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Topic: They weren't endangered in 1934 - Don't flame me. |
Gerald Ross
From:
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 3:25 pm |
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Last night I did a gig with another guitarist. It was an opening at a local art gallery. Easy gig, two 45 minute sets of instrumental swing, jazz standards and lap steel too (don't move this thread Brad, I did play steel on the gig).
My fellow musician showed up for the gig, opened up his case and said, "look at what I have...". It was an authentic tortoise shell pick from the 1930's. It was triangular shaped, very shiny with ultra smooth edges. It was about as 1.5 mm thick.
I tried it on my guitar.
THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!
This pick was very easy and secure to hold. It easily slid off the strings, was completely silent and felt like a natural extension of my right hand. It was both an incredible musical and sensual experience (excuse me, I need to be alone now).
So... these animals... these Tortoise things... are they still endangered? Can I get a baby one and sort of raise it in my backyard for awhile?
_________________
Gerald Ross
'Northwest Ann Arbor, Michigan's King Of The Hawaiian Steel Guitar'
A UkeTone Recording Artist
CEO, CIO, CFO - UkeTone Records
Gerald's Hawaiian Steel Guitar/Ukulele Website |
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Ron Whitfield
From:
Kaaawa, Hawaii, USA
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 3:32 pm
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Protected by Federal law, but one of the little dime-store greenies will fill the bill, in about 10 years...
I have a few tortoise shell pix, one tiny teardrop jazzer, a thicker triangle, and a thumb pick. |
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AJ Azure
From:
Massachusetts, USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 4:02 pm
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| Man Gerald you really want to have a large target painted on your back for PETA to throw tomatoes at huh? lol |
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Gerald Ross
From:
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
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Jon Light
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 4:59 pm
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Damned turtles ate all the bakelite (or so I'm understanding) and now we're crying for the rascals. If it were me I'd turtle soup all the bastids and be done with it.
However:
http://www.redbeartrading.com/index.html
In the testimonials are a couple from some former locals that many of us around here know well--Buddy Woodward & Brandi Hart--that I get a kick out of.
I've been sorely tempted by the thumb picks but the price ($35) and the construction----I have a standard Delrin Propik and I'm not crazy for the feel of the metal wrap----keep keeping me from ordering.
But the temptation remains because I have yet to find the perfect thumb pick material. |
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Mark White
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 5:25 pm
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Oh man, don't get me started on the Red Bear thing. I love these thumb picks. I felt like a sap spending that much for a pick but ended up actually buying a spare. I took a lot of heat around here for spending that much on a pick, but to me, they're worth it. It still shows NO sign of wear after about a year. I just checked again......nope.
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http://www.myspace.com/lapsteelhack |
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Charles Davidson
From:
Phenix City Alabama, USA
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 5:52 pm
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Was going to make a comment about the tortoise shell,But I better not,some may think any debate concerning animal rights is political.DYKBC.
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Hard headed, opinionated old geezer. BAMA CHARLIE. GOD BLESS AMERICA. ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC ! |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 6:07 pm
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I use Wegen picks that are pretty great, too. I think you can get a similar feel from them. I have one pick which is really my favorite and it's the only one of its kind that I have or that I've seen and try to keep track of it--so far, so good.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Lee Baucum
From:
McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 7:49 pm
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Is it still okay to use naugahyde, or are nauga's on the endangered species list now?  |
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Chris Scruggs
From:
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 8:35 pm
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Gerald,
If you want to get a baby with plans of outliving it and then using its shell after it's naturally deseased, forget about it! Tortoises live on average over 100 years. Sometimes a lot longer.
Because they are rare, tortoise picks usually sell for over $50 a pop. Serious bluegrassers use them and tend to keep the ones they have for decades.
Tortoise shell is not protected in Japan. When I was there playing the Country Gold Festival in 2003 I went to every guitar shop in Kumomoto trying to find tortoise picks. Unfortunately, Brad Paisley's guitar tech had gone to every shop early that morning and bought every shell pick in town!
I only wanted one, dammit.
-C |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 9:45 pm
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Elephant ivory is also illegal, so luthiers now use Mastodon or Mammoth ivory for guitar nuts. Those animals are no longer endangered since they're extinct 
There are mastodon bones and tusks lying all over the place in Siberia. Maybe somewhere there are extinct species of turtles.  |
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Lynn Oliver
From:
Redmond, Washington USA * R.I.P.
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Posted 25 Oct 2008 10:16 pm
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To be more precise, Tortoise shell (and Brazilian rosewood, and ivory) are listed in appendix 1, the most restrictive category, of CITES (Convention International Trade in Endangered Species).
There is a very informative article on this topic in the current (Fall 2008) issue of The Fretboard Journal.
Key takeaway from the article: don't cross any international border with an instrument that contains anything that might be confused with any restricted material--regardless of how old the instrument is. |
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Howard Tate
From:
Leesville, Louisiana, USA, R.I.P.
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Posted 26 Oct 2008 6:07 am
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| Around 1949 some one gave me a couple of tortoise shell picks but I hated them. They seemed to rasp for lack of a better word, on the strings, and they tended to flake off in layers. I always wish I had kept them but after reading Gerald's post I suspect they were not the real thing. Still wish I'd kept them though. |
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Stephen Gambrell
From:
Over there
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Posted 26 Oct 2008 7:41 am
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| Howard, I've had some older tortoiseshell picks that flaked like that. The newer ones don't. But I got tired of paying 35 bucks a pop for picks, and the Hawksbill sea turtle is endangered, so I use Clayton Ultem flatpicks now. Sound a lot like tortoise, without the guilt. |
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Jon Light
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 26 Oct 2008 7:55 am
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For picking double neck guitars?
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Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 26 Oct 2008 9:08 am A SIMPLE man with SIMPLE WAYS................
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I don't have any of that fancy, expensive, kinda stuff you guys are describing herein but........
I DO HAVE a rather fancy, plain, old 'plastic' thumb pick of unknown dimension, with a sychodellic (sp???) multi-colored theme, sorta like them Hippies down in San Francisco, CA., used to paint their VolksWagen buses!
It's worked good for me............if'n only I could pick like a pro. |
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Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
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Posted 26 Oct 2008 9:09 am
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From the Red Bear site:
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What Size Am I?
Take a quarter and put it on the edge of the table. Place the pad of your thumb over the quarter. Look straight down. If you completely cover the coin, you are a large. If you almost, but not quite, cover it, you are a large. If a good amount of the quarter shows, you are a medium. If you fall down while doing this, you are a drummer and do not need this pick. |
Best line out of an ad that I have ever seen.  |
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Bill Creller
From:
Saginaw, Michigan, USA (deceased)
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Posted 26 Oct 2008 9:44 am
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That was great Richard  |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 26 Oct 2008 11:18 am
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You're not taking MY shell.  |
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John Dahms
From:
Perkasie, Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted 26 Oct 2008 4:02 pm
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Back in '71 I worked in a music store and got my hands on some tortoise shell picks. I still have a couple. There is absolutely a different response with them that I have not found in any other material. I have had different shapes and thicknesses and can see how some players can be unimpressed by a certain type or gauge but I have had several that were unequalled by anything else I have ever used.
Having said that, life is change and strawberries don't taste the way they did, neither does beef and cars sound funny when you rev them up now-a-days so what is gone is gone and we just have to let it go and work with what we have.
_________________
Time flies like an eagle
Fruit flies like a banana. |
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Mark MacKenzie
From:
Franklin, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 27 Oct 2008 4:48 am
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Someone gave me a REDBEAR flatpick for my birthday. Very nice of them. There is definitely a difference! Its awful. I hate it. I thought there was something wrong with my Martin or with the strings. Tone is totally sucked away. Plain strings sound like there is something wrong with the saddle. Brightness and brilliance gone.
Maybe I should qualify. I use the triangle heavy Fender picks. Thick and stout. The REDBEAR was also a heavy. |
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