Design Your Own Guitar Picks

Why Design Your Own Guitar Picks?

The obvious benefit to designing your own guitar picks is that you get exactly the pick you want. You can choose the weight, the material and the look of the pick, and having that control can be a bonus. However, for most people who design guitar picks, the real reason for doing so is that the pick can become a promotional tool. Popular bands may sell guitar picks emblazoned with their logos right along with their t-shirts and CDs. Sometimes, companies that don’t have any connection to music simply use personalized guitar picks as one more marketing tool.

Of course, guitar picks design is a creative outlet that people turn to for enjoyment, as well, and the market areas of major music festivals usually have several booths of hand designed guitar picks on display.

Pick Design Basics

Before you get to work sketching out your guitar pick design, think about the basics of the kind of pick you want to play with. The first thing you have to consider when you design your own guitar pick is the weight of the pick. Choosing the right weight depends on the kind of playing you do most often.

• If you play rhythm guitar, go for a very thin pick. These flexible picks let you develop the percussive strums you need to keep the rhythm going.

• A medium thickness pick offers the most versatility. Although it is less flexible than a thin pick for rhythm playing, it can still do the trick, plus, it is heavy enough to give you more control for intricate picking.

• A heavy weighted pick, around one millimeter, is ideal for those blistering guitar solos when you need control to move from note to note without a lot of reverberation of strings.

You’ll need to make these kinds of calls before you settle on your design because the weight of your pick can have a bearing on the material you ultimately decide to use. In turn, the material you use on your pick can have a bearing on the kind of design your can use (in terms of colors, printing style, intricacy of the design and so on).

With your pick weight and building material chosen, you can let the creative juices do their thing and come up with the actual design. If you plan to use your picks as promotional tools, remember that getting the message across is the key. Opt for clear designs that feature your logo and other relevant information prominently instead of an elaborate design. If your new guitar picks are for personal use, however, the sky is the limit. If you can fit it on a pick, you can have it. Of course, keep in mind that the cost of printing your design will increase based on the number of colors you use, and in some instances, the complexity of the design.

Putting It All Together

When your design is ready, all you have left to do is make the picks. Some people like to go totally D.I.Y here and cut picks out of old credit cards or other plastics and add the design by hand. This method is cheap and easy if you only want one or two picks. If you want a lot of picks to sell or hand out as promo items, however, you’re going to move your production to a large scale.

There are many companies that allow you to design your own guitar picks while they handle the actual production. This means you can order a few or a thousand picks, according to what you really need. As a general rule of thumb, the larger your order, the lower the per unit cost. The companies listed here are good places to start:

• Steve Clayton
• Pick Factory
• Guthrie Thomas