Ran out of holey pics...5 minutes with a drill..

[zionstrat]

No idea if the photo will come through these days.. but I got tired of not finding star pics online.. the one with holes in them. I found them much easier to grasp and also to control the rotation.

So I grabbed a bag of regular picks and 5 minutes later my electric drill had created some fabulous picks!

Although the ones with the single hole in the center are most like Star picks, it turned out that I most like a hole that is low on the left side of the pic adjacent to one farther up on the right side of the pick.

Star picks rotate just like any pick however because skin is touching through the pick, you can control the rotation and easily rotate back without losing control of the pick.

These custom 'Michael special' picks, don't rotate because there are two holes and lots of skin contact. I think I like them better than the regular rotating pick, however, the pic is now directional.. I have to hold it with the turtle facing me..

I almost bought a heavier bag of pics because I assumed they may soften due to the drill hole and I'm a very Steve Howe-ish heavy pick guy. But that wasn't the case. They feel just as stiff as the undrilled picks..

 

[JOLLY]

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

 

[GuitarStv]

I usually take a knife and scrape some x shaped scratches into both sides of my Jazz IIIs before using them. That way they stick to my hands like glue even when sweaty. Haven't tried the hole in the pick thing though, maybe I'll give it a go next time.

 

[Mr. 80's]

Back in the early-mid 90's I used puffy paint to texture all my picks. Could do dots, lines or all kinds of designs and even have them contoured to the fingers nicely. I always made them glow in the dark or neon to glow w/a black light. I never knew anyone else that did it, just came up with it on my own.

 

[Mincer]

I never had an issue holding on to picks (Jazz III, myself) so I am fascinated by how guitarists have and solve this problem. The tortex, ultex, and gator grip finishes had always solved this issue for me.

 

[zionstrat]

Yeah, I was really surprised the first time I played a pick with a hole in it because it did something I didn't expect.. when the skin from my thumb touched the skin from my first finger, it's like my fingers had an epiphany... like I had automatically received a little more pick control.

I think the original reasoning for the hole is to reduce pic movement in all directions.. the skin touching skin thing definitely increases friction although I would have imagined the opposite.. there's less total material touching my fingers. The original pic had little divots that are part of the hole, but having drilled these myself, I think it's more to do with the hole in general.

Anyway, I'm not going to spend any more time trying to figure out how this works.. but it's really really easy to do so give it a try!

 

[Securb]

My Brossard picks came with a hole in them. I love the way the hole anchors the pick I rarely drop one and they help me pick more accurately.

 

[beaubrummels]

A regular hole punch wouldn't work?

 

[Hsb]

Ive also heard of folks dropping picks in boiling water, heat the pick a bit, taking it out of the water and holding it as you normally would till it cools. Kinda forms to yiur fingers this way, kinda like when you formed your mouthpiece playing football in high school

 

[Mincer]

Ive also heard of folks dropping picks in boiling water, heat the pick a bit, taking it out of the water and holding it as you normally would till it cools. Kinda forms to yiur fingers this way, kinda like when you formed your mouthpiece playing football in high school

At the rate I lose picks, that seems like a lot of work!

 

[Hsb]

At the rate I lose picks, that seems like a lot of work!

Really only takes a couple mins, longest would be to get the water to boil. Remember seeing the tip in Guitar World or something many mooms ago

 

[zionstrat]

A regular hole punch wouldn't work?

Never tried it... Give it a shot!
But the drill took bout 20sec per pick, so really, really easy.

 

[d1dsj]

Lol…. I was expecting to see a image of Jesus sitting in a dentist chair!

on a serious note I can see that 2 or 3 holes would be better than just 1 to stop the pick rotating. I’m going to try some myself, cheers!

 

[zionstrat]

Hadn't considered the potential for the spiritual interpretation.. next time I'll write about a spiritual subject in terms that look like plain old guitar stuff

Yeah, the two and a third kind of punch are pretty incredible. I'm really liking how this turned out.

But on a few of them, I punched the low left hole first and then rasped the upper right side to get a bit of a curly tail towards the top and that actually might be my favorite one.

Can't wait to gig and see if I get frustrated because I've got to pick them up from the correct side or if it's an automatic pilot kind of thing.

 

[Aceman]

If you never drop your pick, then what do you do with the pick holder on the mic stand?

 

[zionstrat]

The pick holder is an alpha symbol to impress new guitarists and the unknowing public

 

[zionstrat]

Reporting back after using the pics in the real world.. they were absolutely wonderful. I didn't need to worry about the one side of the pics, my fingers automatically flipped them when they were wrong.

As I had guessed, the center hole pic works very much like the star pick. But the two offset holes is definitely my favorite.

Pull out a drill and give it a try!