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My best bass homemade pick **ever**

NickInMesa

NickInMesa

Jan 1, 2009
3,397
51
57
Mesa, Arizona
#1
I was bored one day waiting for the train to pick up my singer (he was so bad, he had a broken nose and people would tell him he sounded like "Joe Boxer" -to which he would reply "you mean Joe Cocker?" -"uh, no, Boxer"), I decided to put coins on the train track.

When the train left, I picked up the much flatter coins and one of them turned out to be my best pick.

Yes, I would trash strings with this tool of death, but considering the type of music we played, it was actually awesome :D

We need a "Pick" forum for pick playing techniques, homemade pick design, pick reviews and of course photos of the coolest picks.

Who's with me?
 
#2
Hi.

:D, a pick forum.

Well I used to make mine when I was young, out of colored LPs. I't's amazing how many picks a 33 gets You.

The pick of destiny has to be mentioned on every thread like this, so there ;).

Nowadays when I'm picking, I use 1mm black nylon Dunlops with every instrument, it's more convenient that way.

Regards
Sam
 
#3
On my last day working at a guitar shop, one of the guys I worked with helped me make what we dubbed "The Ghettofish," a knock-off of the Jellyfish pick. You know, the one with the weird little metal stringers that was supposed to make a normal guitar sound like a 12-string, or simulate chorus sounds, etc. We unwound a low E guitar string, clipped the windings short, and superglued them to a cheap plastic pick. It sounded absolutely TERRIBLE, but we got some laughs out of it.
 
#5
I only played with a pick in my couple first years, then I started playing fingertips, thumb on the pickup.

But I'd like to learn to play with a pick again... I'll take your advice, T-Bird.

Talking about the Pick of Destiny, anybody ever listened to Trainwreck? Basically Tenacious D minus Jack Black. It's actually pretty sweet.
 
#10
The best picks I've ever used (during my guitarist days) were made of bone that had been carefully filed (?) and polished to the right geometry. I loved the tone I got from them, great attack and sustain. The drawback was that they were >10 times more expensive than regular picks, and I lost both I had. The shop I bought them in don't sell them anymore either. If I'd find a good piece of bone I'd try to make a pick out of it and try not to lose it this time. :)
 
#11
Over the years I've collected a half dozen broken cymbals from a heavy handed drummer I know and I've experimented with making many different brass picks from them.

Brass is a softer metal than strings so it won't damage the strings or wear them out like other metal picks might.

The edge of the cymbal isn't perfectly flat so when you cut out a little triangle for the pick it will be slightly concave and I find that it makes the pick a little easier to grip and also allows you to slightly change the characteristics of your attack depending on whether you use it with the concave side on the downstroke or upstroke.

I've also found a large variation in tone with picks made from different cymbals and, in general, my preference is for picks made from the heaviest and darkest cymbals.

If I tape a really heavy brass pick to my thumb, then I can still play fingerstyle and then pick when I want to, but also slap with it which makes the strings really ring out with piano-like overtones. :bassist: I'm still experimenting with finding a good way to adhere the pick to my thumb. So far everything I've tried has been less than satisfactory.
 

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