"Seven Long Hours in the Summer of 1992" Guitar Pick Set

The owls are not what they seem...

Unless you’re assuming that they’re are guitar picks. In that case you’re right & the are exactly what they seem, plus I shamelessly used a “Twin Peaks” reference to draw you in, even though there’s no connection to the project.

Here’s the nitty-gritty on the set, then we’ll get to the commentary & other nonsense.

Set of 3 owl-face guitar picks & here’s what you get in it...

Iphigeneia: Glow-in-the-dark 351-style celluloid pick. Medium gauge (.71 mm) with stamped black ink.

Agamemnon: 346-style. White ink stamped on thin/light gauge (.46 mm) celluloid abalone 346-style pick, often used for bass guitars.

Electra: Oversized solid white medium gauge (.71 mm) PVC pick with gold stamped ink. About 75% larger than a standard 351 pick. It can be used to play a guitar, but are mostly used as a novelty item for promotional/advertising purposes.

Each pick comes in its own stamped 2”x 2” white envelope, plus the set of 3 come in a hand-stamped* 6.25”x 4.25 black envelope in silver ink. Envelopes are signed & #’ed in an edition of 250.

(* Hand-stamped really means hand-stamped & they look it. If you’re the type that likes things to be perfect & homogeneous, then the envelopes will drive you bananas. Then again, the sets are 6 bucks, so maybe these are pretty low stakes as an investment gamble.)

Now to the aforementioned nonsense. For reals, all the relevant information on the picks is over & everything from here on out is just fluff. So, not being a musician, why design guitar picks? You might think it’s because I work for a record label, but truthfully, I haven’t even heard the vast majority of our catalog. Since I mainly do office work & all the mail order, I CAN tell you off the top of my head what it costs to send an LP to Denmark, but that hardly qualifies as a reason to design picks.

What you may not realize is that I DO have a direct connection to the subject. That’s right, for approximately 5 months after my freshman year of high school, I took guitar lessons at a suburban Schmitt Music Center on a used Fender Squier that was rented from the shop. My instructor was from the Twin Cities band (I think her name was Kathy) & I showed absolutely no talent or inherent aptitude for the instrument. All in all, it was a fruitless & undistinguished endeavor, though I do still know the opening riff of “Smoke on the Water.” At least I do theoretically, it has been at least 32 years since I tried playing it. Yeah.

The real reason is that I like artist-designed products that move out of the usual print/maquette medium. Guitar picks fit the bill & not too many artists have jumped in on the game yet & all the excuse I need. Plus I like owls.