He we are In a couple of weeks, only the evergreens will be green near me. The IskraWoodcrafts Northeastern Pine is the right wood for the season.
This is my best time of year. Here in Connecticut, the air turns gently cool hinting at the change in the trees soon to come. I thought, what better plectrum to give focus on but a Pine pick, a Northern Pine. We live where these grow, so here we go, talking about the IskraWoodcrafts Northeastern Pine plectrum…
I could have timed this pine pick for after the leaves turned red, orange, and yellow, but I’m just in the mood to write about this pick. After last week’s small bit of frustration, I wanted to write about something truly humble but surprisingly nice.
Now, yes, you are right in what you are thinking: Pine? But it’s so soft and fragile! That is true.
But the IskraWoodcrafts Northeastern Pine is also a cheap material and mine was a bonus gift. The maker can probably make this with less toil than some other woods and it’s readily available and plentiful material. Like Ed Stein says, “We’ll make more.!”
But you are also asking, OK, so what, how can it play or sound any good!?
Well, I’ll tell ya, it’s really not too bad. The tone is indeed soft, and the pick is wearing away really fast, it wouldn’t get through a night of 3 sets, no way. In fact, after a couple of songs, it’s already worn a bit. Pine is generally, though not always, a soft wood, and a rosin wood/sapwood. If you have a stack of these and could get them for cheap, it might be a go-to idea.
The maker of the IskraWoodcrafts Northeastern Pine.
But you know what I like?
The grip of this woodcrafts pick! For some reason, this pick doesn’t move around in my fingers so much, it almost stays put. And it feels good. It also imparts a very distinct and soft tone.
Now I’m not going to Yammer on and on about a pretty humble pick, and yes, I have a number of wooden picks to talk about later on; however, I like this pick enough that I’m going to order a bunch of them.
It would be a great busking pick, something when you are playing a smallish flat top for dollars and quarters at the train station.
True, there’s just no accounting for the whys and hows of any man’s pleasure, but look, it feels nice, it holds well, it imparts a special tone, and it’s cheap. I’m not going to freak out about a few of the millions of pine trees being harvested, this is not a 1,000-year-old redwood pick.
And speaking of precious trees, I rent and my landlord chose to fell a very beautiful tree that I loved. It was still growing and healthy, and it was huge, really huge.
But I realize that if we got another hurricane this year just as a couple of years ago, that tree might have killed me (it’s right out my window), but I felt an affection for that plant creature.
We live on a planet of plenty.
Earth is not like the mythical Planet Vulcan, home to smarter beings wading in red lava. Our Earth is such a marvelous orb, it’s a wonderful, living planet. We should give it much more love and when we harvest from it, we should sustain it and treat it like what it is, our mother. The Iskrawoodcrafts Northeastern Pine Pick is a sustainable pick.
Most of the best general-purpose picks are plastic, but to be honest, there are natural substances that might surprise you.
And plastics come from decayed living things from the past, from petrochemicals. Even Celluloid picks come from cotton and other substances.
The fact is that some trees are very sustainable, they grow fast and they can resist disease well enough.
They work easily and are light. I’d go so far as to recommend getting a few dozen for special songs. Yeah, you won’t be doing Dave Mustaine
–maybe, but you can do Peter, Paul, and Mary covers with this pick.
Like I say, I like picks, most of them, most of the time, each for their own merits.
Now let me shut up and give you some specs already, I’ve said enough!
| Material | Attack Tone | Decay Tone |
| Northeastern American Pine | Gentle/subdued | Woody |
| Durability/Wear | Comments/Dimensions | Shape |
| Poor | Too soft for Durometer | Like a large 351 style |
| Grip and Feel | Flexibility | Likely Use |
| Somewhat grippy, nice texture | It’s wood it’s not flexible much | Folk, Jazz, Americana, Country |
| Thickness | Width and Height | Resonance |
| 1.70mm | 27.6×31.8mm | Muted non-resonant |
| Tip Style | Bevel? | Approx. Cost |
| Softly rounded | Hand angled | ~$4+ shipping |
Coming up next: Something much harder and man-made but built to emulate something living, it’s not just for picks, either. Stay tuned!
So how about you? Have you tried wooden picks and what do you like as far as wood and size? Why?