When playing a guitar, the guitarist will often use a pick (or plectrum) to pick or strum the strings. This results in a sharp clear sound that many people prefer over other methods of playing the guitar.
Guitar picks suffer from a few common problems, however. First, they are usually small, measuring less than an inch wide and perhaps little over an inch long. Thus, the player fatigues while grasping the pick hard in his hands.
Second, guitar picks are shaped as an isosceles triangle with the smallest angled vertex acting as the end to pick the strings. This puts more stress on the end of the pick, causing it to wear out sooner.
Third, picks are solid plastic, which makes them slippery to hold especially when a player's hands grow wet with sweat.
Fourth, picks cannot be conveniently stored on a guitar. Mostly, picks are put in a pocket (thus not with a guitar) or slipped between the guitar strings, which stresses the strings, pick, and can scratch the guitar neck.
The pick described herein addresses these problems.
A guitar pick is of a larger size than traditional picks and shaped as a roughly equilateral triangle. The pick has holes therethrough, with 3 of the holes equidistant from each vertex of the pick. A fourth hole may extend through the pick's center.
As can be seen in
The pick 100 also has holes therein. As shown, there are 3 grip holes 130 positioned equidistant from each of the vertices 120, and a center hole 140 through the pick 100's middle. The grip holes 130 allow a user to hold the pick 100 between his thumb and fingers more securely and with less effort. There is less sweat to transfer to the pick 100, the grip holes 130 provide a cooling/wicking point on the pick 100, and the players fingers may touch through the hole 130 giving the player unique tactile feedback during play, as well as better accuracy. The center hole 140 further reduces weight, can also help in holding the pick 100, is able to function as a pivot when a user switches pick points for play, and can be used for storage. The center hole 140 may be of a different size than the grip holes 130, or not used at all. The holes 130, 140 may be circular to reduce stress points.
As can be seen in
The grip holes 130 also allow the vertex 120 of the pick 100 to flex more, which means that the pick 100 can be used with less force during play. Using less force means that there will be less biting/digging on strings. Less force and biting/digging means less need for retuning and longer string life, which is especially relevant as more players use coated strings.
These “flex tips” also absorb vibration transmitted to the fingers when the pick hits each string. This allows the player to hold the pick with less force which allows the player to play for longer periods with less fatigue.
These holes also make it much easier to use a classic “3 finger grip” which is extremely hard to use on a conventional teardrop shaped pick where the sides are not equal and there are no holes that a player's fingers can sink into.
While the invention has been described with reference to the embodiments above, a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand that various changes or modifications may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the claims.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20170069301 A1 | Mar 2017 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62215416 | Sep 2015 | US |