String instruments have a long history in civilization, helping humans make more complex and beautiful music. We wonder what our forebears would think of this guitar strummed with 1000 picks?
[Mattias Krantz] wondered what the best number of picks was to play guitar and took the experiment to its illogical extreme. Starting with zero picks and working up through various 3D printed multi-picks he tests all the feasible combinations of handheld picks.
After that, he switches gears to a fishing rod-actuated system of several picks in a ring. Not pleased with the initial acoustics of the picks in this system, he switched to printing his picks in a more flexible filament to better approximate the characteristics of the human thumb. Finally, he takes us to the undiscovered country of a spinning ring of 1000 picks strumming the underside of the strings and the… interesting acoustic result. As many pointed out in the comments, this blurs the line between a guitar and a hurdy gurdy.
If you want more melodic musical mischief, perhaps try this optical guitar pickup, a $30 guitar build, or get fancy with a 3D printed violin?
Ha!
Maybe you went to the wrong extreme?! Saturday night I tried to get one of the world’s top guitarists to give me his pick. When I asked, he gestured he only had one. I pleaded my case, suggesting that maybe he could at the end of the gig. He chuckled, we shared a moment, but at the end of the gig he slipped it into the back pocket of his skinny jeans and I left empty-handed.
Speaking briefly with the band’s tech on the way out I learned that Guthrie Govan uses Red Bear Trading Company picks that are $35 each, that are incredibly hard-wearing and fettled with their own manicure kit to keep them in shape. No wonder he wouldn’t part with it! That pick will likely play the entire tour…
I have a sneaky suspicion that the number of picks might not make much change in my playing ability though….