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Surreal discovery about my guitar picks...
chrishill901
Frets: 516
So theres a bit of a back story here but bear with me. I took my Mum to see Alice Cooper back in November. Now I've never caught a thing at a gig but that day was meant to be. My Mum is a huge Alice Cooper fan and I caught her his stick, along with a dollar bill from Billion Dollar Babies. I also caught a Nita Strauss guitar pick but I kept that for myself. When I got home I used it and was really impressed. Its a 0.6mm pick by Grover Allman. Im not normally a thin pick guy but this pick had the warmth of a thick tortex with the attack or a thinner pick and the custom paint job on it gives it great grip (Nita talks about them in Sweetwaters rig run down released the other day)
When I googled it I found the site and saw that designing my own cost the same as buying them plain so I decided to try my hand at designing a guitar pick - I'm a digital designer, mainly working in animation so it wasn't too far away from what I do although it was my first time using Adobe Illustrator. I decided the shape of the pick lent itself to my favourite thing of all time ever, pizza. So I designed the pizza pick. I even put a little bite mark in the pizza which was a personal in-joke with a friend who once dared to bite my pizza that I left in the fridge with a passive aggressive note warning against such activity. She had bitten an almost cartoon like bite out of the side of it, and I still haven't forgiven her.
https://i.imgur.com/s7hfZmf.jpg
Grover Allman instagrammed a picture of them when they were complete and tagged Nita Strauss on her birthday, something along the lines of 'have some pizza on us' totally unaware that she was the inspiration behind the pick. What's more, she commented saying she liked them and might want some in the new year! I waited for my inbox to fill but it never happened.
Fast forward to last week and some guy messaged me asking for some picks, he said he was a collector. I thought that's a pretty odd thing to collect but apparently there are Facebook trading groups for that sort of thing. He really wanted one so I thought I'd oblige and jokingly said that he was the first and only person to receive a pizza pick so he was special. He responded saying 'Haven't you sent Nita one, I'm sure I saw a photo of her and there was one on her mic stand...?'
Say what?!? I went on instagram and searched for photos she was tagged in and eventually found this:
https://i.imgur.com/s7YUfRw.png?1
I didn't know what to think - on the one side I was happy that my design was out there and used by a star... on the other hand I was a little peeved that my intellectual property had been stolen. Naturally I posted about it in a totally British, passive aggressive and sarcastic manner and she messaged me and we spent an evening chatting about them. She was horrified that it was a stolen design, the company had just sent them to her. She offered to send me some picks by way of an apology which I thought was great but I did the whole 'Oh you don't have to do that' thing which really meant 'do you want my address' but she took it literally - in hindsight sending me my own picks by way of an apology is a little strange. Anyway she was cool about it, she offered to stop using them but I said she had to keep using them, she had my blessing. She was really nice about the whole thing and although I've had my intellectual property stolen and don't have anything to show for it my picks will be thrown into crowds all over the world... I guess thats cool.
Grover Allman messaged me mortified too - they thought they had had my consent and asked if there was anything they could do by way of free picks etc... but I ordered 50 when I got mine so I'm sorted for life. I did say something along the lines of 'had I been asked before it happened if she could use them I'd have probably bargained for a signed photo or a meet and greet' but then I never got a message back.
Moral of the story: Look after your intellectual property, because if you don't it will end up in the hands of guitar icons...
When I googled it I found the site and saw that designing my own cost the same as buying them plain so I decided to try my hand at designing a guitar pick - I'm a digital designer, mainly working in animation so it wasn't too far away from what I do although it was my first time using Adobe Illustrator. I decided the shape of the pick lent itself to my favourite thing of all time ever, pizza. So I designed the pizza pick. I even put a little bite mark in the pizza which was a personal in-joke with a friend who once dared to bite my pizza that I left in the fridge with a passive aggressive note warning against such activity. She had bitten an almost cartoon like bite out of the side of it, and I still haven't forgiven her.
https://i.imgur.com/s7hfZmf.jpg
Grover Allman instagrammed a picture of them when they were complete and tagged Nita Strauss on her birthday, something along the lines of 'have some pizza on us' totally unaware that she was the inspiration behind the pick. What's more, she commented saying she liked them and might want some in the new year! I waited for my inbox to fill but it never happened.
Fast forward to last week and some guy messaged me asking for some picks, he said he was a collector. I thought that's a pretty odd thing to collect but apparently there are Facebook trading groups for that sort of thing. He really wanted one so I thought I'd oblige and jokingly said that he was the first and only person to receive a pizza pick so he was special. He responded saying 'Haven't you sent Nita one, I'm sure I saw a photo of her and there was one on her mic stand...?'
Say what?!? I went on instagram and searched for photos she was tagged in and eventually found this:
https://i.imgur.com/s7YUfRw.png?1
I didn't know what to think - on the one side I was happy that my design was out there and used by a star... on the other hand I was a little peeved that my intellectual property had been stolen. Naturally I posted about it in a totally British, passive aggressive and sarcastic manner and she messaged me and we spent an evening chatting about them. She was horrified that it was a stolen design, the company had just sent them to her. She offered to send me some picks by way of an apology which I thought was great but I did the whole 'Oh you don't have to do that' thing which really meant 'do you want my address' but she took it literally - in hindsight sending me my own picks by way of an apology is a little strange. Anyway she was cool about it, she offered to stop using them but I said she had to keep using them, she had my blessing. She was really nice about the whole thing and although I've had my intellectual property stolen and don't have anything to show for it my picks will be thrown into crowds all over the world... I guess thats cool.
Grover Allman messaged me mortified too - they thought they had had my consent and asked if there was anything they could do by way of free picks etc... but I ordered 50 when I got mine so I'm sorted for life. I did say something along the lines of 'had I been asked before it happened if she could use them I'd have probably bargained for a signed photo or a meet and greet' but then I never got a message back.
Moral of the story: Look after your intellectual property, because if you don't it will end up in the hands of guitar icons...
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Comments
I read the title of the thread and assumed someone had FINALLY found the porthole to the alternate dimension picks go to whenever they fall to the floor .
Maybe another lesson in there too about saying exactly what you mean in a nice way. In case people get lots of messages and can't (or don't have time) to keep track of a thread, or are too dumb to realise somebody's being passive aggressive or sarcastic. The meaning of a message can get so easily lost or misinterpreted when typed.
I'm surprised your pics were sent to a third party and used without you being notified... unless there was something in the T&Cs when you bought them, signing over copyright or ownership just like we all do with free image hosting sites.
Absolutely true though, lesson learned about saying what you mean, although ultimately I’m not that bothered. I’d rather be the cool guy that let her use the picks with no beef than the guy that tried to milk some free stuff that I ultimately don’t need!
absolute lesson in protecting IP though... wasn’t expecting my first ever design to cause me any issues so I was perhaps naive to the whole thing!!
Unless you're Slash, I’d let you have them for free in that case. I mean for a signed photo. I mean... aww I’m bad at this.
I'm not Slash, but I got a happy birthday from him the other day, so I'm going to just have to stump up the £1,000,000 ain't I.
Just trying to earn a crust.
There’s no topping that story tho.
You got a happy birthday from Slash???
You earned that LOL
I did, a girl who works for us, her boyfriend somehow knows him via a friend of the family, and asked for a happy birthday for my 40th, also mentioned he was in the studio recording.
He is also my idol, he was just replying to a message from someone he talks to sometimes in reality, but I appreciate my friend for asking
cool story, Chris Hill! I would have jumped at the chance for free picks. I'll keep an eye out on the Yahoo Pick Trading group and see if your design comes up.
I know I should have jumped at it! I was trying to be cool and I totally should have just fanboyed and asked for free stuff. It's not like I'm ever going to see her!
This whole experience has opened me up to the world of pick trading! I never knew it was a thing... The guy was asking me all about the pick I caught in the first place... I'm not sure I understand why anyone would want a pick I caught from a show they weren't at though? But having said that if I had the chance to own one of Slash's picks I probably would... I'll trade someone a pizza pick for a Slash one?
When I watched slash in Birmingham a couple of years back he threw a load of picks, and as I bent down to pick one up of the floor the girl in front of me pulled it out of my hand, I didn't have it in me to punch her though so she got to keep it
I've asked my mate several times to ask him to send me a signed cover plate for the back of my Les Paul.