WOODEN GUITAR PICKS

Messages
141
Location
smithville,tx.
If you are like me your always looking for something to do with scraps,I never throw away piece of wood---unless it's smaller than this-
IMG_8653.jpg

IMG_8654.jpg

the blanks are 2.00mm thick,1 inch wide and 1 1/4 inch long
IMG_8807.jpg

cutting the thumb cove
IMG_8788.jpg

IMG_8779.jpg

the blanks tapered to 1.50mm with a card scraper
IMG_8791.jpg

IMG_8780.jpg

I use a belt sander to shape them the way I like-
IMG_8795.jpg

I finish up with a little palm plane-
IMG_8797.jpg

dipped in BLO and bees wax-
IMG_8606.jpg

if your a picker and have never tried a wooden pick - well they have a different tone and with each wood the tone is a little different and at ten bucks a pop you don't lose them the way you might lose a ninety cent plastic pick.
rounding off the sharp corners

alex
 
Alex,
That real cool and a great use of scrap.:thumb:Ten Bucks a pop...:eek::huh: hmmm.

By the way my grand daughter name is Alex..Alexandria and she's 5 today.She gonna be a woodworker too. I already got her in the shop on small projects.Gonna take her to the Rat Palace (Chucky Cheese) for a Pizza party tonight. Don't mean to steal your thread. Just thought youd like to know that there's another Alex who like working with wood.

Ten Bucks wow.
 
Very cool, Alex, and thanks for the pics showing the process. I have a couple of wooden picks (although stainless steel is my personal favorite). One of my wooden picks was made for my by a student years ago when I was teaching guitar. It's about the thickness of a Fender Heavy, but it's made from two layers of veneer glued cross-grain to each other. It has a nice (relatively) thin feel, but the grain orientation keeps it strong and durable.

I've also got a pretty wide assortment of pics made from other materials, including agate stone, buttons, a ground-down quarter, and a solid 24k gold one that another student had made for me in Greece. (The gold one is too soft to actually use, but it's pretty cool-looking. Even has my initials engraved on it.)
 
I've also got a pretty wide assortment of pics made from other materials, including agate stone, buttons, a ground-down quarter, and a solid 24k gold one that another student had made for me in Greece. (The gold one is too soft to actually use, but it's pretty cool-looking. Even has my initials engraved on it.)
Vaughn -Do you have any old tortoise shell picks? They became illegal some time back maybe in the seventies,very sought after by jazz players I understand and on the blackmarket $50 apiece .
I was told by the store that sells my wooden ones that Billy Gibbons uses them and also uses a ground down Mexican paso. (for ya'll that never leave the woodshop-Billy Gibbons is a guitar player down here-((plays in a little band called ZZTop))-)

alex
 
Alex, I've not used a real tortoise shell pick, although one of my old teachers (a great jazz player) used to like them. I had heard about Billy Gibbons using a peso...I think that might have been when I got the idea to try the quarter. (That was back in about 1975-1976. I still have that quarter, too.)

BTW, I believe the correct term is "little ol' band"...from Texas, of course :p
 
BTW, I believe the correct term is "little ol' band"...from Texas, of course :p
--of course--I was just trying to be a little sophisticated----I've never tried a real tortoise shell pick ether; they were made from the hawksbill turtle,although I do have some ol Texas river turtle shells that I've thought about turning into picks also I've thought about deer horn.

alex--who with only four cords knows a hundred songs
 
Alex,

Those are cool! I've got a wide assortment, like you and Vaughn, but none of mine are wood. I'm sure that most of those who play have tried just about anything, when we didn't have an actual pick with us. I like the looks of your picks. Hadn't really thought about making any out of wood, as it just seemed they would disintergrate. Guess I've now had my eyes opened (again, <grin).

What woods have you found hold up to the contact with the steel strings?

Regards,
 
Forgot to ask what router bit you're using to make the depression on the pick. Is it just a bull-nose and do you move forward and then a little bit side to side??

Thanks,
 
I am thinking now. I have allot of antique ivory, They may make good picks.

Dave, when I was about 12, I found five old piano keys with the Ivory intact but coming loose in some trash a friend and I was hauling off for some folks. I removed it and made several picks for myself and some friends, shaping them with a file and sandpaper and they worked quite well, some better than others, depending on how thick a particular pick ended up and which instrument they were used on. They were used on guitars, ukuleles, and a mandolin. I had a few remaining that I left at my parents when I moved from home and I don't know what ever happened to them as I didn't find them in anything when we gathered everything up after my Mom died. I guess she gave them to some friends as I know she was not one to have thrown anything like that away.
 
Last edited:
Forgot to ask what router bit you're using to make the depression on the pick. Is it just a bull-nose and do you move forward and then a little bit side to side??

Thanks,
Lee- the thumb cove is cut with a 1" cove bit-
IMG_8868.jpg

the bit is fit in my "Red Neck Rigged Mortiser" a stop is clamped both left and right and one for depth-
IMG_8871.jpg

IMG_8869.jpg

IMG_8870.jpg

hope i've not offended any red-necks, I sure would hate to see my rig become politically incorrect.

alex
 
Alex,

I looked back at your original post, and it seems you don't put the thumb cove in the lighter colored picks (perhaps Maple). Are you leaving the picks with the thumb coves a little thicker than those without?

Thanks,
 
Top