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

Sorta fishing-related
goinoregon said:
since u brought it up - what are picks made of??
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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
 


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.
 
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up2nogood said:
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 ?
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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).
 
G_Smolt said:
one boutique pickmaker uses a hardened polyoxymethylene (POM, or Delrin) as a pick material.
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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.
 
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clarkman said:
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).
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I was considering an 8' 5 weight in one of those old Fenwick's if I run across one .Thanks , 8' it will be .
 
clarkman said:
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).
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All my modern glass are still sub 8' 3". Even with the S/E glass combo, I still prefer shorter rods. I had a 8' 9" Livingston 7wt for a bit. While its was super light, it still felt a little bit more noodle-y than it should have. Whereas my 7' 7" fishs and casts like a 6wt but with the strength of a 7/8. I do have a really sweet 8' 3" 4wt Barclay that's a dream on the Metolius. Short glass just makes sense.
 
Oh boy, guitar picks! Another rabbit hole for sure. I haven't gone as deep as @G_Smolt.

At the beginning of my guitar journey (college take one), one of my picking buddies/early bandmates gave me a 1.14mm Dunlop 500 pick with the advice "This'll improve your tone control". I used it religiously for many months then put it in my archives once it rounded out. He's gone on to a successful career in the band Hot Buttered Rum so he must know something.

A few years later when I started playing mandolin and cuatro I got some of the Dawg picks but honestly never liked the rounded "points" and cross section as they were little too stiff and slippy for my tastes. I find I'm more precise with a pointier point.

For a long time I was a 1.00mm Clayton Acetal round triangle guy as they had the right blend of stiffness, flex, and three corners that started out equally pointy which worked well for aggro punk rock thrashing. They were a bit heavy for acoustic stuff where I prefer a normal teardrop 0.73mm or 0.88mm Tortex or acetal type.

Years ago I was working in the Bahamas and came across some hawksbill and green sea turtle bits and pieces. As an experiment I made some picks out of them because that's what a musical scientist should do. Hawksbill was indeed excellent while green was a bit light. They all stayed down there when I left for obvious reasons.

While I have my preferences I can get by with just about anything. There is only one style of pick that's a complete non-starter: Nylon. Absolute trash feel and tone.

How about strings? I've been using Ernie Ball Power Slinky 11-48s on my electrics for the past ~15 years and D'Addario phosphor bronze light gauge on my acoustic.

The aforementioned Dunlop 500 1.14mm pick Nat gave me over 30 years ago that started my guitaring journey. Thanks buddy!
IMG_7085.jpeg
 
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