Blue Chip Picks Wow!

[OldSausage]

As I said in another post: I live in Argentina, I earn my money in pesos... a Blue Chip pick would cost me the equivalent of $350 Argentine pesos....my wife and I just bought a lawn mower here for less than that! LOL!

I have a lawn mower that cost me three times what my blue chip cost, but the lawn mower sounds terrible and I never take it to gigs.

[Johnno]

I hope all you Blue Chippers are on commission if not you should be. This has to be the greatest free advertising site on earth. I must get one hehehe.
Merry Christmas and God Bless
John
Hey Old Saus maybe your mower needs a "set up"!

[Canoedad]

I gambled that I wouldn't lose a Blue Chip and lost.

[f5loar]

So many more testimonials of the life changing BC picks. Well I've been using one since they first came out (3 years ago?) and can say it still looks new with no wear. I'm considered a "heavy" handed picker and not so light on the touch. I just ordered a special TD45. I had been using the 40 and knew the 50 was a bit too thick and stiff so gambled on a 45 being the happy middle ground. I got the pick last week and tried it out for two shows (5 hours of picking time) and again BC has changed my life for the 2nd time. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, this slight change in thickness knocks you for a loop into wondering what have you been missing all these years. So I ponder if these guys who don't like the BC got the right one for them first time at bat? Don't know but do know them sure is expensive bats to try out until you do find it. I look at buying a new pick is like buying a new pair of shoes. They may fit fine in the store but you got to walk on them awhile to see if they hurt your feet or not.

[JAFO]

I can see how those who don't like or use Blue Chips could easily get tired of seeing these long threads arise on a regular basis. I just waded through these last 4 pages and read pretty much what I have seen in all the predecessors. You either love 'em or hate 'em and the price is either way too high, or reasonable.
I first learned of these picks over on the BHO and wondered what all the fuss was about, then my buddy Steve Martin had Matthew Goins on his radio show for an interview and I became intrigued. The interview can be found here: http://www.unrealbluegrass.com/inter...ins_130427.mp3 .
When I was at Grey Fox this past summer I met Matthew on the first day of setup and over the next 5 days we spoke frequently as each of us had time between work sessions. Matthew and I became friends and near the end of the weekend I sat down to try out his stuff and it didn't take me but a couple of minutes to settle in on a TD-60 which he gave to me as a gift.
I am just a beginner, only a year and a half in, but it sure helped me with some of my issues such as grip and string drag. Made my lousy playing sound a bit less lousy and changed the dynamics in my right hand allowing me to develop better. Now I can play with cheaper picks better and I have a few I use from time to time, but I go back to the BC after a while.
Some things I learned that might answer some questions I saw posed:
1) The material used in these picks is in fact very expensive and I have used it myself in semi-conductor manufacturing equipment in the past. That cost leaves very little in the profit column for Blue Chip. I am in fact still surprised that BC can make and sell these at this price and still make money.
2) Because of the low profit margin, Blue chip cannot market these through dealers because it would drive the price even higher.
3) Blue Chip does not market these picks as a 'wonder drug' and if you listen to the interview above, you will hear Matthew state clearly that he knows they aren't a good fit for everybody and that is why he has the money back deal that he has.
4) You won't find a more honest, enthusiastic, harder working, or genuinely fine person than Matthew Goins.

That's just my 2 cents, which I had to get off my chest after reading so many pages of these posts.
Keep Pickin'
Tom

[JeffD]

but I don't feel they are the "be all end all" of picks.

There is no such thing. I have different picks for different tunes, different mandolins, different venues, different sound effects.

[JeffD]

Unfortunately, I can't try BC picks unless someone sends some to me for free. You see, I have that fiscal policy which limits my expenditure on picks to 50 cents max per pick.

How'd you ever afford a mandolin to use the picks on?

[mandolirius]

What always baffles me is the resentment expressed by some non-BC users. They cry "all hype" and "shill" etc. but I can't figure out what they're complaining about. If a Fender or a Dunlop works great for you, then why not be happy you saved all that money? Think of us as suckers if you like. I don't care. I'm finally pick-content after 25 years of never being truly satisfied. To me, that alone is worth the money.

[mandobassman]

What always baffles me is the resentment expressed by some non-BC users. They cry "all hype" and "shill" etc. but I can't figure out what they're complaining about. If a Fender or a Dunlop works great for you, then why not be happy you saved all that money? Think of us as suckers if you like. I don't care. I'm finally pick-content after 25 years of never being truly satisfied. To me, that alone is worth the money.

Amen to that!!! If you think they're too expensive, then don't buy one. Personally, I still think it's a cheap investment compared to what we have paid for high end instruments.

[goose 2]

I have played for a long time and can pull pretty good tone with about any pick. However, I pull my best tone and my playing is most fluid with a Bluechip SR 60. The difference is significant enough to me that I don't even blink when it's time to reorder a pick.

[Mike Bunting]

[QUOTE=JAFO;1236708]I can see how those who don't like or use Blue Chips could easily get tired of seeing these long threads arise on a regular basis.
You mean posts like, "Best mandolin under $300, $500 and on" or "mandolin A vs mandolin B" or..... It is what it is.

[dan in va]

Well, i did my part to resist them and try just about everything else first, all the while reading about so many folks' reasons for buying them. After all, there are so many shapes, thicknesses and bevels, and there's lots of trading around...seems spendy and time consuming to pick a winner. But then again, many of us are willing to pay the price and do the dance for great tone and playability.

There was a lightly played CT 55 in the classifieds one day. Very popular pick and it seemed like a good place to start. It brought out certain tones that none of the others (Red Bear, Pro Plec, Dawg, Fast Turtle, Clayton, Ultex, etc) could. Then a TAD 60 (RH bevels) showed up under the tree on 12/25, and that one is even better. They're both great in different rooms and i'm thinking about a TAD 60 with CT bevels someday. The things will last 3x times as long with the 3 tips, too. The only thing that came close was a completely reshaped and beveled Dawg.

Maybe there are some good reasons why so many are buyin', pickin', talking' and post in' about 'em.

[Nick Quig]

I'm curious now - is the CT bevel different to the usual Bluechip speed bevel?

[Herbm55]

.......but I don't feel they are the "be all end all" of picks.

There is no such thing. I have different picks for different tunes, different mandolins, different venues, different sound effects.

There is no such thing, unless one uses the same pick for everything, like I do. Mandolin, acoustic guitar, or electric guitar, I want the same feel and consistency. As for being the "be all end all", for me that has varied through the years. Before BC I used Clayton Ultems, and before that I used real TS. Like they say, find what works for YOU.

[dan in va]

Nick Quig, i don't know if i can explain the CT bevel better than the Blue Chip website pics and comments. This bevel has a more gradual taper and appears wider than the standard bevel. It makes the edge a bit more knife like (for lack of a better term) and seems to make the pick faster.

i don't have a TAD 55 pick to compare to, but the CT 55 seems to bring out more high overtones across the strings, while the TAD 60 is a little meatier sounding to me. It's a wonderful pick if that's what your mandolin needs, similar to making the string set sound like a lighter gauge. Another thing about this TAD size (the CT 55 5 thou thinner but the footprint as the TAD 60) is that it makes a little more pick stick out from my grip, resulting in more volume and high overtones on the G strings.

If i do have the CT bevels put on a TAD 60, the bevels will look a lot wider because the pick is a little thicker.

[Mark Wilson]

Every year for Christmas the wife and I get each other a simple gift that we would never buy for ourselves. On a whim I chose a BC TPR45. I gotta say it lived up to the hype. Can't imagine a smoother or faster pick that stays put and sounds great. I'll still play my wegen but it's no longer my favorite.

[JeffD]

There is no such thing, unless one uses the same pick for everything, like I do. Mandolin, acoustic guitar, or electric guitar, I want the same feel and consistency. As for being the "be all end all", for me that has varied through the years. Before BC I used Clayton Ultems, and before that I used real TS. Like they say, find what works for YOU.

That is the bottom line. And consistency of feel is important.

I have never found a pick that wasn't a compromise under certain circumstances, at which times some other pick seemed better suited.

[Jesse Weitzenfeld]

My son got a Blue Chip for Christmas. He’s been wanting one for a while. He has a pretty nice collection of picks but no Blue Chips. When he first tried out the TD50 on his guitar, wow! Incredible. The sound was just better. Cleaner, with a three dimensional quality I usually associate with an organic material. It’s hard to describe sound, but it really jumped out at me as being a huge improvement over the other picks he was using (mainly Wegen).

On mandolin, he didn’t like it as much. He preferred his Matt Miller pick.

Picks are a funny business. It’s all about personal preference, and people tend to get invested in certain products and not want to change. I believe there are several quantifiable characteristics of Blue Chip which makes it “better” than the average pick, but that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be the ultimate, for everyone, on every instrument. We’ve also found that picks we initially didn’t care for, will grow on us over time. As your ears, and your playing, improve you might also find you’re hearing things in a different way, or appreciating nuances that you were previously blind (or deaf) to.

We recently filmed a review, which I posted in another thread, where we compared several high end picks (including BC) with a couple “holy grail” picks that most players probably don’t have access to. You can see it here.

[AlanN]

Pick choice is ultimately very personal. I listened to part of that video, all sounded pretty good, some more 'picky' than others. I would need to sit down with that arsenal to see how they fit in my hand, how they attacked the strings, how they felt before I could say 'this is the one'.

Thanks for putting up the video.

[Cheryl Watson]

I'm curious now - is the CT bevel different to the usual Bluechip speed bevel?

Nick, in the past, I have ordered the CT55 with a right-handed bevel and it is nearly a "knife" bevel which is a bit more radical than the usual right-handed bevel.

[yankees1]

Amen to that!!! If you think they're too expensive, then don't buy one. Personally, I still think it's a cheap investment compared to what we have paid for high end instruments.

Yep, you said it all !

[John Ritchhart]

I used some real TS a few years back to get away from the "pick Click" I was getting with plastic picks. But I always had that "this ain't right" feeling about using a banned substance even if the provenance was legal. I went to BC's because they gave me that same pure tone on the string that I was getting from TS without the ennui. Also they don't wear down like TS. I got mine at the Picking Parlor in Knoxville. They have a good selection of sizes and shapes and you can try them all out there in the store. Nice people too. I have three different ones but have settled on the TP 50 as my favorite. The money? Well yea, but I can drop that much on lunch at the Cork & Crown.

[Marty Jacobson]

Tonight, I was browsing MandolinCafe, and my wife (who also plays mandolin) said to me:
"Are Blue Chip picks really that good?"
I said - "Yes, they are."
"Really?" she said.... "Better than your brown one?"

[f5loar]

The real believers just keep coming forth to praise how the BC changed their picking lives. I see many mention having used the real TS. Last time I priced a real TS from that guy that has a notebook full of them and shows up at BG festivals and Fiddler's Conventions the price was $50 to $60. Isn't a BC cheaper than that? So what's the fuss? If you can achieve that same sound or better, as most say, then why wouldn't you switch from a real TS to the man-made material BC? I just don't see the fuss over the price. Price difference seems to show up in about everything you come into contact with. There are choices on most anything you desire but don't expect all those choices to have the same price.

[thekidjohn]

I'm about to place my first order for one of these. I'm already trying to figure out how I won't lose it as I seem to go through Fender heavy gauge ones like crazy. Not because I wear them out, simply because they seem to...vanish. I'm pretty fired up to get to try a Blue Chip.