Fenrobi Guitar Pick Finger Saver Handle

Description

New Tool! The Fenrobi Guitar Pick punch kit is designed to make guitar picks from coins or just about any other material including mokume gane. You can also make plastic picks from old hotel card keys, credit cards, club cards and more.

This includes the finger saver handle when using a brass hammer.  Also available through separate purchases are the punch housing, extractor for removing material that gets stuck on the punch and a wood holder.

You can use a hydraulic press if you like. If you plan to use a brass hammer (the quickest way if you plan to make a lot) then the “Finger Saver Handle” is needed. There’s pinch point if you try to hold the punch with one hand and strike with the other. The handle will certainly be needed to save your fingers from being pinched.

The process is very easy to punch out a pick. The punch is designed to give you full control of how you want the pick to look. For coins, I like to leave the natural curve of the coin at the top of the pick. This leaves the reed on the edge of the coin. Brian May likes to use this to give that “articulated sound”.  This also allows the outside of the coin to be removed easily without the use of the extractor.

Simply place the coin on the bottom die of the punch with the witness lines on it. The lines allow you to make sure the coin is centered and the edges are equidistant. I prefer to use double sided sticky tape to help secure the coin on the bottom die but you can also just use masking tape on top of the coin.

A great tool for music teachers to hand out picks to their students!

I’d been thinking of a punch to make guitar picks from coins many years ago. I remember seeing a simple one used for punching out hotel key cards and thought a more robust one might work well for coins.

Some very famous guitar players use silver coin picks as it gives a very unique sound to the music. Brian May from the band Queen is probably the most known for this. Brian May: “I found when I was learning that I was using soft picks to begin with and I gradually liked them harder and harder because I liked to feel what was happening at the string in my fingers. Eventually, I thought, “well, I don’t want it to bend at all, I want it to be completely rigid.” May continued: “I just picked up a sixpence and it worked for me, it just fit in my hand nicely. It also has a bonus because if you turn it sideways, at an angle to the strings, you get those serrated edges [which provide] a sort of articulated sound … sort of like having consonants in your speech.” (Source: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-brian-may-uses-a-coin-to-play-the-guitar/)

Paul Fennel from Ireland contacted me and wanted a punch made. He was cutting his picks out by hand. This was many years ago and I couldn’t find any on the market and only a couple of people were making the picks. I just did a search while I’m writing this and it seems the popularity of coin picks has grown! It’s taken about 5 years of prototyping and A LOT of testing but this punch is now available. You can easily and quickly punch out guitar picks out of just about any metal with a 2lb brass hammer or a hydraulic press. I’ve even tested it with steel washers!

My good friend Andrew Simon who is a professional sound technician and guitar player stated, “I was thinking of some points for you to use in explaining the picks. Light gauge for quarters, medium gauge for the fifty cent pieces (standard guitar pick),  and heavy gauge with the dollar coins. I think it should be said that these picks denote a more mellow mid rich sound with additional ringing harmonics than a traditional plastic pick”. Thank you Andrew!

Thank you, Paul Fennel for requesting the tool and Bob for getting it done!

Watch an in-depth video about the punch here:

(Note: You can use the Auto Punch for punching a hole in the middle of the pick for greater control)