Picking Strategies, Picks, and Prices.

Last edited Sat May 19, 2018, 09:19 PM - Edit history (1)

So I've been having trouble learning the second solo from Sultans Of Swing, specifically that arpeggiated stuff on the B and E strings with a picked note and a pull-off on the E, and since I'm not any kind of a finger picker, and I'm primarily a down-picker, it's been throwing me for a major loop for a looonng time. I finally...FINALLY...figured out that if I start the part right before the pull-off on the E string with an upstroke, I'd be in a better position for the downstroke on the B.

But my Jazz III wasn't leaving me a lot of room for error. I needed a bigger harder thicker pick with a rounded tip instead of a pointy teardrop. So I was on the hunt for a new pick, which isn't that hard because I've got a million of them.

Ya see, every year I go to this music industry trade show in Anaheim and hang with the hoity-toity industry-types. I'm not one of 'em. I'm in HVAC. My boss has a side business that gets him and three buddies in the door. One of the things you can count on at these trade shows is that everybody and their mother are going to give you handfuls of free guitar picks just for breathing. I've got a bucket full of them at home.

So anyway, I'm digging through the bucket, looking for the total opposite of a Jazz III and I come upon this big orange clear shiny plastic 3mm log of a pick called a Gravity Classic Standard. Seriously. This thing has no give, no grab, nothing. I'm sliding over strings like I'm rollerskating on ice. It's beautiful. I'm like, "This is cool. I wonder if I have any more of these." Nope. That's the only one.

So I jump on Amazon to see if I can get some to come to my house rather than having to lug my ass down to the local Guitar Center. And yep, they got 'em.

$9.99 + $2.77 for shipping.

For two picks. Two of them. One pick and then another pick, and that's it.

Twelve dollars and seventy-six cents for two picks.

Is this normal?