Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Dec 12 - 11:57 AM

It's a lonely pocket that doesn't have a couple of flat picks in it.

Keeping guitar and mando picks out of the laundry is how you also keep Kleenex and pennies out of the laundry.

Chech yer pockets ...

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 03:57 PM

Will Fly, the heart-shaped Vesta box is beautiful and perfect!

Don Firth, those natural picks (fingernails) are the hardest for me to maintain. It's my great excuse for never progressing in classical guitar... (we'll ignore the not practicing part!). I'm learning to use a flatpick and it's nice not to have to rely on the condition of my nails.

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 03:14 PM

"Keep 'em in your pick pocket?"

Well, I do. Rather than having picks in each instrument case (which I do, but they're back-ups), I carry a sipered leather pouch that will hold several flat picks, a full set of finger-and-thumb picks, and a small bottle of nitroglycerin.

Ready for any kind of playing (and a heart attack). But this way, it's always my "old favorite" picks.

I've taken to putting a rubber band around the headstock and slipping a couple of flat-picks into it for "instant access" times, when I want to switch from fingers to flat-picks. I haven't tried to do that switch with finger picks on, however.

Bob

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Jack Campin
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 11:14 AM

How did the rounded-triangle pick originate?

The Middle Eastern risha/mizrap is way more comfortable to hold, and players can do the same sort of thing with it. Western lutenists were using risha-style plectrums in the Middle Ages and every other string plucker was using their fingers until the 18th century (when mandolinists started using something different).

Indian string pluckers use a variant of the triangular pick, but being a larger object made of coconut shell it isn't as hard to hold.

Continuously holding something with a tight grip isn't good for your blood pressure.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,Tony
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 11:01 AM

That pick punch sounds like a great idea, if you could just find some way to make sure you always have it with you in any situation where you might need a pick.

You could buy several and keep one in each instrument case. Or maybe you could wear one as a pendant with your St Christopher medal. You should probably keep some sandpaper wrapped around it to smooth the edges of the picks and to keep the punch from bruising your chest.

Or, for the same price, you could buy 150 picks with the edges already beveled, and you could keep them in a little string bag on your pendant. That would probably weigh a little less and might feel more comfortable.

But either one would be hard to lose, which is really the point of this thread.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Nov 12 - 08:26 AM

Thanks for that link, Tony! I now have a couple of stocking stuffers on order for my young guitarist.

One of the items listed below the pick holder on that page was a pick punch, just like many of the craft punches you see in art stores and decorating magazines. You could get one of those and be the Martha Stewart of guitar picks.

SRS

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: open mike
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 05:25 PM

The next best thing to keeping picks is being able to make new ones from found objects...esp. (expired) credit cards,or milk jugs..with this handy tool...like an overgrown paper punch,http://www.pickpunch.com/
If you get promotional credit cards in the mail, these are prime targets
(i sometimes keep one of these cards in the glove box to use as an ice
scraper for the windshield...) but the pick punch creates new cards. it come with a sanding block to smoothe the edges. they work great in a pinch, and the embossed numbers and letters help you to grip them.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 29 Nov 12 - 12:03 AM

Traveling with Rolph Throughout the southwestern US

A he was never 'in need".

He found the bounty of the western planes splayed across his horizon. His greatest need.mm no greater than guitar picks.

We tended to wash mid -week. The laudramats were slower and they did not crush our week end plans. The trashcans full of a weeks folly. Gallon jugs were straight, pfuritanical pure. It was in the thicker cored, narrowed rim quarts he found his passion. The delft touch of a Bic -Lighter could turn its greater thickens into a "finger of love.'...little ridges included for a thrill.

I never saw his with anthong "commerciak " although in a pinch he would use a USA auarter with a special grip of maker's tape.

Never knew him to be hungrety. An hour with a bottle -neck slide guitar always gave him a whole meal, a case full fof tips, and something for his sheep dog.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,Tony
Date: 28 Nov 12 - 10:31 AM

It would be easy to attach a standard spring-loaded plastic pickholder to a key chain. And I think Amazon sells one already attached. But those plastic pickholders are huge. They're a big wad of extra stuff to carry around in your pocket all the time. The leather Perri looks smaller, and it's soft and flexible; but then you have a snap to undo.

There's a company called Pickbandz that makes pickholding bracelets and necklaces, and their pickholders look compact. But trying to learn anything from their web site is an exercise in frustration.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,Tony
Date: 28 Nov 12 - 10:04 AM

Perri's Leather Guitar Pick Key Chain.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: mayomick
Date: 28 Nov 12 - 05:39 AM

Is there a pick holder that serves as a key ring ?

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 Nov 12 - 04:52 AM

Don't drop them on the floor for your new puppy to find. I got half of one out of his mouth – the other half passed through a few days later.

I use white plastic finger and thumb picks. I have written in the past of the problems of searching for black or tortoiseshell coloured ones on a multi-coloured carpet.

DC

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Genie
Date: 28 Nov 12 - 01:34 AM

Use thumb picks. Or combination thumb and flat picks, like Hercos.

Then clip them onto your ear lobes when they're not in use.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 10:50 PM

Jack, thanks for the picture of the biwa player. I'd never seen anything like that before.

That's so odd (and cute) about your cat stealing your picks.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,Tony
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 10:18 PM

1. Tie an 8" long piece of jewelry thread to the pick (via a 1/16" hole drilled in one corner) and tie the other end of the thread to a bridge pin.

2. Tie a short piece of jewelry thread to the pick and make a loop in the other end that's just big enough to fit over a tuner knob.

3. Glue pick-shaped pouches onto an old business card and keep the card in your wallet.

4. Drill a 1/8" hole in the pick and keep it on your key ring. This works with Dunlop unbreakable nylon picks and a Twisty key ring. A Twisty key ring is a loop of thin braided cable with a connector that opens with just a twist. See http://www.mrlock.com/mfg/lucky_line/twisty_ring.html   It's a great key ring in general; very easy to open and it never opens by itself in your pocket.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: olddude
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 08:00 PM

There is always a half a dozen or so in my dryer since I leave them in my pockets and wash em ... so I always know where to look

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Jack Campin
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 06:50 PM

This guy does things much like Montoya and he does use a pick:

Naseer Shamma: It Happened at al-Amiriyya
story behind that piece

Music starts at 5:20. Much of it is flamenco adapted to Arabic tradition, but Montoya would have problems doing the air-raid-siren/descending-bomb effects starting at 8:20.

I use picks like that. I have too many to lose, but often keep them threaded through the strings. I used to have a cat who liked stealing them. There is a distinctive BONG sound that is only produced by a Middle Eastern type pick being dragged out of the strings of an oud or cumbus by little kitty teeth. He would then run like hell with them and they'd show up under the furniture covered in tiny toothmarks months later.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 05:39 PM

small pocket in jeans, alternatively try eating them, you cant find them for a day and then they appear like a stool pigeon

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 04:23 PM

When I first started playing guitar, everybody I know played finger-style. No picks. Then I ran into someone, a jazz guitarist, who tried to persuade me to use one. I messed with it for a while and discovered that I couldn't really play what I wanted to play using a pick. Among other things, I felt like I was trying to tap-dance with combat boots on.

Now, I know there are guitarists who work wonders with them, but once I got into classical guitar, I never gave it another thought.

I grow my picks on the ends of my right-hand fingers.

Once in a music store, the clerk, a young woman who, it turned out had been taking guitar lessons for years (pop, jazz, country) seemed to be unaware that one could play a guitar without using a pick and could do things that you couldn't do with one.

What brought all this out was that someone had put a Carlos Montoya record on the turntable, and she stood there with her mouth open and her eyes bugged out. "My God!" she said, "What amazing pick work!!"

I tried to explain to her that Montoya didn't use a pick, he used his fingers. I got the impression she thought I was unhinged! Might as well try to drive a car with no wheels on it!

The tremolo passages (one does the basic tremolo unit by playing thumb on a bass string followed by ring, middle, and index fingers on a treble string, all played very fast and smooth—takes lots of practice!) she was convinced had to be multiple dub, like the stuff Les Paul did. But no. I'd seen Montoya in person, and was in the first row watching Segovia play Tàrrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra (here by Pepe Romero), and there wasn't a pick in sight!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Jack Campin
Date: 27 Nov 12 - 12:21 PM

There is a Tibetan banjo-like instrument that is played with a pick. The traditional thing to do is is tie it onto the bottom with a length of string, like Bardford's pal does.

Or you could try the Japanese biwa player's approach - try losing that.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 02:14 PM

I have used the following methods over the past 50 years...

1) small pocket in jeans
2) weaving in and out strings
3) pick in guitar hole
4) tin of picks
5) cut out pick from credit card in emergency (tip: always use the wife's card)
6) a coin (beware the scratching noise)
7) the 'borrowed' pick that you forget to give back(unfortunately this trick works both ways)
8) a button
9) waistcoat pocket
10)the wee plastic triangle thing that sticks to your guitar

Why don't guitar strap manufacturers put a little pocket in the strap
or better still, guitar makers build one in the body or stock. Simples!

Alas at my age it doesn't matter where I keep 'em as I forget where I put them anyway.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: ripov
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 02:05 PM

this looks fairly unlosable

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 11:55 AM

I use thumbpicks, which have a back surface which never touches the string. I put hot pink duct tape on that surface. A hot pink pick, once dropped, is easy to find.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Will Fly
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 11:03 AM

Here's a nice elegant way to store your picks - fits nicely into a waistcoat pocket...

Silver vesta case - 1897

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 10:59 AM

As the mother of a talented guitarist son, I have washed enough of them that I know now to check the watch pocket in his jeans (the "five pocket" variety). He calls that his "pick pocket." Clever young man!

SRS

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Leadfingers
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 10:55 AM

I ALWAYS wear a waistcoat when gigging , so have a convenient pocket or two ! Also , a 35mm Film case is an ideal size to hold a few flats
as well as a Thumb pick and a set of finger picks Farley Essentials
And here's a link to

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 10:51 AM

I buy a pack of Velcro self adhesive sticky tape. Cut a small piece of the velcro hook side and stick it to the pick - saves it slipping ou tof the fingers. Cut a similar sized piece of the felt side, and stick it to the underside of the guitar neck. ( it comes off with a hint of white spirit without damaging th finish)
When not using the pick attach it to the felt pad!
I have two or three attached to every guitar and banjo I have, not bought picks for years!

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 10:38 AM

.... and I am certain there is some sort of cosmic vortex or ley line that sucks anything plectrum-shaped released in the vicinity of a guitar sound hole to end up inside ....

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 26 Nov 12 - 09:50 AM

Old thread, but...
I have a leather guitar strap, the adjustable end of which weaves in and out of the main part, making a row of little slots that are perfect to stick picks in. Sort of a bandolier for plectra.
But I hardly use the things any more, having shifted my emphasis to fingerstyle.
-Glenn

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,Riley
Date: 25 Nov 12 - 09:32 PM

I just have a shot glass sitting on my amp that I toss the picks into when I'm done playing.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,Michael Farley, inventor
Date: 23 Jun 04 - 09:15 PM

Dear friends, I have heard your stories, and will launch the ultimate answer at Nashville NAMM in July '04. My other products include Pocket Tones tuner, the Sight Reader music light and others. This new gadget will blow you away.
Email me and I will send out the first 20 units out free.
The product is called The PickPod. It is wafer thin, adheres to the guitar (or strap if you do not want to stick anything on your guitar).
I've tested it for 3 years on my $4500 Lowden, no marks and will stick right back on the guitar. I sell 2 PickPod packs with the package, one has sticky and one does not - this one goes in the wallet as a back up spare. The retail for the PickPod is $4.95, holds 2 picks and as I say, you get two pods with the package.
You may view the product at www.farleysessentials.com

Thanks for your time

Michael Farley, CEO
Farley's Musical Essentials
800 964 9827

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: wysiwyg
Date: 23 Jan 04 - 10:47 PM

Ssssshhh, dammit!!!!!!

:~)

~S~

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: MAG
Date: 23 Jan 04 - 09:14 PM

Has everyone noticed that W.E. is offering a to-be-customized-to-your-needs cross-stitch pick pack in the auction?

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: onlyme
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 06:26 PM

Never wash them with your socks, and don't let your son (sorry my son) near your guitar (see easy in theory )

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Mark Ross
Date: 22 Jan 04 - 02:14 AM

I keep some in my pocket with one of them thingies on a key ring, and I usually keep one in the strings of my guitar, and I will usually find one in my hat band. But I can play without one if the need arises.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Grab
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 11:06 AM

Got an old cigar case that used to be my granddad's. And I only use the big Fender "wedge" ones, which are harder not to notice.

BWL, that's fine so long as you remember it's there. At our folk club's New Year party, some of us were having a bit of a jam. One guy took out his guitar, struck a chord and said "God that sounds awful". Then we pointed out the plectrum stuck in there. Same guy embarrassed himself later on as well by putting a capo on the first fret and playing an A chord without moving the fingering one fret up - took him about a minute to work out what he was doing wrong there. He wasn't pissed, just having a "senior moment" I think. :-)

Graham.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,Tracey Dragonsfriend
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 09:53 AM

There's a funny thing - I customised one of those leather "squeezy purses" for a friend just the other day, with a pyrographed design of a guitar. So you're not the only person to use one, OpenMike!
I didn't take a picture of that one before it got delivered, but you can see some more of my decorated purses here, if it helps anyone : http://homepage.ntlworld.com/t.annison/Leather.html#PurseWendy.Pic

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Nick
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 09:01 AM

Dave Pegg of Fairport Convention licks the side of his pick and sticks it to the top of his head.

Never fallen off any time I've seen him and he has always managed to retrieve it when needed.

Does look a touch odd though...

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Jan 04 - 12:38 AM

You are doing the obvious, aren't you -- buying brilliantly colored picks?

Blackcatter -- Never believe a story that starts "This is an absolutely true story."

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Bob Hitchcock
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 06:31 PM

I use a tin my wife gave me, about the same size as an Altoids one, but it once held Celestial Seasonings Tea Bags. Good for holding picks, but the tea did nothing for my sex life.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: MickyMan
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 05:15 PM

Thwe monofilament thing sounds like a great idea. Gotta try that

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: MAG
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 02:11 PM

I don't think the monofilament thing would work for real long. I don't even buy soft picks anymore because they break in the first half of a dance (although I kinda like the sound). Does this guy periodically replace the pick? I think I would rather just have lotsa picks.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Terry K
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 02:07 AM

..... on the Altoids thing ... maybe we should keep quiet that "SUCHARD" is the maker's name and not part of the instructions for use

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Blackcatter
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 01:04 AM

Yeah, but goodness that must have looked goofy. . . That's even worst from guitarists who don't trim their strings.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Bardford
Date: 20 Jan 04 - 12:19 AM

A fellow in a guitar class I was in had his pick tied to his guitar with about a two foot length of fishing line. Little hole drilled in his pick. I think the other end of the monofilament was tied to the bottom 'E' - classical guitar, it was. He would just let the pick dangle when he wanted to use his fingers, and reel it back in when necessary. I figure he'll save about a thousand dollars over his lifetime.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 11:47 PM

The real trick is getting pockets without pants!

:-)

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: MAG
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 11:35 PM

Pockets. Pockets work just great. One reason I won't buy pants without 'em anymore.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 03:26 PM

Buy a large metal safe. Concrete it into the cellar of your house. Put the picks in a box and place it in the safe.
From then on you will know EXACTLY where your picks are....

Actually -if you are concerned about problems from sticking a container onto your instrument, why not attach it to your instrument's strap. At least if you then lose your flatpick, you will also be strapless.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: open mike
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 02:34 PM

i have one of theose squeezy coin purses too
you don't see them much any more...used to be
common to see them with company logos on them.
They were often given to customers--they do
work great for picks. I often put a couple in
my wallet's change purse compartment too. I
like the dunlop ones with the textured grip
surface. I believe there is a tire made by a
dunlop company. I refer to my fave picks as
"mud and snows" due to their "tread" surface.
I also have some earrings made from picks..
but they are hard to use with those ear wires
attached!@ A friend who is a jeweler made a
silver one for her musical friend--bet he keeps
a close watch on that one!

Subject: RE: Guitar Picks - How to keep from losing them
From: PoppaGator
Date: 19 Jan 04 - 01:25 PM

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.