Guitar pics, guitar pics, guitar pics. As someone who has been playing for well over a decade now, I, like many other guitar players, have owned, and likely lost guitar pics that number in the triple digits. I applaud the guitar players out there who are actually ORGANIZED, and have made an effort to hang on to their guitar pics to the best of their ability.
However, I am not one such player. Perhaps this is just a problem that is reflective of myself in all aspects of my life, but I have never been so organized that I would try to make an effort to keep these things around as much as I maybe should have. But whatever. Theyre cheap, they get the job done, and I know I typically have my brands and styles that will ALWAYS work out for me, regardless of what shape, color, or size they may be (although I find my most LOYAL soldiers have been Jim Dunlop 1mm mediums in black, even though I keep losing the,...thank God I will never have a leadership position in an actual army, save for a game of Dynasty Warriors, or some shit).
Some of us, however, are in the ownership of magical artifacts that stand the test of time, like a crystal skull, an ancestral blade passed down the heir of a royal family, or a Playstation 2 that never got the dreaded "disc read error".
I'm not trying to brag, but I am IN THE OWNERSHIP of such an item, a very special guitar pick that SOMEHOW, after almost 14 YEARS, I have managed to not yet lose it:
Lets go back a bit in time...
It was highschool, and I was going out with some friends to the mall to kick it and such, as young people tend to do. Eventually we found ourselves at the Sunrise Records in the Bayfield Mall. My love of animu and vidya games was at its all time high at this point, so I was on the look out to find anything that might be interesting.
Browsing through the cluttered masses of Eric Clapton Live and The BEEJEES :O, I came across the holy graily of my weeaboo interests...the full DVD set of Beck Mongolian Chop Squad!
A friend of mine had told me about this anime, where a Japanese highschooler becomes a bitchin rockstar. It was one of the best things I had ever seen, and there was quite a bit I could relate to the various characters in the show, being in highschool and starting to write my first comedy songs.
I grabbed them eagerly, and eventually made my way back home to crack em open and give em a watch.
I noticed that each DVD came with a swanky guitar pick! They were all of various sizes and weight, with some of them made of a better grade than others (sadly a few broke, and fell apart...before I was able to, you know...have the privledge of losing them).
One of them, the orange pick you can see above. Its medium large, maybe a little bit wider in size than my trusty Dunlops...and it felt incredible to use. Due to such heavy use, the writing eventually rubbed off, but the QUALITY, the quality, ladies and gentlemen, did not.
Countless travels, gigs, nights we had our fun together, me and this orange pick. There were times when I thought I lost it. Do you ever lose your wallet, or your keys, then become overwhelmed with the feeling of anxiety knowing that you actually MIGHT have left it in the Uber, or on the plane?
Or, have you ever "lost" your phone, but the anxiety of losing it doesnt kick in, because you know you're actually NOT crazy, and that it most certainly HAS to be around where you are, somewhere?
I've had both of those feelings with this pick. Eventually, over the years, I stopped playing games with myself, and just accepted the fact that, it WILL show up. Through every load of laundry. Through ever open mic night. Through every time I opened up my wallet, let someone borrow my guitar, etc.
It may have lost its writing, but it never lost its magical powers! I don't know what keeps this thing in my possession, but I'm glad that it stuck around.
Even though I could have probably done alot more, to keep my other "loyal soldiers" at my side as well :(.
-Colin
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