Welcome to the Ultimate Guide to the absolute best Guitar Pick Alternatives you can make for yourself right now.
In This Article We’ll cover how to make Guitar picks out of just about everything you can think of, even Skateboards and KFC containers.
Tired of running out of guitar picks? You can always just buy an insane amount of bulk random pics from Amazon (300 pieces) Link here.
Let’s Get Started.
Coins. (The worst, but fastest method)
Using a coin is no doubt easy, and quick, but for some styles of music using a coin just won’t work like metal or basically anything involving fast alternative picking.
Using a coin will work for most intermediate songs, just know that when you use a coin you are damaging your strings extremely quickly and there are tons of ways to make picks.
So, spare yourself having to buy new strings! and use a different method instead. Plus playing with a pick sounds pretty weird honestly.
Just don’t.
(As you can see I’m great with Paint)
Credit Cards (Works the best for almost all styles of playing, but takes a couple minutes)
This has got to be the best way to make a pick considering that most credit cards are relatively close to the same thickness and is even made out of the same material.
Literally all you need…
An old Credit Card…….(Or gift card, any plastic card will work)
Scissors.
That’s it! From there all you need to do is cut out a pick shape from the card and you’re good to go.
Watch this video for a step by step guide!
Quick Tip – If you’re tired of making picks out of random stuff……you can literally buy 100s of them online for practically nothing.
Check out this Amazon listing for 300 picks.
Honest to God I had no idea how stupid cheap. I ended up buying a few hundred. Now they’re literally everywhere in my house now…..lol.
CDs (Better than Coins, but worse than Credit Cards)
Making a guitar pick with a Cd is super simple…In Theory
All you supposedly need to do is follow the same instructions from the credit card example.
The problem is that these picks are absurdly hard to make.
I broke quite a few old cds trying them…..
And needless to say it is quite hard to make a pick out of them since they just constantly break where you don’t want them.
Here’s the end result of my last try.
Basically any plastic lid
This one is the easiest to cut, but I didn’t really enjoy playing it to much since it was a little flimsy for my taste.
These I made from the lid of some cookie dough. (The best snack on earth)
And yes, I know they don’t look that great. I’m just not the perfectionist type. Sorry!
KFC Containers (Perfect for strumming Acoustic)
These are actually perfect for playing anything simple, since thin picks are made for strumming chords and actually sound much better than thicker picks made for soloing.
I highly recommend that the next time you aren’t looking around for picks to test out the difference in sound between a hard and soft pick for soloing versus playing chords with a soft pick. There’s a remarkable difference you wouldn’t expect to be there.
Nice thing about these is they’re probably the easiest to make.
Watch the video below to see how easy it is to make them.
Plastic Milk jugs (Kinda springy, a little annoying to play with)
I just don’t like these at all…..
These are just annoying and hard to play with, but I think if you continue to use it you would either get the hang of it, or the springiness would go away.
Pros…
Easy to make and most likely you have one in your house.
Sounds ok.
Cons….
Annoying to play.
Skateboards (Looks amazing! Takes about ten minutes and requires equipment)
Man, I love skateboarding and playing guitar so this has got to be my favorite combination!
Unfortunately however,
this set up is hard to make without some nice equipment.
Of course, you could probably do this with just glue, sandpaper, and a saw but….
It would take a REALLY long time.
Think I’m going to take a stab at this sometime soon.
Wood (Plays well, must be sliced thin….also takes awhile to make)
Kind of similar to the Skateboard pick, but looks slightly different. Also hard to make. Still, a fun idea and might work well for shredding.
Cardboard (Kind of a stretch)
Seriously, for this one you do have to be slightly desperate….
Because not only will these picks not last long…
But they just sound awful and feel awful to play to.
My advice to you is to get a thick, sturdy piece of cardboard at least so you can play it for a little while.
(More of my incredible guitar pick cutting out skills in the picture below)
Other ideas
Pick Punch!
You can use this to punch guitar picks out of just about…..anything. Awesome Idea!
Also with this they’ll look like actual picks and not like my awful cut outs.
Honestly this was a ridiculously good idea. I think it’s really cool since it also helps recycle and not to sound like a hippy but we seriously do need to take better care of the planet.
Fingerpicking
Don’t underestimate this! Learning fingerpicking is an awesome way to play the guitar and is essential part of Flamenco, Folk, Blues, Country, Classical, and many other styles of music. It’s also extremely fun to learn as well since there are tons of cool techniques you simply cannot do with a pick.
Buy in Bulk and never run out again
Did you know if you buy picks in bulk they are SUPER cheap?
I mean like…..
Ridiculously cheap.
That’s what I did, and now I just find picks everywhere. lol.
Conclusion:
When needing a Guitar pick, these are the best options I could find on the internet, but Guitar is like anything else and so when you practice and perform you should always try and play with the same thing so you can get used to it.
Even playing with a soft pick one day and then a hard pick the next can really throw you off.
So, I suggest out of all these to choose whichever one would be the most like the pick you play.
For instance if you use soft picks, you can make a pick out of the KFC bucket, or if you do a slightly medium/hard pick go ahead and use the credit card.
Hope you found this blog useful! Thanks so much for reading! Check out the rest of the site for more interesting topics for musicians such as this one.