I’ve played guitar for most of my life and somewhere along the way I developed a taste for really thick, really expensive guitar picks. Now, really expensive is relative – $10 is not a lot of money, but $10 for a single guitar pick probably seems ludicrous to some people. Regardless, I couldn’t help myself. Once I found Wegen and Dugain I stopped using those ordinary 25-cent picks you can find at the corner music store. The extremely heavy gauges (~3.0mm-5.0mm) and beveled tips make every note sound rounder and fuller to my ears and just seem to compliment my bizarro, pseudo self-taught style.
What Prompted This Project
Still, the mightiest of plectrum love affairs can never topple my thrifty tendencies coupled with my love for projects, so I decided to find a way to make my own. Using acrylic, laser cutters, a lot of sand paper and some trial and error, I eventually came up with picks that were more than just an adequate replacement – I actually prefer my own picks over the ones I was buying for $10 a pop before! I loved them so much I decided to use them for the first installment of my Weekend Project Project and start a little side business selling them online.
The Result: Roma Guitar Picks
If you like custom guitar picks or just like to look at pretty, artsy-crafty things, you should check out Roma Picks. I used acrylic because it’s cheap, lightweight and produces a remarkably warm and musical sound. I chose the material mostly on a hunch that that’s the same material used for Wegen picks. Whether or not it is, I’m sticking with it because it works very nicely.
The website is dead simple and mostly a gateway to my Etsy store at the moment, but I think it will be a fun side project to have in my life. I only have six picks up at the moment, but I have many more waiting in the wings as well as some creative design ideas and interesting materials I can’t wait to try out.
Promotional Stunt!
As a promotional stunt, I’m going to offer to send a free, random pick to the first 3 guitarists who contact me. Just put “Free Random Pick” in the subject line and send an email to contact [at] romapicks [dot] com with your mailing address. The free picks have been given out! Thanks!
Weekend Project Result
Success. I built the site, started accounts on Etsy and Twitter, scanned some photos of the picks and did some very basic promotional stuff (Stumbleupon is great for quick traffic boost) and now my project is out there in the real world.
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