| Snap Review: Red Bear Trading Company Guitar Picks |
 Snap Review: Red Bear Trading Company Guitar Picks
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Sep. 11th, 2009 @ 05:31 pm 
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So, as anyone who Knows About These Things can tell you, the best guitar picks were made of turtleshell.
However - again, as anyone who Knows About These Things can tell you - that's not exactly a cruelty-free source of pick material, and the sea turtles from which they were derived are now an endangered species. Some people still have decades-old picks but they're no longer produced legally.
Naturally, human ingenuity came into play, and you can get fake turtleshell picks. The material is an artificially-produced cellulose substance with properties very, very similar to the turtleshell, but without the "murder of endangered species" aspect.
I recently ordered a couple of faux-shell picks from Red Bear Trading Company. I went with Tuff-Tones, because they're cheaper and hardier, and I didn't exactly have a way to try one before I bought them. They arrived today, and I just tried them out.
They are amazing. They feel good on the strings and they pull a tone out of my Les Paul even more beautiful than I'd heard it make before - and added to that, strumming with a soft hold, as I tend to do when practicing (because I like the more mellow tones), they're very quiet over the strings, where all the other picks I've used click audibly in the strum.
They also feel nice to the touch, secure in hand without needing to be rough-textured, totally beautiful and wonderful.
They're expensive, of course, by guitar pick standards - Tuff-Tones are US$10, the regular ones are US$20 each, where plastic picks are readily acquired for an Australian dollar.
Totally worth it, at least on the assumption that you'll avoid losing them. Comments from guitarists who've used theirs extensively are that they can take a LOT of use without showing much wear. With mine I got one of the pick-holding key fobs Red Bear also sell - with my name engraved on it, which is just nifty.
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Those pick-holding key fobs are super cute. Did I tell you we got my daughter a guitar? She's starting lessons next week!
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