Ever drop your finger picks?

Ransom Beers · Posted 15 Mar 2012 4:59 am

You get up off the seat to look for them & "BOOM" ya step on it & bend the s@#t out of it,then realize that's the last set because you've already flattened the other 4-5 sets.

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

One time I dropped one and it rolled under my Session 400 which was on castors behind me. When I reached under the amp to fish it out I cut the tip of my right hand middle finger wide open on a broken shot glass about one minute before the downbeat of the first set on a Saturday night. I put the fingerpick on hoping it would hold the cut sections of my finger together but it forced them apart instead.That was a long night. I've carried super glue in my kit ever since.

Frank Freniere · From: The First Coast

This just happened to me Saturday! I always carry a little needlenose pliers in my pak-a-seat.

Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

...and when you drop your bar it always lands on your foot or on top of the pedal bar...ouch...

Brint Hannay · From: Maryland, USA

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Dropped my bar opening for Trick Pony once. It rolled over to the side of the stage. Big arts theatre. Their guitarist casually picked it up, I walked over to the side of the stage and he handed it to me. The audience never knew. Stepped on and flattened picks a few times. Part of the game.

Ray Montee · From: Portland, Oregon (deceased)

Way back in time, I was playing music at the KELSO Eagles in Washington State. Without warning, one of my picks popped off and disappeared. I shouted out to the band members "STOP"! "Don't Move"!

They obliged and the dance floor full of couples ground to a halt as I got down on all fours and began searching the floor area in and around my Emmons. I even got off the stage in order to get a different perspective of the floor surface. While busily engaged in my explorations one of the band members tapped me on the shoulder.

Almost everyone on the dance floor including women in their finest dresses and high heel shoes were down on their hands and knees also searching. I later learned that someone had said I'd dropped my 'contacts' and they were all trying to help find them.

Oh, as has happened before and since, the errant pick quite often will hide directly beneath one of the foot pedals of the EMMONS. Mine are WIDE and cast quite a large shadow.

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

I've always imagined finger picks to be the shortest route to all sorts of problems. For that reason, I've never worn them. A thumb pick filed down to suit the needs of the player, is all that's needed from my angle of interpretation. Considering the multiplicity of things that can go wrong during a performance, I'm thankful for having the good sense to eliminate the finger pick problem.

Bill Hankey · From: Pittsfield, MA, USA

I have a black cat that likes to hop on my steel guitar. He scoops my thumb picks out of the little recess on top between the arm rest and the fretboard. Then he jumps down and bats them around. His favorite thing to do is to poke them under furniture, then try to fish them out. He likes to play with short pieces of wound guitar strings, so I can imagine what would become of metal finger picks if I should use them.

Billy Tonnesen · From: R.I.P., Buena Park, California

Iv'e had them fly off while playing. depends on how dry my skin was on my fingers or if there was extremely low humitity. I would jump off the Bandstnd and even get the Dancers to stop and start looking. This was mostly at Lodge gigs. Also a finger pick can get caught up in a String when playing too hard.

George Macdonald · From: Vancouver Island BC Canada

Havn't lost the finger picks, but one time I launched into a nice solo at Church and quickly realized my thumb pick was still in my pocket.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

YUP!!!
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Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

I dropped a Gretsch Double Anniversary off the stage into the Niagara River at one large event. All I remember is an aweful tumbling sound, then a splash. Someone on the dock fished it out with a pole. The guitar was dry inside the case when I opened it. Now I know Gretsch guitars will float in their case.

Michael Johnstone · From: Sylmar,Ca. USA

Back in about 1972 or so back in Va Beach there was a folk/pop quartet called Snuff that did Loggins & Messina,Seals & Crofts,John Denver type stuff and real well I must say. Anyhow when I was first getting into steel they used to let me sit in off to the side of the stage and skate along,taking the occasional solo if I could handle it.So one night I kicked into a well contrived solo on "Country Roads" and promptly fumbled the bar off somewere into the darkness.The guy running the spotlight followed my sorry ass under and around a couple tables full of people and onto the dancefloor on a vain search for my bar while remainder of my "solo" played out with my MSA feeding back a real purty open E9 chord and the band and the audience laughing hysterically.After that I always stashed a spare bar between my necks.I made a science out of how to not drop my bar ever since.

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Michael, but just consider, you and your guitar got featured. What a memory.

Bill Howard · From: Indiana, USA

I posted this in another area.
I bought a brand new LDG Sho Bud in 1983 so proud if it. Played a HUGE some kind of American Legion or other like place. About 500 people we were doing a spot light type show first cpl sets. Light on me comes my ride and those STINKING POT METAL knee lever on my Lloyd Green FELL OFF in the middle of my ride,it made a thunk a lot of people thought it was part of the show, and HA HA HA:). I could have crawled in a COKE bottle.I got rid if that ^%$#@!@*
the VERY NEXT DAY. great idea those POT metal levers
I bet they saved 5 or 6 bucks a guitar GREAT idea!!
GRRRRRRR

Ray Montee · From: Portland, Oregon (deceased)

The late ERIC WEST experienced the breakage and loss of one of his pot, knee levers on his Sho=Bud while on stage.

He merely got down from the stage, grabbed a knife from a nearby table setting, broke off the handle and attached it to the broken stubb with a small automobile radiator clamp.

It was still in place and working when Bob Muller recently took on the rebuild job. The stainless steel kife handle actually added a little class to this well worn guitar.

Mike Neer · From: NJ

I've had my picks shoot off my fingers and literally 20 feet across the room when I was playing a reso acoustically (that's how hard I picked). Even worse, I've had one of my picks somehow get caught on a string a few times where I had to stop playing to pull it off. That was quite embarrassing the 2 or 3 times it happened. Playing electric has taught me how to use a little more finesse and less brute force. Laughing

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Howard Smith · From: Callison, South Carolina, USA

Super Glue is surely an alternative.

Cal Sharp · From: the farm in Kornfield Kounty, TN

You know how sometimes a pick goes flying off your finger and lands on the floor in front of your guitar? If you have to get up and waddle around your guitar to get it instead of bending over your guitar to pick it up you may be out of shape. But if you’re just so damn cool that you can get one of the girls on the dance floor, Lois Griffin maybe, to get it for you it might not make that much difference.
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William Lake · From: Ontario, Canada

Julian Bream, the classical guitarist, broke a nail just a day before a concert. He had a manicurist glue on a false one.
Half way through the first composition, it flew off and landed in a lady's lap in the front row.
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Steve Nelson · From: Wisconsin, USA

I never drop my finger picks cuz I don't use 'em...i know it's weird but I'm mostly a guitar player, go figure. But I dropped a bar....on Craig Davidson's steel a Brand. New. Shobud. I looked for like 10 minutes to see if I dented the thing, thank God it's okay. I felt so bad. My steels were mostly formica so no dents. Had an MSA and now an EMCI.....metal neck.
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