The Steel Guitar Forum

Hi Susan,
I know it's not ladylike, but if you put each pick finger tips and thumb tip in your mouth quickly one at a time, then immediately put your picks on, thayl stay on with God's natural glue! Wash you hands first & it'll only be your fingers & your mouth involved. Emmons did it, Buddy Charleton did it, I do it, and it's the cat'a meow!
Try it, you'll like it!
Pat

Susan Alcorn wrote:... However, most of the times my picks go flying is when I have them in my hand ready to put on. I have a feeling I'm not the only one. ...

That's precisely my situation. Yes, occasionally a pick will come unglued from a finger, but that's pretty unusual. I almost always push the wraps together so they're as tight as humanly possible before I put them on. And I can usually feel them coming loose and push them back long before there's an issue. But putting them on or taking them off, I have to make sure I focus. It doesn't help when people are trying to talk to me right before we start or after we stop playing.

And they usually go either 1) somewhere where it's really hard to find them, or 2) right where someone is about to step on them. I always keep some reasonably well broken-in spares around.

I have been trying for decades.. I have always had a problem with picks coming off.. My problem is different than most. I would sweat PROFUSELY out of may hands. I mean just streams of sweat running over the strings, pickups, everything.. It was always tough to keep picks on.
As I got older, it seemed to become less of a problem, but for so long, it was tough for me to keep picks on, OR to have strings last any length of time....bob

Watch the end of the video "Russless" when Buddy comes out for the last song & gets ready!
If it's good enough for Emmons, Charleton & many, many others and it works like a champ, 'nuff said in my book! No point in trying to re-invent the wheel!
Respectfully, Pat

Another thing I find as time goes by and the more I play - callouses actually develop where the picks rest on the fingers - making it even tougher for pics to stay on. Especially going from dobro to steel.

I have a story from the road about losing picks:
We were leaving the Grey Fox festival in NY when much to my surprise one of my music heroes runs up to us with a flattened pair of finger picks and asks if I lost these picks??!
I replied no, whereupon he held the flattened finger picks to his ear and he replied - “nope- you’re right - banjo!”

I appreciate all the advice, and yes, I will try spitting on my fingers, but the main thing about my post, which I expressed poorly, was on having to look for your picks that inadvertently leave either a finger or your hands while holding them or about to put them on. Perhaps I'm the only one who has to, at times, get out a flashlight and try to find a gray/silver speck in the dust or on a carpet.

Susan - Maine Coons are cool cats!



~Lee

Lee, I heartily agree!

I asked to see if you needed a replacement for the one that got stepped on.

Anyway, yes, it happens. I take off my finger picks when I play guitar, go on break etc. so it's not unusual for them to be loose from time to time and they can get away from you. Mine usually end up underneath the pedals.

Jeff Newman quote: when you drop your picks, you step on them, when you drop your bar it lands on your foot.

Recently, unloading my pockets from the jam, I dropped one of my Ultex thumb picks. One step back and it was in pieces. I like those picks, but they are nearly transparent and really hard to see against a background.

I asked to see if you needed a replacement for the one that got stepped on.

Anyway, yes, it happens. I take off my finger picks when I play guitar, go on break etc. so it's not unusual for them to be loose from time to time and they can get away from you. Mine usually end up underneath the pedals.

Jeff Newman quote: when you drop your picks, you step on them, when you drop your bar it lands on your foot.

Recently, unloading my pockets from the jam, I dropped one of my Ultex thumb picks. One step back and it was in pieces. I like those picks, but they are nearly transparent and really hard to see against a background.

Thanks, Jerry. Right now I play with the old clear Dobro thumb picks. I pt glitter tape around the outside so that it is easier to find when it goes flinging out to parts unknown.

Happened to me yesterday and I do use the lick my fingers routine. Coming from a warm room to a cooler place makes my fingers shrink a bit and well fitted picks become loose. It's a natural phenomenon. And the pick went under my pedal bar out of sight. It's like dropping a tiny pill that disappeared. I kept an extra set but it's frustrating. Hairspray works great for holding picks on. A smashed pick never seems to work right again, no matter how much you shape it.

Viruses Are Finger Licking Good!

Another vote for the "Landis Picks". You will love them. They grip to your fingers.

Another Landis Picks fan here. They really do grip without becoming uncomfortable. I use their thumb picks. Haven't tried the fingerpicks yet, but I'm sure they're great too.

I have the opposite problem from what Bob described--my skin is super dry, and picks like to fly off without notice. They've done that since I first started playing banjo in the late 60's. I used to wrap the "wrap around" part of the pick with adhesive tape, and that did the trick.

But I still occasionally find one of my picks tangled up in cat hair next to a power strip. What can I say?

My kitties are both winding down nowadays--they're over 18 years old and blind and deaf. But one of them always came running when she heard steel. She liked to help me play. She'd take her fangs and claws to pluck strings...

Dave

Yes, you certainly don't want to be licking your fingers or sticking them in your mouth after grabbing hardware in the restroom or after shaking a lot of hands. You have to walk out of the bathroom with your hands in the air like a freshly scrubbed surgeon.

I found an alternative to licking fingers...

Since it's the moisture that makes the picks stay on, I found that by just using my breath I could get the same result.

Make an "O" with your mouth (as if you were going to fog up a mirror). Then give an exhale or two onto your pick, holding it so it hits the inside of the band, and another exhale onto your finger. The more moisture the better. Then quickly put the pick on and press it into the skin and hold it there for a second to mate the surfaces.

I've never seen anyone else do this... somebody try it out and let me know if it works for you too.

Hi Susan, here is something I’ve tried and it works really well. Cut small strips and they get applied on the inside of the picks. You can put as much or as little as you see fit. I’ve used them in the summer in blistering heat on dobro and pedal steel w no issues. Folks commented that it may mess up my fingers e.g. irritation but I did not find that to be the case. Just an idea. Eric O

Hi Susan, I also have to search for picks on the floor. They seem to hit the ground and just scurry away to an obscure corner. Maybe the solution is to paint them with neon paint and keep a handheld black light handy. Then they would glow!

Andrew, that is it! I think maybe we should have something like tiny air tags, radar, or homing device - our personal picks are important!

my picks always seem to find their way under the pedal bar - almost like a homing device hehe !!
I've always licked my fingers which usually keeps my picks in place just fine --- and I always know where my fingers have been before hand :-} !!!