a worried Man.
Too nick poor Andrews Pick.
It takes a worried man
to nick poor Andrews pick.
It takes a worried man.
Too nick poor Andrews pick
The culprits a Pick in hand.
And Andrews one pick short........ and sick,.

Twenty one nicked picks
lying in my tin.
twenty one nicked picks laying in my tin.
Twenty one nicked picks lying in my tin
and on each pick are the initials of my name.

Asked the judge what would be my time.
I asked the judge what would be my time
I asked the judge what would be my time.
a shovel and a pick?
on the rocky mountain high.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST,Bardan
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 02:13 PM

Are there any physicists/engineers out there who can explain why plectra go into guitars and even mandolins so easily and are still so hard to remove again? Is there some strange force of attraction at work?

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 02:16 PM

It depends on how badly your playing sucks, Bardan. I usually lose one into my guitar every time I play.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 02:28 PM

Whatever you do, when you're fiddling about in your pocket, DO NOT say "I'm looking for my pick"!

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 02:36 PM

I bet is was a female plectra and it was in heat... The girl ones are highly attracted to

the male of the species

Note the bright attractive colours not to mention the .... eerrrr equimpment.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST,Andrew
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 02:47 PM

Thanks for your help. my wife has promised me a new one for my birthday. By the way the wire coat hangers make good harmonica holders or even microphone holders.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Cool Beans
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 03:50 PM

I knew a guy once who couldn't find his plectrum with both hands and a flashlight.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: open mike
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 04:00 PM

here is one solution
http://www.amazon.com/Profile-Digital-Holder-AMS-PT-500-SL/dp/B001JVLH6K

don't get this one if you lose 'em
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Golden-Touch-14k-Gold-Pick?sku=110211

this one is a bit more reasonable
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Golden-Touch-Sterling-Silver-Pick?sku=110210

this is the best solution yet
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Dunlop-Ergo-Pickholder?sku=420187

or this
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Planet-Waves-Pick-Holder-with-LED-Light?sku=425314

or this (if you can find a pick to put in it)
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Dunlop-Microphone-Stand-Pick-Holder?sku=429002

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Betsy
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 04:42 PM

Maybe Sir Paul McCartney was going through the same problem when he wrote Hey Jude

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: John Hardly
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 04:51 PM

Check table 17. I think it's wedged under the Southwest leg, leveling the table.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: paula t
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 04:54 PM

Andrew,
As a mum, I'm well experienced in the field of lost small objects. Having worked my way up from Barbie shoes and Barbie coathangers, through Polly Pocket figures and, in recent years, school bus passes, I'm now qualified to speak about this .I recently graduated to thumbpicks and the occasional plectrum - with an additional, "short notice , someone must have moved it," qualification ("I need it now and I'm sure I put it away!").

Try washing all your pairs of jeans. I can guarantee that as soon as you take them out of the tumble dryer you'll find them in a pocket.....along with your lost tissues, raffle tickets, ten pound notes................

Failing that, ask the Capo Fairy (often found in our house),Sock Fairy, the TV Remote Fairy or the Unable To Switch Lights Off Fairy . They are found in most homes and I think they co-habit.


Let this be a lesson to you! Put them in a safe place in the future.
I'm sure that the Lakeland store MUST have a special plastic container (plectrum shaped of course) to keep plectrums in. You'll probably find them on the shelves with their famous banana shaped banana cases and digestive biscuit cases (which hold 2 biscuits, so I'm told).

Hope this is helpful,

Paula

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Waddon Pete
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 06:01 PM

...actually plectrums, rather like paper clips, drawing pins and biros, are in public ownership and travel round from owner to owner as the need arises...sometimes they stay with one individual who treats them well and invite others to join them. Sometimes they are feel neglected or ill used and thus wander on to someone else. Clearly Andrew, if you have lost a plectrum, it has simply wandered off to find a better home....

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Tangledwood
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 06:57 PM

Basic Fender mediums for guitars, but bone or tortoise-shell for mandolins.

Please consider your fellow musicians. Tortoises serve a much higher purpose than being disembled for use as picks. Reference

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Tig
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 06:57 PM

Take heart Andrew - it may come back yet!

The Badger played at The Globe, Guisborough when he was at uni and lost one of his plecs. 30 years later we returned to the pub to help out and whilst cleaning behind the pipes in the lounge what should turn up but a lonely little plectrum.

He couldn't swear it was his but it was the sort he'd always used by choice! :-)

I also do a line of 'Glow in the Dark' plectrum jewellery (on chains, earrings or bracelets) for those who have a habit of dropping plecs in dark places. They really DO glow a greeny colour and are medium weight. PM me if you want to know more.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Tangledwood
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:01 PM

Disembled? ahem . . . try disassembled.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:20 PM

Didn't Stephen King write a novel about this?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 07:41 PM

Here is my answer to making things visible:

hot hot hot!

A small piece, applied to an item, makes it visible and distinctively mine.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 08:12 PM

Wheres this thread going?
what a Palaver,
Everyones getting rather picky.

"Plectrum was a Roman Emperor? Plectrum The 111rd

Ye Ignorant pups ?
Did they not teach you nothing at School,
Your school teacher was a Ass and your head master was a mule. and your dinner lady was a More-lock from H.g. Wells
"The time Machine. I was a More-lock once?

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Declan
Date: 17 Mar 10 - 09:04 PM

I agree with Richard about the pocket in the jeans.

I call it my pick pocket.

Subject: RE: Lost Plectrum
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 18 Mar 10 - 06:21 AM

I take my little chums along to the vet and have them micro chipped. Then, whatever part of the country they may roam to, I can always go and collect them. (Floods of happy tears on those occasions, as you can imagine!)

I have individual names for every single one of 'em, but all the same: 'Gibson medium'. They seem to know which one I'm talking to, though.