Getting Picky. Cool picks from Randy Bretz.

I started talking with Randy Bretz (via CBN messages) about pick making. I made six red oak picks and they are... okay.

I got these lucky 7 picks from Randy today. His are made with some interesting woods and they are better made than mine. The northern Osage pick is my fave - partly because it has nice finger 'canyons' on both sides. I just played some with it and it sounds good, and feels secure in my grip. I am guessing that Randy used a dremel tool to make those 'canyons'.

I think wood picks sound good. They are good for strumming, but only the thinner ones work well for picking single notes. Randy's do better than mine. I really like these from Randy and I am going to go back into my shed and thin down the picks I made and try to create some better finger holds.

Pick making is a pretty cool. I think that some of you other folks may enjoy making your own.

I may try to use a grinder and make a pick our of a quarter too.

Have a good week. August and every month is the month for small acts of kindness.

4 members like this

View Full Size

Tags:

Comment

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

Comment by Uncle John on August 5, 2020 at 12:37am: I need to make mine thinner too, Bernie.

Comment by Bernie Edwards on August 4, 2020 at 7:46pm: I have made quite a few in the past from veneer off-cut 'sandwiches'. I generally incorporate american walnut as the top and bottom layer as have a huge stock of it. A three-layer pick comes out at 1.8 mm (.15 in) approximately.

I'm not really a player myself but a guitarist friend of mine took some and found them a bit too thick for him. I don't have any photos of them to put up at the moment.

After creating the sandwich I cut the blanks out on my scroll saw and then sand the to final shape and curvature on a hobby sander. Finally I dunk them in Danish oil.