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I have been asked to incorporate a pick drawer in to a build. I HAVE NEVER DONE THIS YET Have you installed one of these before and if so where did you put it? Please show me some pictures if you can.

Really?? Wouldn't this just be a(nother) source of rattles?

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Dave
Milton, ON

See, there is one of your design parameters.

I think it is an interesting customer who wants a pick holder incorporated into the guitar, not "stuck on".
$weet idea!

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Never done one...never even heard of one, but if someone held a gun to my head and made me install one, I would look at incorporating it under the heel cap i.e. a shallow compartment under the heel cap that is revealed by sliding the cap forward. Would mean a slightly larger heel than I normally like though.

Cheers

Kim

What about back of the peghead - a little cover that slides off at the top of the head?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Personally I would be looking at the endgraft, a nice flocked compartment in the end block hiden under a sliding endgraft. You may even be able to access it while seated in the playing position without to much contorting. Hell I might give this a try at some point.
Brian

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Brian

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I was thinking you could do something in the tail block that pulled out from behind the guitar. You could even make it so the end pin holds the drawer shut until you need a pick then pop the pressure fit end pin out, slide the drawer back, get a pick, and close it up. You might have to do a double tail block to have room for a 1.5" wide drawer back there, but really a 1.5"w X 1"h X 2.5"deep drawer is all you need for two stacks of picks. Plus, being in the end block it might not be as prone to rattling, and the fact that the end pin holds the drawer closed you wouldnt have to worry about puting a latch or something on it.

PS. I do like the "under the heel cap" idea too. It reminds me of the small survival kits that are stashed in cheap survival knife handles. Very McGyver, I like it.

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Mark: How about the watch pocket from an old pair of jeans.That's where I carry mine. You could super glue it to the back....!!! Sorry about that ,I couldn't help myself. This is all new to me. Hope you come up with a suitable solution.
Tom

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This is new to me as well Tom. I was a bit set back when she mentioned it. I am concerned about rattles too Dave. I was hopeing it has been done so i could get some ideas on the subject. She is an artist as well as a jass musician and is very creative so mabey this is something she has just thought up and wants on her guitar.

Mark, this is one you need to collaborate with the customer to see what they envision. Maybe she wants it readily accessible, not a secret place that has to be fiddled with to get to the picks. I was thinking something like a open slot, lined with felt that the pick could slide into.

But you did say "drawer". How hard could that be?

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Sweet idea. I think this is a great way to minimize the "rattle factor". Sounds like it could be pretty cool

Mark: Think spring loaded...!!!
Tom

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I will be talking to her about this for sure. I thought maybe she saw one before some where and wanted one on hers. I thought there might be some out there i could look at. I might build one into my next guitar for myself but would want it to be easy to get to like maybe a slotted swinging lid over a sound port in the upper bout side of guitar that would hold the picks and could be left open and function as an adjustable sound port as well.

What about making a very shallow compartment with a magnetic or spring loaded lid. Line it with felt and make it just deep enough so the picks press against the lid when closed. The pressure from the lid could keep things from rattling.

Or have spacers between each fret in the compartment (again lined) to keep them from rattling against each other.

Mike

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Mike Lindstrom

Hey Fellas........
I have actually seen this done! Well, sort of. What I saw was not really a drawer.

Years ago I saw a custom guitar that a dude was playing. On the upper bout treble side just above the waist (facing down when playing) he had a very thin flush dado-type slot that was lined with pillowed satin and had a grippy lip, similar to the ring portion of a jewelry box. Picks fit in there perfectly with the butt end out so you could grab it and not hardly miss a beat.

Oh..... and it looked really cool.

Thanks for that memory. I had forgotten.

Best of luck.

This is exactly why god made vest pockets.

Under the "B", on top of the "E" and "G" strings works just fine for me..........but if she's into it, you could always just give her a wedgie..

http://www.wedgie.com/pickholders.html

Cheers

Kim

How about that big hole just in front of the bridge, just toss em in there

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Kim, That wedgie idea sound like a good one for her. Since she probably doesn't have a vest pocket to put it in. I got back with her and she said she saw one on an electric guitar an old man in her neiborhood built. It was a drawer in the side of the body. So it wasn't an acoustic. We haven't talk any of the the details yet on the drawer, so maybe she will go for a wedgie instead.

Thin slots cut around the top bout so the pics can be stuck in and have 1/2 sticking out easy to grab . Would look like a Porcupine with wedge shaped quils !

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I love the magnet idea - better than springs, I think.

Last year I made a camping guitar. I originally was going to add a survival kit tray to it. It was based on a canoe paddle. It was going to hold strings, picks, matches, all the Rambo stuff. Compass on the headplate. Etc. I ran out of time before our camping trip, so I built my camping guitar without the survival kit in 3 weeks. Heres a pic. But I do have an idea for a pick holder. Use some sort of tube with screw top. Take like the end of a flashlight;PVC pipe, cut it down, glue it into the side somewhere, and have a screwcap on it. If you take some pics and have them wrapped in paper or saran wrap or whatever, they won't move. Camping is the best. I was playing a little AC/DC.

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Jason Moe
LaCrosse WI 54601

Maybe some kind of contraption in a sound port? Make it removable as an option?

Otherwise, maybe something at the top/back of the headstock?

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Jim Hansen

Battery box, light foam block with cuts in it to take the picks and stop any rattles?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

If Kim's "Wedgie idea" is not what the customer is looking for (I love Kim's comment, "just give her a wedgie"), then I'm guessing she's looking for a really quick access to picks that she's prone to dropping or that get swallowed by that big hole that most of you insane luthiers make in the soundboard.

Cheap idea # 2 is a pick holder on her guitar strap, but again, a jazz player may actually want something even faster than that.

I'm with Tom and Hans on the engineering (spring) and placement (ergonomically, right where her picking hand would naturally cross the top binding.) I'd think something like a coin dispenser that many commuters have to keep in their car to pay coin tolls.

My visualization: After the guitar body is built and bound, a 1" sanding drum would be used to create a half-elliptical (something between a "U" and a "V" shape) cut into the side, starting right below the binding. (Maybe using a sanding drum on a drill press, where the drill press table is tilted down by about 45°.) The half-ellipse cutout would be about 1-1/4" long at its apex x slightly wider than the desired pick width. (If she uses those dinky jazz picks, the sanding drum might be as small as 1/2" or 5/8".)

That would give you the placement and size for an ergonomic cutout, so she could swipe her thumb into that cutout to make contact with a pick. Inside the guitar would be a tiny box that holds the picks. That box would have a slight slope (10°?) at the end near the soundboard, to keep the box from touching the soundboard, and angle the picks for quick dispensing. I'd make it to hold maybe 3 to 4 picks max. The "keeper"/piston that both holds the picks under spring tension and forms the "top" of the box with a matching ergonomic half-elliptical divot on the surface would be the trickiest piece to make, especially efficiently just making one (like making tuner buttons.)

I love little mental engineering exercises like this, so I sketched it out, then tried to figure out how to only get one pick to come out, rather that have a few come flying out, and it made me switch my thinking from having the picks sitting nearly parallel with the soundboard, to sitting nearly parallel with the guitar side, using the binding as a stop to only allow a single pick to be dispensed at a time. I'm not making one, and I'm not convinced anyone else will either. I was just about to delete all this, but decided I'd post it in case it gave anyone fuel for an idea they want to pursue. It is doable.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia