Its all about the paraphernalia.
Its all about the paraphernalia.
Very good point Tobin, but, I know I would lose it! So, I'm just out the bongo bucks for the pick, tough.
"Life's tough, even tougher if you're stupid" John Wayne
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
No snottiness implied there, and I hope you continue the discussion. For what it's worth, I'm familiar with what goes into a good quality bow. My S.O. is a fiddler, and I live in a small town that seems to be a hotbed of bow-making. One bow maker in the $10k+ category has a shop down the street from my house.
High-end violin bows are individual works of art, which -- along with disappearing stocks of the preferred wood species -- explains the price. However, the fact that picks are mass produced doesn't mean there isn't at least some design effort in the choice of shape, edge bevel, and material. Mass production and low price just makes it more affordable to continually try out picks and select what works best. I keep a bowl of different picks next to my pickin' chair at home, and I regularly try out different ones to calibrate my preference for a Blue Chip TAD40-1R. The BC always wins, at least for now. That's hard to do with fiddle bows, unless you're wealthy enough to keep a dozen or more high-end bows around the house. I've seen the drama, angst, and expense that fiddlers go through, when selecting a bow. I'm glad we don't have to deal with all that!
Crappy Timing
@JeffD:
Thank you for your detailed and considered post. I don't disagree with anything (and therefore see no need to reply in much depth) except the overpricing issue. When I buy something, I try to act somewhat ethically and don't just go after the cheapest deal for me. The local economy, food miles, environmental sustainability, animal welfare and the support of small businesses are all considerations that I apply to my daily purchase decisions. I expect the seller to be considerate to me too, otherwise there's no deal. As a result, there is such a thing as overpricing in my mind. If a seller uses my need or desire to try to rip me off, I feel disrespected and recoil, regardless of the quality of the product.
As previously mentioned, I know the argument about the cost of the raw material, so I'm definitely not accusing Blue Chip of any such practice. The issue with the Blue Chip picks is more about simple cost-benefit considerations.
My birthday is 24 October. Everyone is quite welcome to give me a Blue Chip pick as a present. Otherwise, I'll buy one and give it a try as and when I feel that it will really help the sound of my playing. For the moment, there are still "plenty of other construction sites to take care of", as the Germans say. And Gravity picks really aren't bad at all.
Often someone posts on the café because they want to move up their mandolin. I think we all agree that a a $1500. mandolin is better than a $500 one. (Yes, I know that picking better makes a big difference as well--perhaps even more.) Ditto for a bow. $1500 bow is going to be *much* better than a $500 one. (The difference might be less between a 20K bow and a 10K bow, but I won't have the experience of knowing.) However, you don't fiddle if you think that a bow isn't as important as a violin/fiddle. A bow is not just an extra. if you're going to fiddle my first suggestion is to spend more money on your bow than on your instrument.
As far as picks, a $35 pick isn't that expensive even if your mandolin costs only ten times as much as a BC. If you don't like it, no loss.
Do you have any advice for aspiring fiddlers?
I wish I had some sort of new advice. It's sort of like losing weight:
Don't eat so much. --Barbara Lamb
I've documented literally thousands of testimonials from women Blue Chip users and have yet to hear one of them ask ... 'do these picks make me look fat'? There must be something to them...
Hi f5Loar,
I meant to respond to this when it posted, but it slipped my mind. I really like Porsches--I think they are wonderfully engineered cars and I have a houseful of books, etc. That said, I'm probably not your typical Porsche owner: I went from bunches of VW's as a kid and young man and then took a test ride in a 914 and was hooked. I had two 914's, then I started with the 944's (911's for the most part were too expensive for me). I bought and sold about 14 different 944--mostly turbo's (951's) and S2's (my avatar is a '89 S2 with 28K miles on it--I shoulda kept that one. Had a Boxster S for awhile, but couldn't stand watching it depreciate and sold it too. Currently my daily driver is an '89 NA (normally aspirated) 944 the previous owner set up for autocross and is the best-handling car I've ever owned. Garage queen is an immaculate '88 928 S4 that I need to get rid of...it's a gorgeous but totally impractical car. I think I'm at the stage where a pickup truck and bunch of musical instruments would be fine.
He keeps playing mandolin long enough he can tell war stories about paying $75 for one of those illegal picks and then watching people whine about paying half that price for one that almost won't ever wear out. That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
20 years ago you could pay .25 cents for a cup of Ronnoco coffee, and MAN, was it... Certainly nothing like a decent latte you can get today.
Looks like FP beat me to the draw on the $10,000 bow. But that's still nothing. You want snobbish? In my other life I'm a pipe organist. You think $15 is a lot? You ain't seen nothin' son. And $10,000 won't buy an annual maintenance cycle. We sit around talking about Hillbilly wooden boxes with wire on them like they're real musical instruments. (Now THAT'S snobbish!)
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