What's your total lifetime outlay on picks?

[lukmanohnz]

If you added it all up, how much do you estimate you've spent on picks over the years? I played guitar for nearly 40 years before I took up mandolin. I bet in all that time I spent much less than $100 on picks. I've played mandolin for less than two years now, and I know for a fact I've pushed well beyond the $100 mark just in that time. As a guitarist, I would have been aghast at paying more than $0.35 for a pick. As an aspiring mandolinist, I see a new pick that sells for less than $10 and think, "wow, that's a great deal!" I believe the mandolin was invented to convince musicians to spend irrational sums of money on small triangular bits of plastic. (And I now have more fun buying picks than I imagined was possible.)

[Cheryl Watson]

I don't even want to think of it... ;) Probably at least $400.

[William Smith]

I don't even want to think of it... ;) Probably at least $400.

I'm with ya "we shouldn't think of this",,,pry around 3-400 also,,,,for mandolin I'm set I found my pick of choice!

[Mandobart]

Definitely less than $200, counting since I took up guitar 30+ years back. Definitely the largest amount has been for mando picks. Definitely blaming mandolincafe for that.

[mandroid]

I'll try to begin keeping track, though I doubt it will make it into the Funerary ceremony ,
they tend to not use Statistics then.

[Elliot Luber]

I've spent about $100, but they used to be much cheaper.

[MikeEdgerton]

I know that in one afternoon at the Windgap Bluegrass Festival after I took up the mandolin I spent more in about 15 minutes on mandolin picks than I had in over 40 years of guitar playing.... probably several times more. Since then the number has climbed. Thanks for making me think about this. It's almost painful :)

[Clockwork John]

I've probably spent somewhere between $50 and $60 on picks total, between the year or so I've been playing mandolin and the 15 years I've been playing guitar... I like cheap picks, I buy in bulk when I can, and I don't lose picks very often.

[Shelagh Moore]

I probably spend about £3 a year now as I buy more picks than I used to (say 6 Ultex/year). So over 45 years at today's prices, probably about £120 - £130. This serves all my instruments... not just mandolin.

[mandobassman]

I probably have spent about $200 in just the last year alone. Prior to that I used Fender 346 Extra Heavy that I got for $12 for a half gross. It's been worth it , though, because What I have settled on has provided just the tone and volume I had been looking for. Beside that, It gave me the opportunity to hear just how my mandolin responds using different pick and string combinations.

[Mike Crocker]

Probably about $400 on my personal picks over 40 years, and another $400 on business/promotional picks, and another $200 on student picks for the lesson studio. Very rough guess.

[Kerry Krishna]

Luckman, sometimes things can last for a long , long time. My first tortoise shell pick was a fairly thick triangle one that lasted well over 3000 hours of playing before all three corners were used up and close to unplayable. I know this is not what you are asking though...

[lukmanohnz]

Luckman, sometimes things can last for a long , long time. My first tortoise shell pick was a fairly thick triangle one that lasted well over 3000 hours of playing before all three corners were used up and close to unplayable. I know this is not what you are asking though...
No, but I find this very comforting. I hope I will get similar service life out of the boutique picks I've purchased in the last year!

[lukmanohnz]

Probably about $400 on my personal picks over 40 years, and another $400 on business/promotional picks, and another $200 on student picks for the lesson studio. Very rough guess.

Wow - you could add that all up and get a nice Breedlove Quartz OO. But I'm assuming you are describing expenditures on picks that you used to advertise your services. I hadn't thought of that angle! Thanks for your reply!

[yankees1]

$100. ? That's just three Bluechip picks !

[russintexas]

At least $300, could me around $500. I'm still on the quest for the one.

[JeffD]

I have spent total, over the course of many many years, much less than $200 and probably something around $150. I haven't purchased a pick in many many many years, and in all liklihood I don't think I will be purchasing a pick again, perhaps one or two, but that will be it. I have my Wegen, my Red Bear, and my Blue Chip, a Dugain horn pick, and a Roman style plectrum and a handful of cheepies. I am happy.

Lets put this in persepctive. Over the same period of time, in today's dollars, I have spent over $7500.00 on TP, which is more than the I have spent on mandolins total, to date.

Do the math yourself to determine how much time that is.

[JeffD]

What is your lifetime outlay on mandolins?

[lukmanohnz]

At least $300, could me around $500. I'm still on the quest for the one.

Interesting! What is missing in the ones you have tried so far? Does one have the right tone but wrong feel, and vice versa?

[lukmanohnz]

What is your lifetime outlay on mandolins?

I have purchased just one mandolin so far, a used Capek F5 (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?70119-My-upgrade-from-the-Savannah-SF-100) that cost me about $2200. I am not counting what my wife spent on a Savannah SF-100 that started me on the mandolin path. Now lifetime guitar expenditures is another story...

[JeffD]

Now lifetime guitar expenditures is another story...

:))

I wrote a blog on the true cost of a free mandolin (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/entry.php?541-How-much-should-I-spend-on-a-mandolin):

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/entry.php?541-How-much-should-I-spend-on-a-mandolin

And in it I conclude that it is best to go into denial.

Served me well for many years!

[Austin Bob]

I guess I'm a frugal guy. For years I used Dunlop picks, red ones for guitar the orange ones for mando. I play them until they are completely rounded, then I take sandpaper to them and use them some more. A pack will last me forever.

But I kept reading about the newer picks so I went out and got a Blue Chip pick. Probably spent more on it than I have in the last 30years. Still can't quite get used to it. It works great for fiddle tunes and such, but I have too heavy of a hand playing rhythm with it.

[Tavy]

Being a cheap-scape I use Gibson large triangles (the heavy ones), I get through one corner a month, and with 3 corners to get through per pick, that's £2 a year tops.

[Justus True Waldron]

I never paid much attention to picks until I started really getting into mandolin a couple years ago. I'd estimate I've spent just about $150 in picks over my whole lifetime, and probably $135 of that was the last year. I had it pretty easy though - I had a few TS and some other nice interesting picks given to me (horn, ivory, glass, hardwood), which held me over for a little while (still have them, just don't use them). However I don't see spending much more in picks from here on out - I've been playing the BC CT55 for about 10 months solid with no desire to go elsewhere. Other than getting a couple V picks to try at IBMA (something I considered cheap at $10 for 3!) The only reason I really bought a pick there was to replace the BC I lost in the vendors hall. Such a bummer. Played a bunch of mandolins, went to leave, realized I was missing my pick and couldn't find it. Turned right around and bought another one... at least I didn't have to pay shipping! Still I think it was worth it, I've never found another pick that lets me play that clean that consistently...

[michaell]

My outlay has probably been in the mid-hundreds but for the last few years I've been using the same pick (which is a Russian domra pick). If I lose it-I'm cooked!

[Ray Neuman]

$18.00. I bought a gross of (over priced) Fender heavy picks about 15 years ago and still have half of the bag. I have borrowed a wegan, blue chip, great bridge, buffalo, and a few others, and always go back to my Fender heavys. All sounded different, but the Fender feels "right" whatever that is.

I count myself a lucky stiff for being pleased.

[mandroid]

Lower than my life time outlay on Potable Ethanol beverages.. :))

[Denny Gies]

Picks; around $400 but this includes some of those things that are illegal now. Mandos: somewhat north of $8,000, most of which went to the 1993 Randy Wood F5. Are we all nuts?

[JeffD]

I never paid much attention to picks until I started really getting into mandolin a couple years ago. .

The pick sure makes a difference. I don't play guitar, but my guitar playing friends do not pay nearly as much attention to picks. I think the pick makes more difference with mandolin than with guitar.


Still I think it was worth it, I've never found another pick that lets me play that clean that consistently...

And don't forget tone! Playing clean, with good tone, consistently, what more could you ask of a pick!

[Jim Garber]

$383.72 for my total lifetime, but that would be projected to my insurance company's estimate of how long I will live... also assuming that I narrowly avoid that UPS truck at 9:03 on May 14, 2014. :)

[45ACP-GDLF5]

An educated guess would put me at around $500 since 1982....

[FL Dawg]

$0.00

My first guitar came with a case pocket full of them and it's been that way ever since! I've got boxes full, all pulled from instruments I bought, freebies from shops, trade show handouts.

[Astro]

Dont know yet. I'll try to post when its over.

[Charles E.]

$762.38...give or take

[russintexas]

94647


Interesting! What is missing in the ones you have tried so far? Does one have the right tone but wrong feel, and vice versa?

Nothing so much as none have taken me to the point of saying "ok, that's it". I play a lot of guitar too, and so I've got different needs for different kinds of playing there-- little picks for jazz, 351s for rocking out, some thin picks from when I had poor impulse control, and so on. I also usually buy them a half gross at a time if I like them, or a dozen if I'm just trying them out.

[lukmanohnz]

$762.38...give or take

:))

[lukmanohnz]

94647

I also usually buy them a half gross at a time if I like them, or a dozen if I'm just trying them out.

I suspect there's an opportunity somewhere in all that for you to perhaps slow down your rate of expenditure on accessories, but I'd have to confer with a financial analyst to suss it out...

[Alyx Hanson]

Probably around $100. Maybe a little over. That's mostly just been experimenting with different varieties of Dunlop picks and then buying the couple of boutique picks I settled on in the past few months. I think I've finally found my "one" for each of my instruments, so from here out it'll be a bit under $10 whenever they wear out (although they seem to be wearing pretty slowly, which is great).

[CES]

35 dollars (total) for 2 separate packs of Wegens...probably less than 65 dollars total, though I'm not going to dig through all my cases to count (I've only lost/worn out a few over the years)...maybe even < 50 dollars total... but, I've only been playing for a few years including guitar and banjo...

[JeffD]

What if there isn't "the one".

What if "the one" depends on the instrument, the venue, the type of jam, the type of music, the tune.

Separate tool for each job. The Swiss Army knife does everything, but nothing real well.

[russintexas]

By the way, my collection is nowhere near this...

http://www.tinaspicks.com/

[journeybear]

Youse guys! I just don't get ya. I don't think my lifetime expenditure on picks is even into double digits. Seriously. I am always finding them or being given them, and since I am not too fussy, this suits me just fine. Also, I am real good at hanging onto picks, usually sticking them into the strings on the pegboard, so even if one comes off in the case or bag, it doesn't go very far. I had to retire a Dunlop 1.5 mm after a couple of years, when the point had worn down so far that it was about the shape of a Grisman. I recently found a nice big old Clayton triangular pick in the bottom of a box of sundries, which is now my go-to pick; with three points, it probably will be the rest of the decade. Money not spent on unnecessary expenditures is freed up for spending on necessary ones. I still am, and probably always will be, in the camp that holds to the philosphy as succinctly stated in an old swing tune, "it ain't whatcha do, it's the way how you do it."

[Astro]

Yeah J.Bear, but buying high end picks can actually save you money if you suffer from M.A.S.

If it softens the yearn for that unobtainable mando, it may even save you from financial ruin.

Sort of like methadone to the heroin addict.

Ain't rationalization fun ?

[JeffD]

Way back in the beginning... When I got my first real paying job, I purchased four dozen dozen (576) medium Fender picks. It was my first purchase with my first paycheck. I got them for real cheap.

And I hardly lost any of them.

[Justus True Waldron]

I recently found a nice big old Clayton triangular pick in the bottom of a box of sundries

If it's a black one you very well might have picked it up somewhere after the Doerfels played, they all use those. I bought myself a dozen a couple years ago and used one as my go to pick for a year. Still have it and the other 11, and I actually played around with sanding bevels into a couple. Now I leave one in my wallet as an emergency pick. Decent picks but I still don't get the extra "edge" and "zing" off the strings that I get with my bluechip. I'm glad I'm good at hanging on to picks though or my "lifetime outlay" would be much higher at this point!!!

[journeybear]

Nope, it's white with an eagle with tan or yellow-orange wings on it. Guessing it's 1.28mm, maybe 1.00mm; hard to see because it's seen some wear. Judging by the manner and location in which I rediscovered it, I assume it dates back to 1988, during my first venture down here, when my then-band made a pilgrimage to Miami in search of equipment. I had never seen these before, and had to have a few. Come to think of it, this may have been the last time I bought picks. Hmmm ... :whistling:

One time after a Little Feat show, chatting with Paul Barrere, he gasve me a pick - nice Fender-style heavy with the Sailin' Shoes logo on it. Prized possession, that was. One day, playing on the street, it flew out of my hand and vanished into the ether. :disbelief: That Neon Park shoe just flapped its wings. Very sad. :crying: Hopefully some other street musician found it, and it made his day. :mandosmiley:

[Bill Baldridge]

If you can be made happy with a $35 pick, buy two. I did. :))

[robert.najlis]

less than I have spent having my violin bows rehaired

[David Rambo]

To me it's not how much I've spent so far, but what I'm going to need to spend in the future. Hopefully, that will be $0.00. I made the switch to Blue Chip picks, and shouldn't need more unless I lose one of them. I don't think that I'm going to be able to wear them out!

[Justus True Waldron]

I've seen two people with worn out blue chips... now that's an accomplishment!

[lukmanohnz]

Youse guys! I just don't get ya. I don't think my lifetime expenditure on picks is even into double digits. Seriously. I am always finding them or being given them, and since I am not too fussy, this suits me just fine. Also, I am real good at hanging onto picks, usually sticking them into the strings on the pegboard, so even if one comes off in the case or bag, it doesn't go very far. I had to retire a Dunlop 1.5 mm after a couple of years, when the point had worn down so far that it was about the shape of a Grisman. I recently found a nice big old Clayton triangular pick in the bottom of a box of sundries, which is now my go-to pick; with three points, it probably will be the rest of the decade. Money not spent on unnecessary expenditures is freed up for spending on necessary ones. I still am, and probably always will be, in the camp that holds to the philosphy as succinctly stated in an old swing tune, "it ain't whatcha do, it's the way how you do it."

You are pretty lucky, journeybear! Before I started playing mandolin, I never thought about the effect of the pick on tone - only on what felt good in my hand. And I just used my Fender heavies on the mandolin at first. Then someone at a bluegrass camp gave me a ProPlec - a gateway pick if there ever was one. It's too late for me now, I'm a hopeless addict. Stay away from those ProPlecs - it's all downhill from there! :cool:

[lukmanohnz]

:))

I wrote a blog on the true cost of a free mandolin (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/entry.php?541-How-much-should-I-spend-on-a-mandolin):

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/entry.php?541-How-much-should-I-spend-on-a-mandolin

And in it I conclude that it is best to go into denial.

Served me well for many years!

That was very well said, JeffD. I started adding it all up as I read your post - I stopped when I got into five digit territory...

[JeffD]

I am always finding them or being given them, and since I am not too fussy, this suits me just fine.

When I think of the money I could have saved, over a life time, if it weren't for being fussy.

[Jeff Hildreth]

Perhaps $150 since 1961.

[journeybear]

When I think of the money I could have saved, over a life time, if it weren't for being fussy.

:)) Yeppers! Just so it doesn't go unsaid, though, I do have standards. They're pretty low, but I got 'em. ;)

Oh, and BTW, by the same process, I haven't paid for a pen or lighter since I can't remember when. These little things seem to make themselves available. The big stuff, on the other hand ... :whistling:

[Bertram Henze]

In my first musical phase, some 20+ years ago, I used to have the same black pickboy carbon pick every year. No costs at all.

But when I discovered the Cafe, my pick expenses skyrocketed when I started to try Wegen, Clayton, Dunlop in search of the ideal pick. Combined with the hollowskulled custom of ordering larger batches to save on postage fees, this left me with bags full of picks I'll probably never use. :redface:

However, I am proud to own not a singe BC... :grin:

[UsuallyPickin]

Lifetime ... 500.00$ ... starting at three for a quarter, topping out at 50.00$ for tortise a shell and currently at 35.00$ for Blue CHip TPR's. Of course the three for a quarter ones are now more like a dollar each....... it's only money.. right?

[JEStanek]

Best guess, $30 over 10 years. Half of that in a three pack of Wegen's. The Dawg picks I like are like $1 a pop and the JazzMando D'Adrea Pro Plecs come in the JM11 Strings I favored for years!

Jamie

[Steve Ostrander]

I'm almost ashamed to admit that my total outlay for mandolin picks has been about the cost of 1 Blue Chip. I favor the purple Dunlop Tortex or Rhino picks. And I don't lose them because I stick 'm in the strings when I'm done pickin'. Worst thing to do is put 'em in your pocket, then they end up in the washer with 6 left socks...

[John Duncan]

I started playing mandolin in 2005. On mandolin probably $150. On banjo $1 (my Dad gave me 3 Golden gates, and I just "had to buy a national") On Fiddle: $0 :grin:

Now I have bought TS picks for my Guitar playing parents as presents so: Dad got two $100 Mom got one and still has it $40.

All told: $291

[Mike Bunting]

Don't know, I got bigger fish to fry.

[lukmanohnz]

94758

A cry for help... Maybe there's a 12-step program... :crying:

[GTison]

IS THAT an original "clown barf" "David Grisman" pick in there? Cute box.

Anyway. I have bought and sold picks like I had maybe 2 doz of the signature David Grisman (not Dawg) picks back in the eightys. I found them a few years ago and sold them for $10 or 15 each!!! I liked them too. However on the whole I'd say on the order of $200 since the 1970's . But I'm not dead yet.

over the years pick collection. Min'd stone pick. cowhorn, 4 TS, super thin, DG, Andrea, Fenders 20 doz, golden gates, used to love D'Addario delrins, = $217 Sold picks I got back almost that much.

[fatt-dad]

less than $120.00. two BC ($75.00) and then all the rest - thumbpicks, fingerpicks, clown barf, ultex, Dunlop a turtle shell (back when they were $5.00) and such. I am very faithful to the picks that I have and rarely loose them. So, I'm lucky. I carry my fingerpicks each day, so I always know where they are.

f-d

[lukmanohnz]

IS THAT an original "clown barf" "David Grisman" pick in there? Cute box.

It's possible that the clown barf picks are original Grismans. There are four of them in the box - I bought them from a seller right here on the cafe, but he didn't know the history on them. They are virtually identical in shape to the Golden Gate picks, but slightly thicker and stiffer. They are really nice picks. I would love to know the history on them - I haven't been able to find any good pictures of the original Grisman clown barf picks.

I got the box last Christmas when someone gave us a sampler of Scharffen Berger (http://shop.scharffenberger.com/Folio-Box/p/SFB-FOLIO&c=ScharffenBerger@Gifts) chocolates. I told my wife to hang on to it when we finished eating the chocolate because it looked perfect for picks. She thought I was nuts (and of course she's correct). It looks like Scharffen Berger uses cardboard boxes now. But their chocolate is really good....

[Paul Kotapish]

I could open an accessories counter with all the picks I've purchased or been given over the last (nearly) 50 years, and supplement it with a whole range of capos, tuners, and other gizmos, too.

On at least three occasions I've discovered the pick of my dreams and ordered a big bag of them only to discover a pick I liked better within a few months. I've also got hundreds of picks that were promo items, freebies, found on the ground, or left at my house after parties.

I'd reckon about $250 total outlay, with nearly half of that spent on a couple of Blue Chips (which I like but am not devoted to), a TS I bought at a festival several decades back before I was as aware as I should have been about them, and a half dozen Wegens (which I love).

[lukmanohnz]

Whatever my total is, it went up by $1 today :grin::

94796

These are really nice, but I wish they were triangle-shaped like a ProPlec.

[Bertram Henze]

I've discovered the pick of my dreams and ordered a big bag of them only to discover a pick I liked better within a few months.

I know exactly what you mean...

[Mike Crocker]

Wow - you could add that all up and get a nice Breedlove Quartz OO. But I'm assuming you are describing expenditures on picks that you used to advertise your services. I hadn't thought of that angle! Thanks for your reply!

Absolutely. I get picks with the business name and phone number imprinted on them. I issue them to students and they do get passed around. I leave them at the local music store (with the owner's consent) and customers see them and take them home. I take them to gigs and hand them to interested folks instead of business cards, though I still use business cards too. A few in my wallet so I'm always prepared.

Here's where I get the giveaways: www.egopicks.com It's a nice little company with very quick service and great communication.

Peace, Mike.

[GaryHPrice]

Then you could be banjo players.....ONE pair of prewar Nationals can cost over $100 on today's market.....about a quarter each, when new.....

[nrand]

. . . .. how much do you estimate you've spent on picks over the years? . . . . )
Hundreds, not sure how many. I remember complaining when basic picks went from fifty cents to a dollar each, now I buy Gravity picks at $5.00 a pop. But interestingly, now that they seem like $money$ them selves, I don't lose as many as I used to. While my total outlay for the past 6 months has been zero, I think from this point probably $50.00 a year budget will cover my needs.

[Jim]

more than $25 but less than $50 since 1967 ( or since 1955 but I didn't buy picks before 67) . Fender 351 heavies & mediums & some dunlops over the years. not too fussy here either.

[JeffD]

My total lifetime outlay on picks? Far far less than the pure fun and transcendenat joy they have brought me. The outrageous fgood times they have enabled make them the biggest bargain on the planet, and I would buy them over again, and again, ten times over, for the rip-snorting good time my musical life has become.

Good times like these don't come cheap. It could cost as much as dinner and a bad movie. Once.

[mandolirius]

I don't know but I do know it went up drastically once I started using Blue Chips. :disbelief:

[Terry Allan Hall]

I'm going to say that, over the 45 years I've been pickin', somewhere around $300. About $6.75/year, on average, maybe.

Rarely break 'em, mostly folks "borrow" them... :mandosmiley:

[jmp]

Probably less than $20 lifetime for the ones I actually use -- Fender heavies. Have bought others to try but they just don't seem to work as well for me.

[Justus True Waldron]

So I'm not sure what my lifetime outlay on picks is, but I do know that after the other night probably $100 worth of it disappeared in an instant. I was at the Joe Val festival last weekend and decided to wander around without my mandolin for a bit, so I stuck my pick tin in my pocket. Went to go play a couple hours later and... it was gone. Looked everywhere, asked the hotel staff and friends but to no avail. My BC CT55, several V picks, Clayton Ravens, a horn pick and several choice TS picks all gone - I had to borrow a friend's pick for the rest of the weekend just to keep playing. Needless to say I'm a bit sad right now... not sure how fast I'll rush to build my collection back up, but I at least am going to have to buy another BC :(

[swain]

Spent about $100 (fob the store/website) on picks during the last 50 years.

But spent about $500 for gas and postage to get them to the house.

swain