do you collect picks what do you do with them

[darrylicshon]

this is what I have done with some of the picks I have collected over the years most from working the shows

[George R. Lane]

You could used the money spent on all those picks and bought yourself one Blue Chip pick.

[dusty miller]

[darrylicshon]

You could used the money spent on all those picks and bought yourself one Blue Chip pick.

Thats funny, glad i didn't buy any of the picks

[zedmando]

I buy picks here & there--especially when I find something a little different, or it has a store name on it or something like that.
I also check music stores when I travel and buy picks if they have anything different than the ones I can get at home--especially unusual stuff or store branded ones.

I keep them in various containers--I use some of them to play guitar (& now mandolin) and others I keep as souvenirs, etc.
There are ones I make sure get air.
I also have a Tortex box like one you might see in a store (a small one) where I keep picks like that...

I have scanned many of them, I'll have to check them out and maybe post some.

[fatt-dad]

Now there's an image!

f-d

[stevedenver]

collect?
not sure.
still have many from my teens, mostly ones i didnt use much, and a gross of old fender mediums,which slightly depleted.

have waaaaayyy too many,fer sure.

there are so many fun designs,etc.

went to NAMM years ago, and that trip alone i must have had a hundred or more ,gratis!

i guess i like having lots of spares and variety
i do have a few special band promo picks that i dont use, but
i dont really collect, i acquire,especially easy to find colors

[Bertram Henze]

I don't collect them - they do it, somehow.

[JeffD]

I don't collect them - they do it, somehow.

That seems the way.

I hold my monthly jams in the living room, on a faux oriental rug, we named "pick eater". I keep a jar on the piano and a "take a pick leave a pick" policy. Anything I find after the jam I put in the jar, and anyone needing a pick for any reason can dip into the jar.

Well the jar never gets depleted.

I have all kinds of left over stuff from my explorations, lots of free picks that came with, a bunch of clown barf someone got me for Christmas, and most recently a bunch of picks made from old credit cards.

Not a collection, not even as assemblage, more like an accumulation.

[Bill Baldridge]

I spill mine.

[Steve Ostrander]

Once a month I collect mine from the washing machine and reuse them.

[journeybear]

Um, Earryl, not sure how to say this ... but that's not how you pick a guitar.

I'm like Steven Wright - I have an enormous collection of picks. They're in other people's pockets, all over the world.

OK, I collect picks, for sure - unencountered ones. At least, I have the mindset for acquiring picks. Since they almost always vanish into the ether from whence they came, I'm always on the lookout for another. Just to keep my collection from going all the way to zero. I always try to have at least two on hand - one for myself, one for the guitarist to borrow from me - though right now I'm flush. I've got four, though two aren't too useful, with the points rounded off. Oh wait - one came that way, that Dawg pick I never use, but keep as a spare, just in case I run low on, or out of, useful picks. That reminds me - I have to go get back the one the guitarist borrowed last night before he loses it.

[Charley wild]

I have a ton of them! I worked in a guitar store in the late 70's and had a bunch of them already. I had a small plastic bag full of old National finger picks. I have sold them all but what I need. Scary what I got for them! Even though I still use them they ain't all that great. I also had a bag of Dobro brand plastic finger picks. They went for top dollar also. Back to the subject. Back in the early 80's I started a collection, using white Fender Mediums, of signed picks. Nobody famous just musician friends, members of bands I played in or local bands I liked, etc. I was able to get picks signed by my high school Rockabilly band even. Those guys are gone now. I also have a quite a collection of picks from guitar stores, etc. And then there is a small Planter's Peanuts can around here somewhere about half full of just picks.....and more picks.

[Bertram Henze]

That reminds me - I have to go get back the one the guitarist borrowed last night before he loses it.

Suddenly I think I know what those white beaches along the A1A consist of, and where all that plastic afloat in the seven seas comes from...

[zedmando]

I have a ton of them! I worked in a guitar store in the late 70's and had a bunch of them already. I had a small plastic bag full of old National finger picks. I have sold them all but what I need. Scary what I got for them! Even though I still use them they ain't all that great. I also had a bag of Dobro brand plastic finger picks. They went for top dollar also. Back to the subject. Back in the early 80's I started a collection, using white Fender Mediums, of signed picks. Nobody famous just musician friends, members of bands I played in or local bands I liked, etc. I was able to get picks signed by my high school Rockabilly band even. Those guys are gone now. I also have a quite a collection of picks from guitar stores, etc. And then there is a small Planter's Peanuts can around here somewhere about half full of just picks.....and more picks.

I've had dreams of going to garage sales and finding a jar of guitar picks like this--for almost nothing...

[mvlh]

No I don't collect them. I am lucky if I have even three sitting around to spare!

[Randi Gormley]

We're a two-musician household, so we have picks all over the place. I have them in my pockets in several coats, pairs of jeans, vests ... on the piano in a stone heart ... in the strings of each of my mandolins ... under the couch, on my bedroom dresser, on my husband's bedroom dresser, on the computer desk, a bunch in my purse if I go instrument playing while I'm around and about ... a bunch that came free when I ordered strings, some that came free when my husband ordered something from Musicians Friend ... credit card/plastic picks he made himself ... gifts from my teacher, gifts from other musicians, stuff we picked up at Grey Fox, picks tossed into three guitar cases and a couple in two mandolin cases. Most were free -- I think the only pick I remember paying for was a blue chip my husband bought for his guitar just because (and has since, of course, misplaced. Funny how the free picks are always around)

[bohemianbiker]

If I see something new and they're cheap, I will get new picks. I have a bunch of them sitting on the end table beside the couch where I often sit to practice. The picks are different sizes, shapes, rounded/pointed tip, thicknesses, colors etc. I like to try different ones to see which I like/dislike, and for what purpose (eg, tremolo versus normal picking).

The only thing is that a loose pile of picks doesn't look so great permanently sitting on the end table, so my Mom is making me a small bowl (a little bigger than an ashtray) in her pottery class, so I'll put the picks in there and fish them out as desired.

I still think about "the pound of picks" for sale for $40 (link below). So far I have resisted .... bb

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...f-picks-for-40

[stevedenver]

If I see something new and they're cheap, I will get new picks. I have a bunch of them sitting on the end table beside the couch where I often sit to practice. The picks are different sizes, shapes, rounded/pointed tip, thicknesses, colors etc. I like to try different ones to see which I like/dislike, and for what purpose (eg, tremolo versus normal picking).

The only thing is that a loose pile of picks doesn't look so great permanently sitting on the end table, so my Mom is making me a small bowl (a little bigger than an ashtray) in her pottery class, so I'll put the picks in there and fish them out as desired.

I still think about "the pound of picks" for sale for $40 (link below). So far I have resisted .... bb

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...f-picks-for-40

agreed
your solution? An Altoids tin, or some exotic confection in a tin with a nice graphic,
tea tin, etc
or, perhaps, some nice wooden box or porcelain round lidded box.

[Jesse Harmon]

I don't know how you hold onto them so long. I leave mine on the floor of fast food restaurants and have to buy new.

[jaycat]

So, here's a little story. I was talking with my best friend one day and he mentioned that he hadn't played guitar in years (wrist troubles) and that even if he were to try, all he had was "Jane's" old guitar in his closet.

Well, "Jane" was my girlfriend from about 1969-1971 or so. I have often wished that I had some kind of remembrance of her as those were wonderful times. Lo and behold, my pal has her old guitar in his closet! Of course he gave it to me, I was thrilled to have it.

Upon opening the case I found a little tea tin full of various picks, about three dozen of them, 40+ years old. Some of them had "Washington Music Center" imprinted on them (Washington DC) -- other odds and ends, various gauges, a couple of psychedelic looking ones, etc.

I think the tea tin full of picks has become a fonder remembrance than the guitar -- a Japanese Yamaha, by the way, neck very bowed and basically unplayable, but it sits in a corner of my living room nonetheless.

BTW, "Jane" was quite the musician -- guitar, piano, vocals. She did the meanest rendition of Down So Low (Mother Earth) that you ever heard -- Tracy Nelson had nothing on her.

[fredfrank]

These are my loaners:

[re simmers]

I usually can't afford what I really want in a music store, so I buy at least one pick every time I visit one. I have a large variety of about 3 jars full. I have been using the same blue chip as main plectrum the past 4 years.

Do they still make those good green picks....Herco I believe?

Bob

[zedmando]

At a wedding one time I discovered I had at least 7 or 8 picks on me between the various pockets of my suit.
Another guy there was a mechanic and he had 5 or 6 small wrenches in his pockets.
We had a good laugh over it.

[barry]

"Yes".

I use numismatic sleeves