A Lovely Summer Weekend, The Beach, and, well, Sea Shells Plucking Strings, we review the Beachside Guitar Picks:

Saturday, week of July 30: A short vaca where I wish I was at the shore. But the ONLY shell picking I can do it with is a shell plectrum, sigh.

But “shore, I’ll talk about it”, I know, “very Punny dude!”. My sibling went to the shore so I am pet and house-sitting, and I’m here writing about something from the seashore! Picks from lovely gathered sea shells. The Beachside Guitar Picks.

These were obtained from Etsy and the makers are still promoting their products on message boards.

Today we will talk briefly about 3 marvelous sea shell picks that I obtained on Etsy from BeachSidePicks. Wonderful folks who are working dutifully to grow their popularity.

The picks are light-colored with pretty striations. They are also pretty darned sturdy.

Two are modified versions of the popular “351” shape with a good, almost sharp tip with a touch of rounding.

A third is a very special pick that is more or less a scalene triangle shape with three different tips. It is very unique.

They are hard like stone, but they don’t cause a squeal like glass or stone, which I like about the Beachside Guitar Picks. The hardness of a Rock with less of the disadvantages to the sound. With a thickness of about 1.2mm, they are assertive yet very reassuring in tone.

One thing I find very interesting is that they don’t seem to mess up the tin coating on my 60’s style String Joy Strings. I’ve been playing my Gretsch with them. I use pure nickel round core strings and I love the classic rock tone of these wires. And they go well with these picks, to my surprise.

And what is great is not only do the sea shell picks not seem to bother the string’s material too badly, but they seem to like each other tone-wise. They bring out a richness to my special Gretsch bridge pickup. I don’t have an expensive Gretsch, but I love the guitar. The richness complements a more bitey pickup tone. It’s not exactly warm sounding, but a thicker tone than I ever expected.

I might talk about my guitars later on this site and I’ve had some amazing instruments, but this review is about the picks.

When I first ordered the picks, I was thinking of their novelty rather than playability and tone. To my surprise, however, they are pretty good for real playing, not unlike, say, a steel pick but with a more mellow tone. I wouldn’t be mistaken though, to say they are really mellow, but compared to steel, the sound is “more mellow”, if you take my drift, my sea-drift!

I also like that if I use my saliva or rosin of some type, they hang in my hands better than I expected.

No, they aren’t sticky-to-the-fingers picks but hold better than, say acrylic picks. If you are like me, if your chemistry is like mine, some hand moisture seems to help the grip with certain picks, such as these.

I think the scalene model might be awesome with lap steel, or an auto-harp or dobro, in fact, I’d bet the latter instrument would take to it like some dogs do to water.

I also enjoy using the wide-angled end for strumming and it works darned well and lets me pick out melodies during my strumming. It’s cool actually, I don’t know why more makers don’t make the shape. Try as I may, I don’t find many Scalene Picks, someone needs to do something about that! Way to go, Beachside folks! Manufacturers, are you listening? We need scalene-shaped picks folks!

Now I still have to say that they will be harder on strings than a nylon pick and lighter gauges might not fare well enough to last a head-banging full gig, but I use a .0095” Gauge-based string set.

I like having the benefits of a .010” with just a slight touch of the lighter feel. I wouldn’t use these picks on a guitar with .008” strings, and neither would I use steel picks or any other super hard and sharp picks on such strings.

What I would say about these is that, well, you might want them for the novelty, but still decide that they are actual players and that for some songs they are fantastically suited.

I think about one of my favorite guitarists, Per Nilson-

-who plays metal and prog (I’m a fan of Kaipa, check them out). I could imagine him using these Sea Shell Picks to complement his great tone. Certain strings, picks, and guitars make you think of specific artists and I think of guys like Per when I play with these. Whether those artists would actually use such gear is debatable, but as you play, you think of them.

An Interview of the maker of these by Hippie Picks here.

These are not my main go-to plecs, but I have to say that I would gig with them for some songs and for recording their tone and feel, they would complement some passages very well. And, well gee, they are a cool novelty, right?

If you are curious, head on over to Etsy, which is a fabulous place to find lots of terrific picks, and order some from BeachSidePicks. I’m very happy that I got them!

The Edges:

The Angles:

Note how the last pick there have 3 tips! One is a very wide angle since it’s a Scalene Triangle. You might play an entire song using all three tips!

Now, as to what is next: All I’m going to say is, well if you are hungry and thirsty, the advertiser phrase “Got Milk?”. See you there in the coming days!

Will you try these? How will you use them? What do you think of the Scalene shape?