Dropped finger pick

Jim Saunders · Post by **Jim Saunders** » 20 Jun 2023 12:33 pm

I don't know if it is Murphy's law or gravitational pull, but when I drop a finger pick, it always lands just under the pedal bar. Just out of reach from a bend over, where

it is necessary to get up and walk to the front of the guitar.

Jon Light · Post by **Jon Light** » 20 Jun 2023 12:41 pm

A) Simply, yes. Deeper than Murphy, it is an as yet little understood law of physics and it is real.
B) Its other side is that it saves the pick from that first step you (or the bass player) take to find & recover it. It is well protected under the cover of the pedal bar from getting....'reshaped' by a flat foot.

Brooks Montgomery · Post by **Brooks Montgomery** » 20 Jun 2023 1:03 pm

Same rule applies to dobro. If you remove the screens, the picks only fall off when over the open holes.

Dave Grafe · Post by **Dave Grafe** » 20 Jun 2023 2:43 pm

One of my favorite, irreplaceable old school brass finger picks is still buried under the outdoor stage at Long Lot Farm Brewery. Hate it when that happens.

Steve Hitsman · Post by **Steve Hitsman** » 22 Jun 2023 2:55 am

Einstein's general theory explains this phenomenon. The pedal bar has greater mass than the pick, thereby bending space in that direction and "attracting" the pick.

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 22 Jun 2023 10:57 pm

When you get up to look for it, you step on it.

Rick Campbell · Post by **Rick Campbell** » 23 Jun 2023 10:17 am

Throw your hands in the air and shout "stop" until the band quits playing, get up and retrieve the pick, sit back down and tell the band to resume playing. No big deal.

RC

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 23 Jun 2023 11:54 am

I'll take that over the time I snagged a pick just right on a string, and it somehow launched in a perfect arc off the stage and onto the dance floor.. I was pretty embarrassed to push a dancer back and save it in the nick of time. But if playing steel was easy, everybody would do it.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 23 Jun 2023 12:37 pm

Right up under the pedal bar is where mine go most of the time. Sometimes have to take something to drag it out.

Jeff Newman used to say Drop your picks, you step on 'em, drop your bar, it lands on your foot.

I've had the bar rattle loose a time or two while playing and I usually catch it between the necks before goes off.

My picks and bar drops usually come from not laying them down while doing some tinkering from the front of the guitar.

Once, I dropped a bar on the pedal board, yeah and another time I dropped one on the cabinet just in front of the front neck on a lacquer finish guitar butt end first. Made me sick every time I looked at it. Had to sell the guitar to get that blunder out of my sight.

Paul Wade · Post by **Paul Wade** » 23 Jun 2023 2:49 pm

Mine goes be hide my pack a seat
Pain in the as%#$$#%&

P.w

Jeff Peterson · Post by **Jeff Peterson** » 27 Jun 2023 9:09 am

I once dropped my bar, it took the trajectory straight towards the guys head who was hitting on my wife.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 27 Jun 2023 9:46 am

I watched Buddy sound-checking for the Everly's show in Biloxi in, maybe, 2001. He dropped his bar, not once but twice, and it rolled all over the raked stage.

It was good to have affirmation that he and I were developing along the same path.

That's one element of technique we shared.

Jeff P: nice to see you here - I recall bringing my LeGrande to Jimmie C's basement for a quick fix of something-or-other and there you were, working at the bench.

I very nearly got my new D10 JCH at that period but, sadly, we lost him soon thereafter.

David Ball · Post by **David Ball** » 27 Jun 2023 2:23 pm

Retrieving a flat pick from inside a flattop guitar has always been an exercise in futility.

Guess that's why the classical players rely on their nails. They don't tend to play in dives. When you drop their 'picks,' it's a bigger deal...

Dave

George Seymour · Post by **George Seymour** » 17 Jul 2023 12:29 pm

and why you keep a spare in your pocket...worse when playing the banjo at festival stages...saves your butt in the middle of a song...

Fred Treece · Post by **Fred Treece** » 18 Jul 2023 10:44 am

Jeff Peterson wrote:I once dropped my bar, it took the trajectory straight towards the guys head who was hitting on my wife.

I’m sorry I ducked. Is she okay?

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 20 Jul 2023 6:11 am

I don't get it either, but, the first place I look is directly under the pedal bar.

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 20 Jul 2023 7:43 am

Mine usually end up under a dancer's foot.

Don R Brown · Post by **Don R Brown** » 21 Jul 2023 5:38 am

Fred Treece wrote:
Jeff Peterson wrote:I once dropped my bar, it took the trajectory straight towards the guys head who was hitting on my wife.
I’m sorry I ducked. Is she okay?

Richard Sinkler · Post by **Richard Sinkler** » 21 Jul 2023 7:35 am

I have a funny bar flight story. In the late 70's, I was playing my weekend gig in Fremont California. The waitress comes up says that Loretta Lynn's band had come into the bar. We thought, "yea right". I knew Conway an Loretta were in Oakland that night, but why would they come to an out of the way bar. So, we decided to have our female singer do "When the Tingle Becomes a Chill". Halfway through the intro, I see Bob Hempker towards the back of the club with Don Ballenger and one other. I knew what Bob looked like because I saw Conway and Loretta in Oaklnd the prior year. I was able to get John Hughey to come out and talk, and Bob was onstage tuning. I asked John who it was and he told me it was Bob, and what a great plyer Bob is. At that point, my bar took flight to the seats to my right. Luckily a friend was sitting there and brought my bar back to me. Meeting Bob was one of the unforgettable moments in my life (and a record setting bar flight for me).