Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 46

Thread: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

  1. #1
    Registered User Ken Olmstead's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Anchorage, AK
    Posts
    2,020
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    OK, this may seem totally obvious but it took me a bit to figure out what was going on. So let the idiot share!

    I have been really having problems with my picking lately. Just could not get the feel. Sometimes that just happens but I have not had it for a long time. Tonight I really tried to analyse what was going on and I noticed my pick was very squirlley. I never remembered that being a problem with Blue Chip picks, in fact the "stickyness" is one of the most valuble benefits! So I thought to myself "I wonder" and went and cleaned the pick with soap and water. BINGO! It felt like brand new again! I guess I must have ate some KFC and didn't wash my hands good or whatever.

    Anyway, they eventually will need to be cleaned! They last so long that I never think about it! OK, got that off my chest!

    These picks really are a gift from above!!
    http://www.youtube.com/user/tenorbanjoguy

    "Gettin' by" with the imports!

  2. #2
    Registered User Chris Biorkman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Camarillo, CA
    Posts
    2,275

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Darn! I just gave my BC away because it seemed slippery. I should have just washed it.
    Heiden F-5 #110
    GMC Terrain VIN 2GTEC13Z871107423
    2007 Tempurpedic mattress
    $1.35 in assorted change

  3. #3
    Certified! Bernie Daniel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
    Posts
    8,347
    Blog Entries
    4

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Ken Olmstead: So I thought to myself "I wonder" and went and cleaned the pick with soap and water. BINGO! It felt like brand new again! I guess I must have ate some KFC and didn't wash my hands good or whatever.
    Ken, good post.

    I had the same "epiphany" some years ago with a Pro-Plec. And that lesson extends to those greasy fingers as well!

    But I think it is interesting at the fine line that separates fine effortless (joyfull) playing and frustration. These are things that beginners (or anyone I guess) should take note of.
    Bernie
    ____
    Due to current budgetary restrictions the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off -- sorry about the inconvenience.

  4. #4
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Alabama
    Posts
    184

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    If anyone else doesn't like their "slippery" Blue Chip, send it to me. :-)

    Joe

  5. #5
    Kelley Mandolins Skip Kelley's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Ohio
    Posts
    3,320

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Quote Originally Posted by Ole Joe Clark View Post
    If anyone else doesn't like their "slippery" Blue Chip, send it to me. :-)

    Joe
    I'm with you, Joe!

  6. #6
    Certified! Bernie Daniel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
    Posts
    8,347
    Blog Entries
    4

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Old Joe Clark: If anyone else doesn't like their "slippery" Blue Chip, send it to me. :-)
    How much do you charge to wash and ship back? And is there a warranty on it.
    Bernie
    ____
    Due to current budgetary restrictions the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off -- sorry about the inconvenience.

  7. The following members say thank you to Bernie Daniel for this post:

    Astro 

  8. #7
    Registered User Elliot Luber's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Long Island, NY, USA
    Posts
    4,157

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    At those prices it should stay clean. I like Bernie's idea about cleaning service... if you can afford the rolls royce you can afford to get it detailed now and again.

  9. #8
    Registered User Trey Young's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Carrollton, GA 30117
    Posts
    576

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    I actually was starting to notice this happening a bit, it hadn't gotten that bad yet, now I know to go ahead and nip it in the bud, er wash it with soap...

    1924 Gibson A Jr. Snakehead
    2004 Elkhorn A-5, #3
    2016 White F-5, #6

  10. #9

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    I've used that computer screen spray cleaner on them, works fine too.

  11. #10
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Outer Spiral Arm, of Galaxy, NW Oregon.
    Posts
    17,103

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    I just wash the 35 cent picks, and/or Dollar Dawg, and my hands with soap and water , every once in a while.
    ... more often in Cold and Flu season..

    writing about music
    is like dancing,
    about architecture

  12. #11
    Registered User Elliot Luber's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Long Island, NY, USA
    Posts
    4,157

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    I really don't like the Dawg picks. They seem hard to play and not as loud. Dawg must be one heck of a player.

  13. #12

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Well, Dawg is a heck of a player, picks clean too.

  14. #13
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Alabama
    Posts
    184

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Hey Ken, if you get more KFC on your Blue Chip you can try a little chicken pickin'.

    Joe

  15. #14

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    A little while back I posted about my puppy(Sadie) chewing up my Dudenbostel peg-winder. Yesterday she got up on the desk and got a 60,big ,rounded tri-point Blue Chip in her mouth then hid under the bed chewing it!

    Took me a while to figure out why she was soooo quiet(except for that lick/click sound that I remembered was what it sounded like when she was eating a favorite CD of mine...totally destroyed.

    All she could do was put a little non-skid surface on the pick,very slight indentations.
    I washed it;and,it is better than ever. The bevels are still smooth.

    Keep em clean,don't lose em. Best pick I ever had. And REALLY tough.

  16. #15
    Registered User Ken Olmstead's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Anchorage, AK
    Posts
    2,020
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Cameron View Post
    A little while back I posted about my puppy(Sadie) chewing up my Dudenbostel peg-winder. Yesterday she got up on the desk and got a 60,big ,rounded tri-point Blue Chip in her mouth then hid under the bed chewing it!

    Took me a while to figure out why she was soooo quiet(except for that lick/click sound that I remembered was what it sounded like when she was eating a favorite CD of mine...totally destroyed.

    All she could do was put a little non-skid surface on the pick,very slight indentations.
    I washed it;and,it is better than ever. The bevels are still smooth.

    Keep em clean,don't lose em. Best pick I ever had. And REALLY tough.
    Now THAT is a testimonial!
    http://www.youtube.com/user/tenorbanjoguy

    "Gettin' by" with the imports!

  17. #16
    Ursus Mandolinus Fretbear's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Copperhead Road
    Posts
    3,136

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Don't wash your Red Bear, or put it in your mouth; the casein-formaldehyde composite doesn't like moisture of any kind.
    But Amsterdam was always good for grieving
    And London never fails to leave me blue
    And Paris never was my kinda town
    So I walked around with the Ft. Worth Blues

  18. #17

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Red Bear is a nice pick;but,has to be babied and maintained. I washed mine. It was toast.

  19. #18
    Registered User Trey Young's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Carrollton, GA 30117
    Posts
    576

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    washed mine yesterday, played a gig last night and felt much better. I hadn't realized how much the pick slipping had been bothering me, unless I was just having a good night last night, I played much better and had a better tone...I guess being able to focus on playing and not keeping your pick in your hand goes a long ways...

    1924 Gibson A Jr. Snakehead
    2004 Elkhorn A-5, #3
    2016 White F-5, #6

  20. #19
    two t's and one hyphen fatt-dad's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Richmond, Virginia
    Posts
    7,635

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    To prevent slippery picks (whether Blue Chip or not), but some rosin on your fingers. Works great!

    f-d
    ˇpapá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

    '20 A3, '30 L-1, '97 914, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5, '14 OM28A

  21. #20
    Brentrup Evangelist Larry S Sherman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    1,793
    Blog Entries
    4

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Cameron View Post
    Red Bear is a nice pick;but,has to be babied and maintained. I washed mine. It was toast.
    And don't run them through the washing machine!


  22. #21
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Manchester - Lancashire - NW England
    Posts
    14,187

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    I keep a tiny bottle of Isopropyl alchohol (the sort used for Perfume samples) in my cases.If my picking fingers get too greasy,i just dab a drop on my hankie,wipe my pick & fingers with it & the pick sticks like heck.Mostly the Bill Monroe 'spit on the finger & thumb' method works fine,
    Saska
    Weber F-5 'Fern'.
    Lebeda F-5 "Special".
    Stelling Bellflower BANJO
    Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
    Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.

  23. #22
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Upstate New York
    Posts
    24,807
    Blog Entries
    56

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Quote Originally Posted by Fretbear View Post
    Don't wash your Red Bear, or put it in your mouth; the casein-formaldehyde composite doesn't like moisture of any kind.
    That is correct.

    But if you manage to keep it dry, the darned thing will last for ever.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  24. #23

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    But if you manage to keep it dry, the darned thing will last for ever.
    Now how do you know that!?
    Reminds me of; "Have you lived here all your life?"
    "Not yet."

  25. #24
    Registered User John Flynn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Richmond, VA
    Posts
    8,076

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    For what some of those picks cost, they should wash themselves and then clean your strings too! My 35 cent Fender Extra Heavy picks are waterproof, never need washing, cleaning, sanding, chewing or any kind of stickum to do what they were designed for, as well as I like them to. If I lose one or something goes wrong with it, I don't care, I just get another one out of my case.

  26. #25
    Registered User Ken Olmstead's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Anchorage, AK
    Posts
    2,020
    Blog Entries
    1

    Default Re: Blue Chip Pick Maintenance

    Quote Originally Posted by John Flynn View Post
    For what some of those picks cost, they should wash themselves and then clean your strings too! My 35 cent Fender Extra Heavy picks are waterproof, never need washing, cleaning, sanding, chewing or any kind of stickum to do what they were designed for, as well as I like them to. If I lose one or something goes wrong with it, I don't care, I just get another one out of my case.

    Actually they do. They are disposable. If I played one of those for 6 months it would also need cleaning I guarentee. In a week, it would wear to the point where I would have to throw it away or sand it smooth again. I know, I used to use them. They are constantly changing where as the BC never changes. Tone and feel is consistant. Plastic gets slippery when you sweat. These get stickier (unless you grease them up with KFC ) The Fenders sound great but BCs are a big improvement over those in areas other than tone. I will not be stepping back to Fenders. For a long time they were about the best thing going so I do understand why you like them so much.

    Now a Red Bear is too expensive to not be able to get near water! They do play and sound good though!
    http://www.youtube.com/user/tenorbanjoguy

    "Gettin' by" with the imports!

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •