SFR "Premium" purchases you found to be "worth it"

[G_Smolt]

since u brought it up - what are picks made of??

The gold standard is Tortoiseshell, which is somewhat of a misnomer because the material used is from the Hawksbill sea turtle. Tshell is tightly regulated on an international level, so besides being fussy to maintain, it's illegal to buy/sell/trade uncertified shell. Getting shell certified is nearly impossible without letters of provenance exactly dating the shell or shell product to pre-1972, so as a consequence, Tshell picks remain a "gray-ish/black market" item.
Modern boutique picks are mostly made from aerospace- and industrial-use plastics and composites. Blue Chip picks are made from a proprietary polyimide composite called Vespel, and several pickmakers use a plastic called polyamide-imide (PAI, or Torlon - my favorite) for their products. A longtime favorite of pickmakers is polyetherimide (PEI), also called Ultem/Ultex. Another material with great qualities for picks is polyetheretherketone, or PEEK, and at least one boutique pickmaker uses a hardened polyoxymethylene (POM, or Delrin) as a pick material.

The cheap plastic picks that are 50 cents at guitar stores are made of a variety of low quality plastics. Great to learn with on an acoustic instrument, but that's about it IMO

 

[DimeBrite]

Premium guitar pick comes from Beelzubub's canine.

I've fly fished a couple of atolls where hawksbill turtles are very commonly seen feeding in the shallow turtle grass. They have beautiful patterns on their shells. It was not uncommon to find scutes (small segments of shell) washed up onto the beach.

 

[Peyton00]

When I was a little kid with a guitar, the plastic bread ties were my guitar pick.

 

[clarkman]

Never fished a modern glass rod .

You should.

 

[Evan B]

You should.

I'd even say there's a bigger difference between vintage glass and modern glass than there is modern glass and graphite.

 

[up2nogood]

You should.

As much as I enjoyed fishing that Fenwick this summer I will look into a modern glass rod . I'm thinking a 5weight , I suppose 8-6 ?

 

[clarkman]

As much as I enjoyed fishing that Fenwick this summer I will look into a modern glass rod . I'm thinking a 5weight , I suppose 8-6 ?

Personally, I've never played with the longer current glass offerings in lighter weights, but my 8' 5/6 (Steffen) is the bees knees for all things trout. Although, I don't know if Steffen Bros with tapers that haven't changed in 30 years can still be considered modern, lol. I know there are a decent number of other blank designers that are coming out with those longer glass offerings though.

For my heavyweights, I REALLY prefer 8' and under (even though my 8'6" 7/8 isn't going anywhere soon).

 

[Brian]

one boutique pickmaker uses a hardened polyoxymethylene (POM, or Delrin) as a pick material.

Nice essay on picks, Bravo!

Continuing down that rabbit hole I've been using the 0.73mm Tortex version for over 40 years. The flex, tone, and range of attack has worked well for me since the early 1980s playing a wide range of musical styles on electric and flattop guitars. I have been happy enough with them that I honestly haven't had the urge to move to the more exotic and expensive picks.
For showtunes, bigband and small combos on electric and acoustic archtops with medium gauge strings I started using their 1.0mm nylon picks in the mid 1990s. They bring out that wonderful rich warm tone from a deep body electric archtop and punchy rhythm "chunk-chunk" needed for acoustic archtop. I also like how the smoothed radiused edges slide easily off the strings for uptempo single note lines.
For mandolin and plectrum tenor banjo I have been using the big rounded triangle (Dawg) 1.3mm celluloid picks. The thickness brings out a richer warm tone. The polished fully rounded edges help with speed.