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My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 10:15 am
by Larry Marchino
I have attended CAAS every year for the last 20 years and have been dutifully saving the pins and thumb picks each year and wondering how to use or display them. I'm not one to wear pins and I didn't want to just use the commemorative thumb picks so I have just been saving them in a drawer. Anyway, inspiration finally hit. Thought I'd share this picture in case anyone else has been ruminating about this and might want to do something similar.


My CAAS Display.JPG

Re: My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Fri Oct 28, 2016 2:38 pm
by Roger Pratt
Very innovative idea Larry!! I like it. I'm afraid I have succumbed to using my thumbpicks but I do have all my pins (minus 2007 when my wife's surgery caused me to miss) and I have them all on a CAAS hat that they sold for a couple of years.

Re: My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 11:13 am
by Larry Marchino
Thanks Roger, I have it on the wall along with some old family heirloom instruments and other (mostly Chet) memorabilia in my basement where I practice with the guys in our group.
Larry

Re: My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 1:22 pm
by DagerRande
Are they all Fred Kelly thumbpicks? Those are my favorite!

Re: My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 2:29 pm
by Larry Marchino
Yes, all Fred Kelly; they are my favorite too. My first convention was 1997 and when I received my packet I tried the thumb pick and realized that it was different from other thumb picks I had tried and I bought some. At that time I was still basically a flat picker; although I did play some fingerstyle without a pick. I have been a Chet fan as long as I can remember, but prior to that 1997 convention I had never found a thumb pick I could use. Several weeks later, using a Fred Kelly thumb pick and motivated by the excitement of the convention, I was into traditional thumb picking. In fact, I remember at that first convention I almost stood up in a workshop session to confess " Hi I am Larry and I am a flat picker" :oops:. Every year in the packet there is a Fred Kelly thumb pick of one kind or another. I wonder if there are any others out there that may have had a similar experience.

Re: My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 6:02 pm
by DagerRande
I was a flat picker beginning at 5 until I first heard Chet at 13, after which I started using a thumbpick but always reverted to the flat pick when I was asked to perform. It took me 3 years to finally rid myself of it and now I can't even use a flat pick! Now I kind of wish I could do both. Brent Mason is the only one I know who uses a thumbpick for everything and yet sounds like a very convincing "flat picker" with those Telecaster licks!

Re: My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 9:41 am
by Larry Marchino
Richard Smith is another guy who can use a thumb pick for everything, but switches easily from thumb picking to playing those flat picking, bluegrass licks all with a thumb pick. I still can use a flat pick but I find it hard to hang onto now. And, I need a flat pick on certain things that require an up stroke like the Johnny Cash "Ring of Fire" lick on the bass strings or the slide down the bass string in the Ventures' "Pipeline". Nokie Edwards gets that Pipeline lick using a thumb pick though and he plays everything with a thumb pick. I've never heard him play anything with an alternating bass, but I really enjoy Nokie's playing. I am able to forgive myself for switching to a fat pick once in a great while since Tommy Emmanuel switches from thumb pick to flat pick to no pick all the time.

Re: My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 10:43 am
by Norm
Richard and Chet use the thumbpick in flatpick mode a lot. It isn't voodoo and doesn't require a magic special thumbpick although there is certainly a variety to choose from.

I address the issue from time to time and, like many of you, still cannot do it well.


By the same token I have a hefty bag of playing tricks that were all "nearly impossible" when I first started to try to overcome problems and it always boils down to time spent on "if he can, then I can" practice. It depends on how important it is to you.


The guys who can do those mind blowing licks just put in more time on the guitar than you did you slacker :)

Like Jethro once said to Cousin Jody... "Keep huntin'..it's on there someplace.

Maybe we should be asking the youtube guys who are not so famous who can do these things for hints

Re: My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 12:26 pm
by DagerRande
The reason I didn't mention Richard or Chet while mentioning Brent Mason is because with Brent playing his Telecaster, he still gets the "flat pick sound" with his thumbpick. Richard's and Chet's use of their thumbpicks doesn't result in that sound. I was focusing more on the SOUND than the technique, which is something I'd like to achieve.

Re: My CAAS Display

PostPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2016 9:01 pm
by Norm
nearly impossible to describe a sound in print

I'm thinking maybe what you're hearing is the telecaster tone more than a "flatpick" tone

Those teles have a distinct snap to them