Musicians are always looking for a perfect sound to their instruments. And guitar picks must sound exactly as we expect from them. Maybe manufacturing our own guitar picks be the great way to conquest the sound we want. And it can be a very pleasant hobby as well!
From my point of view handmade guitar picks must attend mainly some special characteristics like:
What do we need to begin to work our own guitar picks? Not so much!
Basically, I work with two kinds of tools: a small hand-saw and a rotative tool like a Mini Drill. Moreover I use some sandpapers in my work!
Let's see now some good tips about some materials that I've used to make my picks! And let's see a couple of pictures of some resulting picks!
GUITAR PICKS MADE FROM BULL'S HORN
Bull's horn is an excellent material to make guitar picks and it often results in very beautiful and good picks! I've got some horn's splinters from a friend and I could test them manufacturing several kind of picks with this material. They are really very cool with a good flexibility between medium and heavy gauges. They are beautiful and durable picks. Let's see four examples of them:
GUITAR PICKS MADE FROM WOOD
Wood guitar picks are well-known, manufactured under an artisanal way and used for many professional musicians. Moreover, it is very funny and pleasant to go into some shops looking for wood artifacts that can be converted to guitar picks!
The picture below shows four kinds of theses picks: the two above are made from Brazil-wood that is a very beautiful red colored wood. The two below are made one from mahogany and the other, the clear one, made from cherry wood. In my opinion, guitar picks made from Brazil-wood sound best!
...and the picture below shows two guitar picks made from bamboo!
GUITAR PICKS MADE FROM COCONUT
Coconut often results in good picks as well. They are also very beautiful and this material is easy to handle! The greatest matter is to find a not so curved piece of coconut to work the picks! The picture below shows two coconuts guitar picks.
GUITAR PICKS MADE FROM STONE
These guitar picks were not made from my hands but they came from a friend who works with this kind of stone called agate. Beyond agate any other vitrified stone like amethyst or quartz can result in very beautiful picks. Personally, I do not like these kinds of picks to play because they often must be too much heavy and fragile. You can see two examples of agate picks in the picture below:
GUITAR PICKS MADE FROM CREDIT CARDS
Well... This is good!!! The plastic used to manufacture credit cards can often result in excellent guitar picks! They have a good flexibility that is between medium and heavy thickness.
It can result in beautiful picks if we choose a specific area to make the cut! And these kind of plastics are often very easy to handle. See below four examples of these picks.
GUITAR PICKS MADE FROM COINS
Metallic guitar picks are also well-known. There are many musicians that use guitar picks made mainly from stainless steel, cooper and hard anodized aluminum.
Coins are easy to handle with the rotative tool and we can produce good picks with them. They have absolutely no flexibility like the extra heavy picks and they sound great! A famous artist who used a coin to play his guitar is Brian May, (Queen). He often used a six pence coin like a pick. The picture below shows a guitar pick made from a coin.
Therefore there are a lot of other things that can be converted in guitar picks. The search for materials and the hobby doing guitar picks is very pleasant. Try it!!!
There are a lot of people that contact me doing their own guitar picks with the most strange materials... and it is very funny to know about this!!! If you have any crazy idea just contact me. Maybe you are the most strange guy to test strange materials!!!
Did you already visit the "Pic-Dic - a guitar picks dictionary"? It is all reformulated with new pictures! Visit it and see loads of info about guitar picks!!!