What kind of pick did Bill Monroe use?

[Timmando]

Anyone ever hear what kind of pick he used...I don't think it was a blue chip or a wegen...maybe it was tortoise shell? Or whatever he could find?

[evanreilly]

He mostly used the large black triangular Gibson heavy picks, because he got them free from Gibson!!!!

[Tim2723]

Aside from that, I've always heard that he would use anything available in a pinch. Natural shell would certainly have been a choice for him at that time. I don't recall ever hearing that he endorsed a pick.

[August Watters]

We didn't have all the specialized picks back then! If you asked for a "mandolin pick" they'd sell you a medium-weight, teardrop-shaped pick, which is what you usually see in the old method books. Most of the bluegrass players I knew used used heavy guitar picks, and lots of us turned them sideways and used the corner.

Thanks to Evan, the guy who usually has the answers to questions about the Master!

[Ray(T)]

I've always suspected that the endless discussion about picks, strings, gauges, neck widths, tuners and other paraphernalia associated with mandolin playing is a relatively modern phenomenon. Go back more than 30 or 40 years and you simply used what you could get hold of.

[JeffD]

I've always suspected that the endless discussion about picks, strings, gauges, neck widths, tuners and other paraphernalia associated with mandolin playing is a relatively modern phenomenon.

And isn't great. With all the new materials available today, and a larger than critical mass of musicians making a profitable market that encourages manufacturers to get into it. Also so much more communication. Information about new tricks and techniques and tips and materials is much easier to find. We are living in a golden age in many ways.


Go back more than 30 or 40 years and you simply used what you could get hold of.

Which in some cases wasn't much. I remember getting a "mandoin pick" from a music store. It was a small little thing with cork glued to one side. I used it because it was supposedly for the mandolin, the only thing I found in those days that was "for the mandolin". I don' remember liking it much.

I remember subscribing to the Mandolin World News and some other publications way back some 30 something years ago and reading every issue every word every letter. I felt like a secret agent, privy to information not available to the public. I learned a lot. Looking back over those issues, Mandolin World News was a slow motion version of this forum. A community of mandolin players, communicating at the speed of the post office and type setter and copy machine.

The person with a casual interest in mandolinning has a much better chance than ever before of getting into it and eventually undergoing all the life changes of the truly mando-obsessed.

[JeffD]

We have to be careful not to generalize from the specific. Bill may have use only what was at hand, but that doesn't mean that we would benefit from that philosophy. A more interesting question might be what would Bill use today, with all the readily available options out there.

What ever Bill used, or would use, we have to use what is best for us.

[JeffD]

He mostly used the large black triangular Gibson heavy picks, because he got them free from Gibson!!!!

Makes sense! :))

[farmerjones]

Y'all remember the story: Somebody (may have been somebody 'round here)was hauling Mr. Monroe from an airport to a clinic/master class.
While in transit, Mr. Monroe, found he had no pick. Between the two, they managed to find a pick down in between the seats of the car. Later at the clinic, one of the questions came, "What pick do you use?" To which Mr. Monroe offered up, "What pick? Why, this a one right here."

[sunburst]

I got to check out Bill's mandolin once, after a show near the end of his touring days... probably early to mid 90s. He got the mandolin out of the case and handed it to me with a pick stuck under the strings. I pulled the pick out, played a few chords and part of a tune or two, and it was some sort of common plastic pick, nothing special, didn't make enough impression on me to remember exactly what it was. I was more interested in the mandolin, it didn't occur to me to remember what kind of pick he was using!

[Gerry Cassidy]

We didn't have all the specialized picks back then! If you asked for a "mandolin pick" they'd sell you a medium-weight, teardrop-shaped pick, which is what you usually see in the old method books. Most of the bluegrass players I knew used used heavy guitar picks, and lots of us turned them sideways and used the corner.

Thanks to Evan, the guy who usually has the answers to questions about the Master!

Hi August!

Great to see you back on the Cafe again...

[Marty Henrickson]

Y'all remember the story: Somebody (may have been somebody 'round here)was hauling Mr. Monroe from an airport to a clinic/master class.
While in transit, Mr. Monroe, found he had no pick. Between the two, they managed to find a pick down in between the seats of the car. Later at the clinic, one of the questions came, "What pick do you use?" To which Mr. Monroe offered up, "What pick? Why, this a one right here."

I was thinking of this story, as well, FJ. In the version I heard (or more likely read on this forum, or a book), the pick was also hot pink, or some other bright color, raising quite a few eyebrows at the time.

Interesting to imagine what Mr. Monroe would think of all of our nitpicky obsessiveness:

"Just play the thing, boy!"

[AlanN]

.

I remember subscribing to the Mandolin World News and some other publications way back some 30 something years ago and reading every issue every word every letter. I felt like a secret agent, privy to information not available to the public. I learned a lot. Looking back over those issues, Mandolin World News was a slow motion version of this forum. A community of mandolin players, communicating at the speed of the post office and type setter and copy machine.

You betcha, would jones for every issue, 4x per year. And with the way the subscriptions were handled and mailed, sometimes months would go by and no MWN. It was an obsession, that little pamphlet. The tunes, articles, drawings, info nuggets, ads, letters to the editor, the whole shebang.

[MikeEdgerton]

Message 4, this (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?66235-Bill-Monroe-questions&highlight=bill+monroe) thread

[Denny Gies]

Great pun with the nitpicky, Marty. Intended?

[JeffD]

You betcha, would jones for every issue, 4x per year. And with the way the subscriptions were handled and mailed, sometimes months would go by and no MWN. It was an obsession, that little pamphlet. The tunes, articles, drawings, info nuggets, ads, letters to the editor, the whole shebang.

I had just moved and did not yet know many people. I remember many times how my mood was lifted for weeks on end by the arrival of the lastest issue.

My entire collection was water damaged. A year or so ago I was able to purchase the entire collection again, and they are still a joy, and bring back lots of memories.

[Timmando]

I figured he was probably using a guitar pick, a medium, like a .83 dunlop type of pick or thereabouts. The reason I say this is when I listen to his mandolin playing, it sometimes sounds like a thinner pick, he didn't have the throaty, deep tone that a thick pick seems to give. Or it could be the mandolin or recording quality. Either way his picking had alot of chordal strokes and double stops, along with single string picking. Alot of the modern players like Steffey seem to do much more individual noting, alot more complex left hand action than Monroe. Is it safe to say that Monroe was less complex in his playing than someone like Steffey or Thile?

[Marty Henrickson]

Great pun with the nitpicky, Marty. Intended?

Umm, yeah, sure - I meant to do that!

[jesserules]

I figured he was probably using a guitar pick, a medium, like a .83 dunlop type of pick or thereabouts. The reason I say this is when I listen to his mandolin playing, it sometimes sounds like a thinner pick, he didn't have the throaty, deep tone that a thick pick seems to give. Or it could be the mandolin or recording quality. Either way his picking had alot of chordal strokes and double stops, along with single string picking. Alot of the modern players like Steffey seem to do much more individual noting, alot more complex left hand action than Monroe. Is it safe to say that Monroe was less complex in his playing than someone like Steffey or Thile?

I dunno.

Is it safe to say "more direct"?
Or "cleaner"?


I think it's safe to say Abraham Lincoln was a "less complex" orator than Edward Everett ....

[mommythrice]

Aside from that, I've always heard that he would use anything available in a pinch.

Well, dangit! That just leaves me with the sad reality that if I were to get ahold of Bill's pick, and his mandolin, and even his band, I would still sound like... me. :mad:

[Jeff Budz]

I heard he played with a CT55.

[John McCoy]

I heard that he once played with a quarter....

:mandosmiley: :whistling:...



== John ==

[August Watters]

Alot of the modern players like Steffey seem to do much more individual noting, alot more complex left hand action than Monroe. Is it safe to say that Monroe was less complex in his playing than someone like Steffey or Thile?

Apples and oranges. Without Monroe, we'd all be playing ukulele. or tenor banjo? But perhaps it's safe to say each generation builds on the achievements of the last, no?

[August Watters]

Hi August!

Great to see you back on the Cafe again...

Hi Gerry - great to be back! It's been three years, but I decided to come back about a month ago. Like everyone else, I've learned more here than almost anywhere else.

[greg_tsam]

He used the pick of destiny before Tenacious D rediscovered it.

[Ron McMillan]

I am bemused by the levels of obsession displayed over anything to do with BM here.

Not that that stops me reading these threads, you understand. :)

[Marty Henrickson]

He used the pick of destiny before Tenacious D rediscovered it.

Heck, he used it before they were BORN! :))

[allenhopkins]

I read a Monroe anecdote, which I can't now locate, that he used to use whatever pick he happened to have in his pocket or mandolin case. One of his band, or someone who was accompanying him, once played a prank by slipping a large, neon-colored guitar pick into the case. Monroe was giving a workshop or talking with audience members, and was asked what kind of pick he used. He pulled out the Day-Glo pick and said, "I use one of these right here." The prankster got a good laugh, and presumably a generation of local mandolin players were suckered into using garishly colored flat-picks...

[Timmando]

Thats funny Allen. It reminds me of a story I heard about Earl Scruggs and why he never put the banjo strap over his head. Story was that with the strap over just one shoulder, his right arm and wrist were in a better position to give better attack and downward thumb power with his picking. And that it allowed him to get better tone out of the banjo. Then someone asked him and he said "Well...you see this big hat that I have to wear....its just too hard to get that strap over the top." So I guess the moral of the story is that, yes, people do over-analyze things sometimes.

[KEB]

I am bemused by the levels of obsession displayed over anything to do with BM here.

Not that that stops me reading these threads, you understand. :)

We should keep adding verses to Red & Jethro's 'Cept Old Bill

Well the folks on that old internet
argue all day bout picks, straps, and armrests,
With a toneguard & blue chip, it just bout makes me ill.
I wonder how Thile, Steffey or McCoury
play with all those accessories
But no one could play without em.... 'cept old bill

(Okay... needs some polish, I get it)

[Jeroen]

The Big Book of Bluegrass, Ed. Kochman, 1984, GPI publications, page 17,18:

(Dix Bruce) Are you particular about the picks you use?
(Bill Monroe) I like a heavy pick. I dont like real light, thin picks because I don't think you can get a tone out of the mandolin with a thin pick. I let the point wear off, because it's too sharp, why, you don't get the tone. I've tried tortoiseshell and it's pretty good. I use bronze strings.

[Caleb]

Anyone ever seen this book devoted entirely to picks?

http://www.amazon.com/Picks-Book-Will-Hoover/dp/0879303778/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1420758580&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=john+pearse+picks

[Timbofood]

Not bad KEB, you're on the right track!
Now that being said, I don't use much of the trappings that some folk find indispensable, no tone guard, armrest, fancy strap, thirty five dollar pick. Just an old Alvarez and purple Dunlops, dog leash strap and an appropriate beverage.

Good point Ron, anything WSM related goes for at least three pages.