Pic me, pic me!

 

Typo?  Something to do with taking a photo?  Nope.  There is a brand of guitar pics that I have been using for nearly a decade.  They have one particular material I really like.  This model is $25.

"$25 for a guitar pic??  Are you kidding?"  No, I am not kidding.  I tried some different varieties of boutique guitar pics and this turned out to be my favorite.  This company came out with another line of pics that they labeled with the same name, but in different colors.  Only $8.  I tried them, thinking they must have come out with some way of using that material, but making them more efficiently.  Nope - those pics sounded dull.  I sent them back and got a refund, and stayed with my tried and true model.

This company, Gravity Picks (yes, they spell it with a "k") had a 20% off sale about 10 days ago.  I ordered a couple of my usual pics...

 They arrived last Saturday and when I opened the envelope, the pics were thinner than all the other 1.0mm pics I have received from them.  I could immediately feel the difference.  I present Joan with an older pic and one of these newer ones - without hesitation, she said, "This feels thinner."

I pulled out the digital caliper we have and it read: 0.69mm.  Yeah, that's thinner than 1.0mm.  I sent an email to the company and heard back from the owner Chris that same day: "Something isn't right there - we can fix this."

OK.  On Monday, I got another email from Chris, asking for photos of what my caliper read...

 .69 on one pic, .79 on the other.  I sent the photos to Chris.  His resolution: I need to zero out my caliper.  It measured 1.04mm on an older pic of the same model.  Also, "the model you received is not what you ordered."  These have a pointier tip.

For full disclosure, these new pics sound the same as my older favorite pics - they don't feel the same, and they are definitely thinner.  These new ones are glossier and don't feel as secure between my fingers.

I'll probably keep these, but I won't be buying any more from this company.  I'm sure they won't feel the loss of my business.  As a former businessman, I remember the saying: It is easier and more profitable to keep a customer than to try to convince a potential new customer.

I decided to follow his advice and zeroed out the caliper: 1.04 on an old pic, 0.60 on the new pics.  It isn't my imagination.

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After a lengthy email exchange, Chris is sending me out the right pics and in the "guaranteed" thickness.  It shouldn't have to be this much work to buy a couple guitar pics.