* updated 7/12/2008
May 8,
2008: I'm (almost) famous in Japan!
Just back from Japan. Great times. The purpose of my trip was not for Guitar
Picks, but I did make a point to stop into my favorite music store in Osaka (Miki
Gakki).
Quick funny story: My wife and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) in
Nagoya. I like to visit HRC's, check them out and buy a guitar pin. This HRC is
2 levels, the first being the merch store, so you have to walk through it to get
to the restaurant. We bought the pin first, and had to wait for the staff to
bring one down from storage upstairs, so while my wife waited to pay for it, I
went upstairs to check out the restaurant. She comes up a minute later and tells
me that after I left, the cashier girl asked 'excuse me, is that guy in a
band, is he famous?' HAHA, I'm famous in Japan!
Actually, At the Gates, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Mayhem, Pig Destroyer, and
Into Eternity were playing in Nagoya that night, and if only I had remembered to
put a few of my guitar picks in my pocket to hand out, I probably could have
played the role and said I was part of that tour :)
I did see AT THE GATES, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Mayhem, Pig Destroyer, and
Into Eternity the night before in Osaka. This was to be the very first AT THE
GATES reunion show (their first show in 12 years). I had a photo pass
and was able to shoot whole show! My ATG photos are
here.
I also managed to get 2 THE HAUNTED picks at the show. The Dillinger Escape Plan
use Monster Energy Drink picks, but not sure if they had them in Japan, and the
guitar player of Into Eternity told me that they have been waiting for 6 weeks
to get their order shipped, but they will have a set of 2 InTuneGP picks for
their next tour.
MIKI GAKKI: 3 years ago, I went to Japan and came across a music store
called MIKI GAKKI. This particular store has a big counter for picks, mostly
generics and a few artist picks that you can find at every music store in Japan,
but they also had an Igloo cooler that was 1/2 filled with picks for .50 cents
each. 3 years ago, I scored some really good picks in this cooler, including a
bunch of old DUNLOP SERIES picks (AIC, Pantera, DeMartini, Stevie Salas,
Rush, Manson, Janes Addiction, King Crimson, Sepultura, Satriani, White Zombie,
Zakk Wylde), as well as Korn, Vai, Loudness, Balzac... so I was really
excited to see what kind of gems I would score this time at MIKI GAKKI. The
Igloo was still there, but only sparsely filled. I did find one cool Vai pick
and got a few others that looked nice, but overall, was rather disappointing. 3
years ago, I spent like $50 on picks from the cooler, and this time I spent like
$10. There was just nothing in there, but I would still recommend going if you
are ever in Osaka.
I have NOTHING for trade, I didn't buy anything extra because my wife was
already ready to kill me for wasting an hour of her time in the store just to
find the picks that I did buy for myself.
April 24, 2008:
Off to Japan for 2 weeks, so this site will not be updated. I hope that Miki Gakki (music store) in Osaka still has their cooler w/50cent picks!
February 2008 webpage updates:
|
* KISS |
|
| * White Zombie | |
| * KISS Army | * KORN |
| * Strutter | * Mr. Big |
| * Ace Frehley | * Megadeth |
| * Union | * Metallica |
| * Ernie Ball |
January 2008 pick updates:
|
* 2 Cheap Trick picks |
* 1 In This Moment pick |
|
* 1 BenJon Intellectual pick (from Finland) |
* 1 +44 pick |
| * 1 Ozzy Osbourne pick (Zakk Wylde) | * 3 Attick Demons picks (from Portugal) |
| * 1 Rob Zombie pick (Piggy D) | * 1 The Other pick (from Denmark) |
| * 1 f.e.v.er. pick (from Portugal) | * 23 Static X picks |
| * 1 Carnal Lust pick (from France) | * 3 Johnny Beane picks (from San Francisco) |
| * 14 Linkin Park picks |
November 2007:
Okay, so I've shared some interesting 'pick stories' before, but this one has to go down as one of the funniest....
Quick background:
There's this guy who comes to the metal shows at the Warfield (venue where I
work), I have no idea who he is or what he looks like, he told me that he
saw my MySpace (www.MySpace.com/AlanR666) page once and recognized me. If you
look at my MySpace page, the background is a pile of my Guitar Picks.
Story: So at the Danzig show on 11/2, my job that night was to check ID's
(21+ for bar stamp) in the main lobby. Jimmy Dunlop was at the show (he
lives here in the SF Bay Area). He was actually looking kind of lost
and kind of bored, but that's another story altogether. Jimmy's hanging out in
the lobby next to me and we're just talking about whatever (believe it or
not, it's usually not about picks), and at this particular moment,
that guy walks in the door. Of course, I have no idea who he is or what he
looks like until he comes up to me and says something. He usually asks me
sarcastically "So how many guitar picks do you have now?", which is exactly what
he asked as soon as he walked in and spotted me. This time, though, Jimmy
was still standing there. Of course, that guy has no idea who Jimmy Dunlop
is and that he makes the guitar picks. So I answered him, "I
have about 6,000", he looked at me in disbelief, his facial expression looking
like he wanted to say 'damn, that's a lot of picks!' Jimmy
interrupts this, and simply says "I have more." The guy looks at Jimmy, says
"F*&k you, no you don't", and walks off into the venue. We just busted out
laughing. It would probably be funnier if you were there to see this, as
opposed to just reading it, but that was hilarious, I definitely had to share.
September 2007 Pick Updates:
|
* 5 Jo-Dee Messina picks |
* 5 Billy Idol picks |
* 3 Buddy Guy picks |
* 3 Rush picks |
|
* 3 Cross Canadian Ragweed picks |
* 2 Alice Cooper picks | * 2 Fall Out Boy pick | * 1 The Showdown pick |
| * 2 Motley Crue picks (Nikki Sixx) | * 1 Nashville Pussy pick | * 1 Flogging Molly pick | * 1 Black Tide pick |
| * 1 Kenny Wayne Shepherd pick | * 1 Papa Roach pick | * 1 Lamb of God pick | * 1 Hatebreed pick |
July 26, 2007:
Ozzfest 2007 Pick Pack (from the Platinum Package):
July 23, 2007:
As always, I've been slacking off on the updates here... my other website, www.Photographn.com (and my concert photography) has been taking up most of my free time, so unfortunately, scanning new picks has taken a backseat to that.
For July 2007, the Warped Tour was extremely disappointing for Guitar Picks, and Ozzfest was mildly disappointing (although better than Warped). Coming up is Projekt Revolution, Rise Against, and 5 more Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Fillmore (1,100 capacity).
Smashing Pumpkins have a set of 5 Guitar
Picks:
- Ginger Reyes (bass) has a white bass pick
- Billy Corgan has a white on black, and black on orange
- Jeff Schroeder (guitar) has a black on blue and black on orange
I've seen them all, but don't have them all... which also means that I have nothing to trade, so please don't ask!
June 4, 2007:
My wedding pick, done by
InTuneGP.com! Available for trade...
February 24, 2007:
Lamb of God, Trivium, Machine Head, and Gojira were in concert last night. The new Lamb of God picks are really nice, Trivium and Machine Head were using the same picks from their previous tours (although Phil Demmel of MH has a new Dunlop pick). Trivium and Machine Head picks for trade can be found on my tradelist! Gojira does not have custom Guitar Picks.
*
Lamb of God - gold/purple on black - logo over
mosaic (purple) - MARK MORTON over mosaic & tortex turtle
* Lamb of God - gold/purple on black - logo over
mosaic (purple) - JOHN CAMPBELL over mosaic & tortex turtle
* Lamb of God - gold/purple on black - logo over
mosaic (purple) - WILLIE ADLER over mosaic & tortex turtle
* Trivium - white on black - logo & Tortex - Corey
Beaulieu sig
* Trivium - black on purple - logo & Tortex - Matt
Heafy sig (metallica logo style)
* Trivium - black on green - logo & Tortex - Corey
Beaulieu sig
* Machine Head - black on purple - MH crest &
Dunlop Tortex - Adam Duce sig
* Machine Head - black on blue - MH crest & Dunlop
Tortex - Robert Flynn sig
* Machine Head - white on black - MH crest &
Dunlop Tortex - Phil Demmel sig
February 19, 2007:
Again, I have neglected this website :( I noticed that my last posting (below, 3 months ago) was about Paul Stanley, so I thought I would share this photo from NAMM 2007. This is Paul Stanley holding onto and checking out my metalXcore.com custom pick (above)!
The rest of my NAMM photos can be seen at my other website www.metalXcore.com!
November 13, 2006:
Paul Stanley played at a small venue here in San Francisco, and I had the pleasure of guarding his band's dressing room :) Paul did come up to their dressing room so I got to see him hanging out for about 10 minutes. Spoke with him for about 20 seconds of that, got an autograph on the pass sheet, got a pick (not directly from Paul though), got a drumstick, and took the dressing room sign (which the tour manager actually wanted, but I didn't fess up to having it!). There are two different picks from Paul's solo tour, one is black on white, the other is silver on purple marble; both say LIVE TO WIN (I have not yet scanned these...).
July 7, 2006:
Here is the latest batch of Guitar Picks that I managed to scan. Thanks to my friends at MONSTER ENERGY DRINK for the Guitar Picks!
July 6, 2006:
Here is the a great Guitar Pick by GuiStarPicks. Nick 'ET' Catonese of Black Label Society has his fingerprint molded into the Pick! Thanks to my friends at GuiStarPicks for the Guitar Pick and cool Guitar Pick necklace!
March 26, 2006:
Yeah, I don't seem to update this site much in recent months. It's because I am working on another site, and in trying to balance the two, I pretty much failed at that... so this picture here is the latest 64 picks that I either got at a show recently, or traded with another collector for it. See bottom of picture for a list of all the picks you see here.
Flogging Molly (Dave King), Velvet Revolver, Billy Joel Band, Isolation Chamber (Metal Mike Chlasiak), Death Angel (Rob Cavestany), Chimaira, Trivium (Ozzfest 2005), Dropkick Murphys, Buckcherry, Marco Mendoza, Chimaira, Much the Same, Buckcherry (Yogi), Darkest Hour (Paul, bass), Favored Nations (Steve Vai), The Agony Scene, Van Halen, Darkest Hour (Kris Norris), No Use for a Name & Dancehall Crashers, The Agony Scene, Jagermeister MusicTour, The Fillmore/The Warfield, Rob Zombie (John 5), Pump 5, Vestal, Every Time I Die (Jordan Buckley), Every Time I Die (Chris Byrnes), 3 Doors Down (?), Bad Religion (x2), Taste of Chaos 2006, Black Sabbath, WASP (Mike Duda), Signal (from Chicago), Kid Rock (Jason Krause), Buddy Guy, Loudness (x2), Shinedown (Jasin Todd), The Starting Line (1-sided), Nashville Pussy, The Agony Scene (1-sided), Body Count, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (1-sided), Trivium (Corey Beaulieu), Kreator (1-sided), Darkest Hour (Mike Schliebaum), The Academy Is... (1-sided), Juanes, The Academy Is... (1-sided), The Cult, The Academy Is... (1-sided), The House Harkonnen, Moe (1-sided), Every Time I Die (Andy Williams), Haze Lee Finn (The Pop Culture Suicides) (1-sided), Carl Harvey (Toots & the Maytals), Zim Zum (The Pop Culture Suicides) (1-sided), Train, Himsa (1-sided), Ra, Dead Emotion, Himsa (1-sided), Train
February 16/17, 2006:
Two nights of Bleeding Through, Every Time I Die, and Between the Buried and Me! Great shows, glad I went both nights. Bleeding Through was better the second show, but Every Time I Die and Between the Buried and Me were equally as great both shows.
Bleeding Through doesn't have custom Guitar Picks yet (still!)... Scott (guitar) told me that he has been meaning to get his artwork to InTuneGP... so maybe they'll have them by Ozzfest... Every Time I Die is the only band on this tour with custom Guitar Picks. Their guitar tech is usually out with Killswitch Engage, and so I got a KsE Guitar Pick as well.
*
Every Time I Die - white on black (chalky) -
I (very big, gothic font) - logo & ANDY WILLIAMS & InTuneGP GrippX
* Every Time I Die - white on black (chalky)
- I (very big, gothic font) - logo & JORDAN BUCKLEY & InTuneGP GrippX
* Every Time I Die - black on blue (bass) - I
(very big, gothic font) - logo & CHRIS BYRNES & InTuneGP GrippX
* Killswitch Engage - white on black -
teardrop/Jazz - logo & www.killswitchengage.com - skull/wings logo
All of these Guitar Picks (except for the CHRIS BYRNES one) are available for trade.
January 23, 2006:
Just back from NAMM! I have a ton of new Guitar Picks, mostly promotional ones, and I will get that list on here in the next day or two! I will also put up a list of all of the musicians that I saw at NAMM! I went to these shows while at NAMM:
* 3 Inches of
Blood, Horse the Band -
January 22 - Chain Reaction - Anaheim
* Anthrax, God Forbid, Sworn Enemy - January 21 - Avalon - Hollywood
* Pennywise, No Use For a Name, Suicide Machines - January 20 - SOMA - San Diego
* Nile, Hypocrisy, Soilent Green, Raging Speedhorn - January 18 - Galaxy Theater
- Santa Ana
November 11, 2005
It took a few weeks to do, but I finally got every last loose pick off of my desk and out of my multi-drawer container thing and into 3-ring binders! This was a project that I needed to do because, over time, I ended up trading for picks that I already had... but didn't realize I had!
Having these 7 binders also gave me an accurate count on the total amount of
picks that I have... and the magic number is... 4,601!
97% +/- are band picks and 3% +/- are promotional picks. That's 1,000 more
than I estimated I had!
Next step: Getting them all on this website... hahah, that's gonna suck!
Click here for the archive of the Guitar-Picks.com summaries