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Guitar Pick Rare Mishap


nylon rock

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This just happened 15 minutes ago and is the curent state of affairs.

 

I was sitting on the ottoman, learning a song by the CD player, doing the CD playback routine, making great progress, and while merrily strumming along, my pick-holding hand epileptically rolled my index finger past the tip of my thumb, the pick flipped out, headed right over the soundhole, instantaneously hit a string, and shot into the soundhole. This took about a nano-second to happen, and left me dumbfounded.

 

I turned the guitar upside down--a mistake--and heard the pick sliding and rattling around between the braces, and then gave the guitar an upward push on the lower bout to bring the pick to the soundhole section, successfully I might add, and then moved it around from there trying to drop it into my lap, and watching all this very intently as the guitar strings are comfortably right in front of my eyes. I give everthing another push, too much I think, and then nothing. No more rattling. No more sliding.

 

I look in my lap, I look on the floor, I push the ottoman away and look again. Nothing. I give the guitar a harder shake to make sure that nothing has gone amiss, that my suspicions are correct.

 

The damn pick is still in my guitar. It never fell out. It is right now lost in my guitar somewhere, stuck.

 

I can't believe this. Where could a guitar pick stick itself? What are the odds of this happening?

 

Or, oh no, did it slip under a loose brace? And how good could that be?

 

I've tried tilting and tapping--don't want to do much of this--and now it comes down to loosening the strings and going in with a mirror. Aggghhhh!!! :mad:

 

This string of events must be like one in a million. :rolleyes:

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What do you mean when you say "gave the guitar an upward push on the lower bout"?

I get picks out by tilting the guitar up and down and or side to side until I get the pick between the braces on the guitar back directly under the sound hole. At that point I flip it over and the pick comes out.

Get a dental mirror and a flash light. Locate the pick. You may need to get creative to get it out if it's stuck under a brace. A piece of a clothes hanger wire may do the trick.

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Originally posted by Hudman

What do you mean when you say "gave the guitar an upward push on the lower bout"?


I get picks out by tilting the guitar up and down and or side to side until I get the pick between the braces on the guitar back directly under the sound hole. At that point I flip it over and the pick comes out.


Get a dental mirror and a flash light. Locate the pick. You may need to get creative to get it out if it's stuck under a brace. A piece of a clothes hanger wire may do the trick.

Actually I was pushing up with my right hand on the tailend top section, trying to bounce the pick over a brace to get it near the soundhole.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the best solution is to just look down on your guitar with it face up, shake the pick into view, and then simply turn the guitar quickly upside down, with a finesse motion, and have the pick weightless above the strings, which it then falls though right into your lap.

 

But I wasn't thinking at the time.

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Originally posted by nylon rock

Actually I was pushing up with my right hand on the tailend top section, trying to bounce the pick over a brace to get it near the soundhole.


If I'm not mistaken, the best solution is to just look down on your guitar with it face up, shake the pick into view, and then simply turn the guitar quickly upside down, with a finesse motion, and have the pick weightless above the strings, which it then falls though right into your lap.


But I wasn't thinking at the time.



Yes. You did a better job of describing the process than I did. :D

Get that flashlight and a mirror.

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OK, I found it using a crude airline-mirror and flashlight combination.

It's stuck between two braces on the soundboard that come together to make a vee somewhere in the lower bout section near the side of the guitar where your arm rests.

You'd think it would fall down but it is wedged a little funny.

Guess I'll just loosen a few more strings and reach in there.

I'd like to use the pencil idea but my mirror is so crude I think I'd make a mess of things.

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After loosening all the strings alot, then reaching in there and inching my hand toward where I'm guessing it's at, just as I'm about there it drops down with a rattle.

Felt like I was trying to get a cat out of a tree!

All tuned up again. :)

Never do this again. ;)

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Originally posted by nylon rock

Gotta find a mirror be good to me,

Won't hide my liquor try to serve me tea.

 

 

Mirror! Ha. Cool!!!

 

'Cause I'm a stone jack baller and my heart is true

And I'll give everything that I got to you, yes I will

 

Easy wind ...

 

Couldn't resist, brother!

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I, actually, am the master of retrieving picks from guitars. I've dropped more picks into soundholes than I can count and have subsequently gotten quite good at getting them out. I suppose its a little late to describe my guitar shaking-method.

What was it stuck on, nylon? I'm curious. Do you have, like, a preamp with wires and stuff for it to get stuck on or what?

Ellen

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Originally posted by guitarist21

What was it stuck on, nylon? I'm curious. Do you have, like, a preamp with wires and stuff for it to get stuck on or what?


Ellen

No, no wires, nothing really. Just that the top braces come together to make a "V" and the pick got wedged in the "V," sort of like a perfect fit, if you can imagine the pick's own teardrop shape wanting to fit into a "V."

 

But I'll tell you, when you can't see this sort of thing before you get a mirror going, you're imagining all sorts of things wrong in there. Like the pick having found a rare loose brace where it has managed to slip right in and then was trying to wedge the brace off somehow, or that to retrieve it you would wedge it tighter. Things like this.

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Just leave it in there. It's good karma.

Or, consider that it may no longer be there at all. It may well have turned the corner into N-dimensional space, like washers that you drop while working on your car. Or grapes on the kitchen floor.

Actually, something liike this happened to me last night at open mike. I dropped a AA battery in the dark onstage, and it was gone forever, presumably into this other dimension. Good thing I had a spare.

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All the lost picks inside the guitar gives it that jingley sound...
Like a gypsy sounding guitar...
or
In some cases those old style metal beer caps...
It's like having your on percussion section built right in

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