The Mandolin Cafe Pick Tour

**grant_eversoll** · Aug-05-2003, 10:05pm

The picks have arrived at the first leg of the tour and I am getting ready to play. I may not be the best person to grace these picks with my opinion as I am a fairly new mandolin player, (been playing about eight months) I have played guitar for about twenty years so...well you know.
You always start your tour at a small venue to work out the bugs

To set the record straight I am use to playing with a small pick (notice there is no R in that word)
A Fender Heavy Tear Drop shape ( Small) so that is what I am used to. Please understand this rating is just "MY" opinion and opinions are like A#$ Holes, everyone has one and they all stink.

So please if I don't like your pick remember it is nothing personal toward you or your pick it is just my preference.

I have decided to rate the picks like this (Notice no pick gets a bad ratting)

N = Not my style
B = Better but still not for me
G = Good
E = Excellent

I have played each pick on the following songs (yes the wife and kids got tired of hearing these same songs over and over and over...)
Joe Clark
Somewhere over the rainbow
Nadia's theme
and an original

Pick
#1 D'Androa Tri- corner, .B ...Muted sound
#2 Golden gate shape, ..... B....Muted sound
#3 Unknown Animal Horn Tri shaped...B...clear-er sound, better feel
#4 Golden Gate...B...Same as #2 but clear-er sounding like #3
#5 A Dawg from Mandodude...B+ like the gate but better...(this is hard)
#6 David Grisman.....B+ tir with #5
#7 D'andrea Pro-Plec, Tri...B I think I like the tri corner picks
#8 Pygmy Goat Horn...G+...mellow sound, yet bright
#9 Tear drop Ivory.....G.. Seemed to catch or grip strings...good sound
#10 Pygmy goat from same person as #8.. G+...Same horn different shape Bright sound
#11 Lg. Tear drop Ivory...G+... LOUD...did NOT grip strings like #9
#12 Pettite shape Ivory...N...hard to hold but good sound
#13 Fender Pearloid Med...G+...just like the one I play but Med instead of Heavy
#14 Dunpol Tortex...G
#15 Dunlop Big stubby....B...Clear sound size felt odd (TO ME)
#16 Fender Heavy...B...not as bright as some but not bad
#17 Dunlop gator grip...B.. Gatro Grip?
#18 John Pearse...G+... I like it
#19 Dunlop ultex 1.0...B
#20 Dunlop ultex 1.14...B.. Slightly muted
#21Clayton .80...G ..Boomy
#22 Dunlop Tortex 1.0...B ...I don't like the feel of Tortex
#23 D'andrea Brite .73...B
#24 Martin H .96...B
#25 Fender Tear drop H...E!!!! (not fair that's what I play)
#26 HIX....G...Like #25 but thiner
#27 Clatyton tear drop .80 with grip...G+ Like the grip on thumb side, not finger side
#28 Dunlop gator grip 2.0...N... not for me
#29 Purloined, McCabes...B
#30 Gryphon...G
#31 Artichoke Music...B
#32 Bananas...B
#33 Martha Stewart....G+ How else can ger a woman under my thumb
#34 Honestead...G
#35 LE Nose, Ivory...G+
#36...Mine added...I play with this
#37...Mine Added...Don't care for this

In summary I find that aside from the pick I am used to I prefer natural material
....not all ivory is the same
...the two ugliest picks in the pack are my favorite, both made of Pygmy goat horn and both sound different. #8 and #10

This has been fun and I want to thank Mandopete for all the work he has put into this
I hope I have not stepped on any toes these are just my opinions

Rick Gaskin the tour will be headed you with Wed. the 6th, Enjoy

Grant Eversoll

**mandopete** · Aug-05-2003, 11:33pm

Grant,

Thanks for the great review, this is just what I was hoping for! So you liked the Pygmy Goat Horn picks too?

**bratsche** · Aug-06-2003, 12:53am

In the interest of accuracy, #12, which is apparently mis-labeled "Pettite (sic) shape" should be changed to "Ranieri shape". The Pettine shape is quite different from that two-pointed pick in the photo!

Oh yeah, and from the descriptions, I couldn't tell which one was Odnam's. At least, there are no comments about strange odors... (just color me curious!)

bratsche

**OdnamNool** · Aug-06-2003, 2:59am

I have a feeling that mine missed the bus...Blasted postal service!

**OdnamNool** · Aug-06-2003, 3:11am

Course, it could be #34, cuzz technically, mine should have arrived before yours, Bratsche. But..."Honestead"??? I mean...the name of my pick is, "Black Beauty"! What's a honestead, anyways?

**OdnamNool** · Aug-06-2003, 4:01am

Well, maybe he meant to say "hornstead"... After all...it was just made from an old hornshoe. They must be obsolete. I tried to look it up in the dictionary (hornshoe, that is...) in order to spell it correctly, and I couldn't find it...I even checked hoarnshoe...

**OdnamNool** · Aug-06-2003, 4:05am

Whoops! There I go again! I mean shoehorn!!! (no wonder I couldn't find it in the dic...) Sheesh.

**mandopete** · Aug-06-2003, 8:46am

#34 is a typo, it should read "Homestead" as in Homestead Music. It's one of those music store picks.

As for the pick from OdnamNool, it's in need of a little finishing work. I'll try some sandpaper on it and see what I can do.

Od - any suggestions for shaping the pick?

**Oddname** · Aug-06-2003, 11:47am

grant:

Thanks for the review! You've kicked off the tour, and from the tour list it looks like I'll be closing it out. Looking forward to the growing stash of picks moving 'round the country. I like the rating system and the "controlled" experiment - a fixed set of songs played with each pick. I was planning on something similar.

pete: this was a brilliant idea! I have a tendency with picks (guitar and mando) to find one I like early on and stick with it. Dawgs are what I use. This will be a great opportunity to think outside the box and play a full platter of plectrums.

**grant_eversoll** · Aug-06-2003, 6:40pm

Yes it was a typo and should have read homestead and yes I liked the Pygme goat picks. When I first saw them I thought " What the ? but when I played them I was supprised. Also thought it odd at how diffrent they both sounded.

The tour is on its way. It's in the mail signed sealed and delivered

**grant_eversoll** · Aug-06-2003, 7:20pm

2003 Summer Mandolin Café Pick Tour Tee shirts anyone?

The towns and states are listed it order of appearance

They are free but you have to do the work...Cut and paste, reverse, buy some iron on transfer paper print it and iron it on. Now if I catch anyone trying to make money off of this (Other than Scott) you will be cursed with the sounds of BANJOS playing in your head for the rest of your life or until you die which ever comes first

**grant_eversoll** · Aug-06-2003, 10:02pm

Tee Shirts
For a full size (much clearer) copy e-mail me at
mongohardbottle@wmconnect.com

**mandopete** · Aug-06-2003, 11:30pm

Grant buddy - YOU ROCK!

The design is outstanding! Now all I have to do is figure out how to do the transfer. We really have some very creative people in this here Cafe.

Good on you!

**OdnamNool** · Aug-06-2003, 11:49pm

Originally Posted by (mandopete @ Aug. 06 2003, 9:46)

Od - any suggestions for shaping the pick?

Well, m'pete...I suppose, yes...file and sandpaper. I've never made a pick before, so I'm not sure. I started by sawing off a small square. There is this electric tool in my garage... Picture an oatmeal box lying flat. On each end of this cylinder are these round, rough things that wildly spin when you turn it on. I held the square with plyers and shaped the pick by holding the square to the wildly spinning mechanism...Get it? It's hard to explain... Maybe you should just send it to Bratche and let her finish it off???

Love your idea, Grant! You'll have to tell us the details on how to cut, paste, reverse, etc.

**Keith Newell** · Aug-07-2003, 1:04am

I am about number #4 on the list. I hope included with the picks is a list of addresses so I know where to send it next. I have a pick I will be adding also.
Keith Newell

**mandopete** · Aug-07-2003, 9:02am

Keith,

There is an address list inside a small envelope marked "READ ME". All you do is cross your name off the list and send it along to the next person.

Thanks for playing!

**stanley** · Aug-07-2003, 10:13am

hey, who's from Redford, Mi? That's where I grew up!

**wolfsong** · Aug-13-2003, 2:23am

Hey everyone any word on how the tour is progressing

**OdnamNool** · Aug-13-2003, 7:44am

Yeah. Also...how's Black Beauty? Dang! I thought it was the perfect material! Did you try to sand it, M'Pete? By the way, it's possible that the name of that tool I discribed (the oatmeal box tool) is a grinder. (no double-entendre implied...)

**grant_eversoll** · Aug-14-2003, 9:30pm

Have the picks made it to the second leg?

**mandopete** · Aug-15-2003, 9:18am

Yes, I have been wondering the same thing . . . . .

**wolfsong** · Aug-15-2003, 10:12pm

Hi everyone I am pleased to anounce that I got home late tonight to find that the pick train had arrived in Asheville NC. I have to work a long day tommorrow but will spend all day Sunday trying out the picks and send them on to their 4th stop sometime on Monday. I will post my opinions then!
thanks
Wolfsong

**grant_eversoll** · Aug-17-2003, 1:03am

Glad to see you got them,What happened to stop two and three?

**wolfsong** · Aug-17-2003, 7:56am

I'm # 3 don't know what happened to # 2. But I will try to post some opinions tomorrow.
Thanks again
Wolfsong

**grant_eversoll** · Aug-17-2003, 10:26pm

DUHHH. I had just got in from a late night gig. I guess you were #3 and that is what you said.

I play keys in a classic rock band and we played a bir event on the river...you knoe the difference between playing in a keys in a rock band and mandolin in a blue grass band? I have never had a girl throw her bikini top at me while playing my mandolin