Pas?

[Pribar]

The Old Lady wants to know if there is a pick version of mandolin acquisition syndrome PAS for short, I told her that I didn't have that many picks so she dumped em on my bench to show me how wrong I was...


Is this a normal collection you acquire over the years as I told her or am I weird as she alleges, we decided to let the experts let us know who is right

[George R. Lane]

Pribar,
You need to get professional help. With my 20 or so picks I thought I had too many. I counted 7 Blue Chips and God knows how many V Picks.

[MikeEdgerton]

To be truthful, that isn't all that crazy. I probably dispose of that many every five years or so. Besides that, people admire a man with a lot of picks.

[chriss]

Pribar, You need to get professional help.

+1



But in the end it's between you and SWMBO.
Good luck.

[Pribar]

To be truthful, that isn't all that crazy. I probably dispose of that many every five years or so. Besides that, people admire a man with a lot of picks.

I just wish She Who Must Be Obeyed agreed with that sentiment, she is threatening to use some of my shop tools on very delicate parts of my anatomy (probably in a very non OSHA approved manner) if I buy one more pick, and I have a business trip to Knoxville the end of this month and had planned on swinging by Blue Chip to see what was new...

[mandobassman]

Dude, In one photo alone I counted 9 Blue Chips and about 10 V-Picks. That's over $400 worth of picks right there. You do need help!!!

[Pete Summers]

I hate to betray a brother, but I got to go with the Lady on this one -- that is definitely excessive. How about thinning your collection by sending me a couple of your excess Blue Chips? That way you can tell her you're working on your problem and we all win.

[Bob Bronow]

Looks ok to me!

[Jim Bevan]

Looks like my collection -- lots of Blue Chips, lots of Vs...

My wife doesn't care, 'cuz the space they take up is so much less than the space my mando collection does.

[foldedpath]

Dude, In one photo alone I counted 9 Blue Chips and about 10 V-Picks. That's over $400 worth of picks right there. You do need help!!!

That $400 would only pay for a beginner/student level bow for a fiddler, and most fiddlers I know have more than one bow. The usual advice is to spend at least half what your fiddle costs on the bow. So let's keep this in perspective. Unless the OP is playing a mandolin worth less than $800, I'd say that this is still in "fiddler equivalence territory."


On the other hand.. 9 Blue Chips is a lot. It didn't take me more than 3 tries to settle on the shape and thickness of Blue Chip I wanted, and I only have two of those now... main pick and backup.

On the other, other hand, maybe the OP is a David Lindley type, who plays a plethora of different exotic instruments, where one or two picks just won't do. I'm tryin' to help here...

[almeriastrings]

Hmmm... could sell most of those pics and buy another mando with the proceeds!

[if6was9]

Looks pretty normal to me, asuming you collected those over a reasonable period of time. OTOH If you bought them all last week you probably have a problem.

[Tim2723]

If they were postage stamps in an album she'd fight you for custody. Don't ask how I know that.

[Markus]

I am not sure I see the point of all those picks. At some point, consistency is good.

It is also apparent that you play mostly at home, unless you carry a case just for picks.

[John Kelly]

You are absolutely normal, my man! Only if you had arranged them all in colour/shape/thickness etc would I have had any worries with you as a possible sufferer from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. One question - how long does it take you to actually begin a tune, assuming that you have to go through your selection of picks before each session?

[Malcolm G.]

Problem?

I don't see any problem

I aspire to a collection that exquisite.

Show this to your better half.

Now show us your mandolins.

[pjlama]

That seems perfectly reasonable. You could take out all the plastic picks you don't use and make it look like a lot less so you get a little reprieve from the boss.

[Pribar]

The picks were collected over a span of about 25 years, I picked up a battered Fender while I was in the navy and it started then, I buy em for their looks or for the unusual material they are made of (I have a couple made from coconut shell, one from copper removed from the Statue of Liberty, etc) as far as use, the only ones I use regularly are the Blue Chip TD 40s (for my mandos) and on my guitars i use a set I bought from Clayton with a wolfs head on em, they are made of a nice plastic that feels similar to the Blue Chip material (is not nearly as durable) but feel better in my grip on the wider spaced guitar strings. The rest are displayed in a big honking bowl just inside the door to my shop where anyone coming in can grab one to use.
If I get time today I will gather my Guitars and mandos together and get a group shot, I have over 20 all told (thats another story).

[John McCoy]

If I had that collection my wife would:

1. Inquire as to the provenance of the ones with the Playboy Bunnies,
2. Ignore the V-picks, Blue Chips, ProPlec and Wegen, because they look boring, and
3. Appropriate most of the others because they really look cool and she could use them in some sort of artwork.

Just sayin', ya' know....

== John ==

[JeffD]

If they were postage stamps in an album she'd fight you for custody. Don't ask how I know that.

Yikes!

[JeffD]

Cool collection.

When I got my first real adult job, with my first paycheck, I sent off to Elderly for four dozen dozen (576) Fender medium picks. I never wanted to me without a pick again, or to even think about it.

I think it was till my second paycheck that I purchased any furniture for my apartment.

[David Rambo]

I fail to see the problem. Just like every tool has a particular use, so every pick has it's place and purpose. Perhaps it is a mistake to let your spouse see all of them at once. On the other hand, could she even tell if you had another Blue Chip in the bowl?

[Pete Summers]

20 guitars? Ok, I reverse my opinion and side with you. Your wife is wrong. With 20 guitars, that seems a reasonable number of picks. The 20 guitars, though, I don't know. How many mandolins do you have? Banjos?

[Max Girouard]

I really like the "Jason" hockey mask picks. I bet they sound "killer"!!!!!

[Jim Garber]

I didn't know that people collect Blue Chip picks. Just wait when they stop making some of those and they go for 10 times the price. I have 4 Blue Chips but 3 of them for mandolin are just different weights of the LG Jazz ones.