In this page you will learn the most usual terms, curiosities and some interesting details about the great... "Guitar Picks World"!!!
THE NAME
The name "PICK" comes from "PLEC" that is a diminutive of "PLECTRUM". But what does the word "plectrum" mean?
According to what Will Hover says in his beautiful book called "Picks! The Colorful Saga of Vintage Celluloid Guitar Plectrums" (Miller Freeman Books, San Francisco, CA, © 1995), it means:
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plectrum
/ plek'tram / n., pl., plectra / plectrums [L, fr. Gk. plectron] 1. a small piece of wood, metal, ivory, etc. for plucking the strings of a lyre, mandolin, guitar, etc. |
Once you are familiarized with the name, let's see some other interesting details about the great and fantastic world of the "Guitar Picks"!
IN THE BEGINNING
As other great inventions, the origin of the picks has been lost to antiquity. Some historians argue that the first stringed instrument must have been the bow used for arrows... and maybe, an arrowhead the first pick!
Some musician in a very distant time, has probably noted that it was a notable difference in tone and volume when he has used a hunk of wood, bone or rock to pick the strings (but... what was a string in that time???) of his instrument.
There are a few notes in some music history books about a discovery in Africa... some scientists have unearthed what looks to be a strange stringed instrument and a pick fashioned by human fingers dated from 70,000 years ago. But nobody knows if they are or not really a musical instrument and a pick! Certainly, stringed instruments that could have employed a pick appear in the distance in China, Egypt and other ancient cultures over 2,000 years ago.
MATERIALS
One by one, a lot of natural materials like stone, wood, bone, ivory, clam shell, mother-of-pearl, leather, metal, horn and mainly tortoise shell, were tested by manufacturers to produce guitar picks intending to get a pick that would have a perfect combination between tone and flexibility. In the beginning of the late century, guitar picks made from tortoise shell seemed to offer a most desirable combination of flexibility and tonal qualities. They were imported from Europe to America prior to the turn of the century. Tortoise shell was the first great material used to make picks (unfortunately, there was no Greenpeace that time!).
But the great discovery was to be found in a fantastic new material that was unlike anything the world had ever seen... a real miracle man-made product: the celluloid! The very first commercial plastic in the world.
Celluloid, a semi-synthetic material was found by John Wesley Hyatt in 1870 and it has been part of people's lives. Really, the plastic industry was born. Celluloid guitar picks were very easy and quick to produce, cheap and they could also be manufactured in thousands of patterns. Naturally, the most famous appearance of celluloid guitar picks was the "Tortoise Shell" pattern. Moreover, flexibility, thickness, timbre, shape were easy to produce.
Nowadays, mainly because of manufacturing cost, other synthetic materials like nylon, carbon fiber plastics, ceramic plastics, delrin, thermoplastic materials, polymer, composite and laminated plastics are used to substitute the vintage celluloid picks.
Maybe, one day, a definitive material to produce guitar picks will be discovered!!!
THE VERY FIRST ONE
Who was the very first band or artist to get a personalized guitar pick???
Nick Lucas, or Nicolas Lucanese, has born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 22, 1897. Nick made a great contribution to music: he established the guitar pick. Sometime in the early 30's, Joe Nicomede, a friend of Luigi D'Andrea worked out a deal with Lucas, a flat pick! The finished product featured a stylized impression of Nick Lucas' name... the first imprinted guitar pick! They were made of celluloid and they had his name in golden imprinted. These guitar picks were known as "Nick Lucas Shape".
Unfortunately, Nick Lucas' voice passed away on July 28, 1982 but... "The Show Must Go On"... and his invention will never die!!!
The Brazilian Guitar Picks Museum has some rare Nick Lucas' guitar picks from the 60's and one very rare really from the 30's... the oldest one. It will be a highlight item forever. You can see some of them in the Photos section clicking on the Nick Lucas link!
DETAILS
1. Guitar Picks Colors
Of course there are some slight differences among manufacturers in the background colors pattern. Besides a background color can be shiny, powder, light, dark, neon, transparent, phosphorescent (glows in the dark!) or metallic.
For example, a blue guitar pick can be only a blue guitar pick or a powder blue guitar pick, a neon blue guitar pick, a see-thru blue guitar pick and so on...
The picture below shows some good examples of guitar picks background colors:
Blue (Alabama - Jeff Cook), Yellow (Marilyn Manson - Johnny 5), Pink (Faster Pussycat - Brent Muscat), Tan (Eagles - Don Felder), Black (Danzig - John Christ), Red (Ringo Starr Band - Mark Rivera), Green (Kiss - Peter Criss), Plum (Royal Hunt - Steen Mogensen), Grey (Van Halen - Michael Anthony) and Orange (White Zombie - Jay)
There are other very known picks background patterns available. The most usual are Tortoise Shell (basically see-thru brown with some small white and light yellow transparent spots), Multicolor (basically a miscellaneous of red, blue, black and white spots) and Pearlized colors that exist for almost all colors.
Black and Silver Checkered (David T. Chastain), Tortoise Shell (Alice Cooper - Stef Burns), Multicolor (Creedence Clearwater Revisited - John Tristao) and Pearl Grey (The Cult - Billy Duffy)
Of course there are a lot of background colors pattern for guitar picks. Some good examples of them are: chrome, brown, gold, silver, glitter and transparent but they are definitely less usual.
2. Guitar Picks Shapes
· Standard: the most common shape for guitar picks. I believe that 90 % of the guitar picks are made in this shape;
· Elliptical or Wedge: these kinds of guitar picks are nearly used by bass players because they are bigger and often thicker than the standard picks. For this reason they are better to pick thicker strings. They are almost like a triangle with its three sides lightly curved;
· Triangle: they are exactly like a triangle shape and they are often bigger than the other two picks above. Like the elliptical picks they are nearly used for bass players for the same reason showed above;
· Jazz: they are almost like the standard picks but slightly smaller than these;
· Tear Drop and Small Tear Drop: they are slightly smaller than the Jazz picks and their shape reminds of a drop - this is the origin of its name!;
· Shark Fin: this special shape is very beautiful and really reminds of a Shark Fin;
· Other: there can be many other shapes for guitar picks. You can do your own guitar pick in the shape that your imagination wants! Therefore, there are some best-known shapes like: Heart, Diamond or Six-Sides and a lot of other polygonal shapes.
Of course, there are some small differences for shapes from different manufacturers, but for the most part, this is it.
The picture below shows the most common shapes for guitar picks:
Standard (Live), Elliptical (White Zombie - Sean), Triangle (Mr. Big - Billy Sheehan), Jazz (Mr. Big - Paul Gilbert), Tear Drop (Hades), Small Tear Drop (The Mavericks), Shark Fin (Therapy? - Michael Mc Keegan), Heart (Joan Jet & The Blackhearts - Ricky Byrd) and Diamond or Six-sides (Loudness - Akira Takasaki).
3. Guitar Picks Imprints
Imprints can appear over only one or both sides of a guitar pick. They are the single most defining characteristic used when describing guitar picks. There is an infinity of imprints. The main categories we can find are:
- Band or Artist Logo: when there is an artist or a band logo. It is not only a name imprinted, but really a logo;
- Company Logo: when there is a manufacturer logo. The most common to see are the great manufacturers' logos: Dunlop, Fender, D'Addario, Pick Boy, Dean Markley, D'Andrea, ESP and Gibson;
- Name: it can be the band or the artist printed name usually in block letters;
- Signature: this is a very cool imprint for a guitar pick. We can find almost always a guitar or a bass player signature but there are some other musicians like drummers, vocals or keyboarders that also make promotional guitar picks. A good example of this is Peter Criss, the Kiss' drummer who always do personalized guitar picks for the band's tours! Some other examples are Nick Menza, the previous drummer of Megadeth, Jon Oliva, vocals and keyboards of the fantastic band Savatage and Mick Jagger;
- Drawing: in my opinion this is really "The-State-Of-The-Art" of an imprint! It is pure inspiration!!! Certainly, you will find some drawings but, on the other hand, there are a lot of very funny and fantastic drawings. It depends on the imagination of each one;
- Photo: there are few picks with the artist portrait imprinted. We are not talking about a caricature but really an imprinted picture! You will see below some good examples of this!
The picture below shows some examples of imprinted guitar picks:
Band's Logo (Bachman-Turner Overdrive - C. F. Turner), Manufacturer's Logo (D'Addarrio - Dave Salyer), Name (Fleetwood Mac - Dave Mason), Signature (Ozzy Osbourne - Zakk Wilde) and Drawing (Skid Row - Rachel Bolan)
... and the picture below shows some good examples of pictures in picks:
Cheap Trick (Tom Peterson & Rick Nielsen) and B. B. King
Finally, there are a lot of guitar picks that join two or more of these characteristics in the same side of a pick like the band's logo, the artist's signature, the manufacturer's logo and so on...
Band's Logo with Artist's Name (INXS - Kirk Pengilly), Artist's Signature with Artist's Name (John Entwistle) and Artist's Signature with Manufacturer's Logo (Kamelot - Thomas Youngblood's Signature with SIT Strings' Logo)
4. Wear Marks
- No Wear: when the guitar pick was never used and it is really new. Often these kinds of picks came directly from the road crew members, the musicians, promoters or other ways like these;
- Light Wear: when the guitar pick is slightly used or have some light scratches;
- Medium Wear: when the guitar pick have some scratches and the imprints are a few rubbed;
- Heavy Wear: when the guitar pick have some deep marks of use like tip worn down, scratches or strong string grooves. In these kind of guitar picks, it is almost impossible to see any imprint.
I believe each one must have your own opinion about wear marks classification.
The picture below show three guitar picks classified according to its wear marks:
No Wear (Cinderella - Sammy Bones), Medium Wear (Death Angel - Rob Cavestany) and Heavy Wear (Cats: Choir - the other side is also almost unreadable!)
5. Thickness
There are some slight differences among manufacturers again, each one having self measurements to define their own thickness for guitar picks. However, the guitar picks are classified according to:
- Thin or Soft: this is the most fine thickness; usually they are really very flexible and slender;
- Medium: these guitar picks are extensively used and mean an intermediate pattern of flexibility and thickness. Joint the Standard shape they are the most used guitar picks of the world;
- Heavy: this is a thicker and harder guitar pick and it has almost no flexibility;
- Extra or X-Heavy: very thick and a non-flexible plectrum.
The thickness seldom appears explicit on a personalized guitar pick. However, when it occurs it often appears on the backside of the pick. It can be in writing (Thin, Medium, etc.), only the first letter, (T for the Thin picks, M for the Medium picks, H for the Heavy picks and XH for the Extra-Heavy picks) or even their thickness in millimeters.
To illustrate some measurement, once the thickness varies with the manufacturer, there is a table further down where you can see some approximate common thickness:
| THICKNESS | MEASUREMENT (mm) |
| THIN | 0.50 |
| MEDIUM | 0.75 |
| HEAVY | 1.00 to 1.50 |
| X-HEAVY | 2.00 |
The picture below shows three examples of thickness expressed in picks:
Thickness expressed in millimeters (Suicidal Tendencies - Dean Pleasants, 2.0 mm), by its first letter (Bury Me Deep - Methis Metsola, M) and in writing (Alice Cooper - Greg Smith, Extra Heavy)
THE VALUE:
** How much does a guitar pick cost? **
I believe sentimental value comes first! If I really like the band or the artist, the pick is priceless to me but if I do not like the band or the artist, the pick is not a "Cool Plec" to me, regardless of its rarity or high cost to other collector.
Therefore, I do not look for a guitar pick looking to its price, but if it comes from a "Great Sound " to me.
If someone is thinking in profit, it is not a hobby but a Headache!!! Remember,
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"
The most important
to do
when collecting anything |
HOW CAN WE KEEP AND PRESERVE OUR COLLECTION?
Guitar picks are really very collectible and a great piece of music memorabilia!
The first thing I do when I receive a guitar pick is to wash it very well with a gentle soap and dry it well with a soft cloth. This procedure helps me to remove any fingerprint or dirty. After this, I do not touch the guitar pick with the fingers again.
NOTE THIS: never fix your picks with adhesive tapes because some kind of celluloid love to "eat" the glue of these tapes and the pick can be permanently damaged!
After this, the guitar pick is cataloged in a list called "Complete List" which brings together its origin, tour, donor, artist (when it is not explicit in the pick) and any other trivia that belongs to the pick. But for all picks the minimum information contained for each guitar pick in the Complete List is:
| Band or Artist Name: Imprint Color on Background Color / Shape / Front Imprints / Back Imprints / Trivia (when there is something) |
In the sequence the guitar pick is kept in a see-through plastic sheet with bags used to keep coins and the plastic sheets are kept together inside an album!
Well... this is all for now!!! Thanks for visiting the PIC-DIC! It was made for you!!! Any comments or suggestions to improve this work please click the guitar pick below:
Have you already visited the "Handmade Guitar Picks" page? You will find there loads of good information about manufacturing your own guitar picks!!! Go there and... have a good job!!!