CUSTOM GUITAR PICKS

Every guitar player needs picks customized to their particular playing style. Here is an easy method I devised using thin plastic and wood veneers to produce picks for yourself or, to give to guitar playing friends

You will need a pick punch for this. They are about $20 from suppliers like Amazon. This allows a uniform pick every time. One could argue that a box of 100 assorted picks can be bought from the same supplier for about the same price but if you wanted to do that, you wouldn't be on Instructables, would you?

I used iron-on wood veneers of two different varieties, some spent plastic gift cards, some thin plastic of the type used for vertical blinds. (Ask for scrap pieces at a place that cuts them to order.) Sandpaper, clear lacquer, and an iron.

Make sandwiches. I glued a different veneer on both sides of the thin vertical blind material using the iron. I glued one layer on the backside of the thicker gift cards. Take care not to use much heat or you will melt the plastic. Use sandpaper on the veneer side to level out the surface and take the thickness down to your desired level.

Use the pick punch to make the picks. Use gentle pressure. Do a few tests first. It may punch better from one side than the other. On the triple layer (vertical blind ) blanks positioning doesn't matter. On the gift cards, try to find a nice image and punch through that.

Once you have made the picks, check the edges. You may need to slightly sand them if there was any tear out of the wood grain. You may also want to sand the veneer surface to trim them individually but I was satisfied with the thicknesses. Spraying the veneer surfaces with clear lacquer is an optional extra step but not really required. I found the triple layer picks gave a little softer sound and the gift card picks a crisper sound. I prefer the latter and they also look good depending on the gift card design,