As I am recovering from the high dosage of triptophan I consumed last night, I've been pondering. .
My sitar came with 4 mizrabs, (plastic coated). My question is, when do I need to throw away my first mizrab and start using another? My teacher told me they should last forever. .but why would it have come with so many extra? How long have you all kept yours? (and yes, I have looked at other posts from many moons ago)
I'm actually scared to death about losing my mizrab. I've got one that's perfect. When I go to my lessons I have to take a train and a bus. . . I bring along a special travel-mizrab, so I can leave my perfect mizrab at home :-) Can't loose it that way. . . But I think they'll last forever indeed. . .
I think the reason the Sitar came with so many is in case you happen to lose one. I was jamming with a Western "Hippie" band once, but before the sho even started I dropped my Mizrab and couldn't see it. I started freaking out and getting really nervous. A simple guitar pick wouldn't cut the chase and in fact would not work very well at all! Luckily I found it. .
So, I use one main Mizrab that I keep on the first tuning peg for my sympathetic strings (the one closest to the bridge) for when I'm not playing and keep it nice and safe in its case. It works well. I don't think it's ever fallen off, even through travel.
I have thrown out old 1 or 2 old Mizrabs when they started to get old and dirty. They began to look a little rusty, so I tossed them. Also, the first Mizrab my Sitar came with was WAY too small, and I have pretty small fingers.
Sorry for rambling. I LOVE talking about Sitar and Indian music.
Well,,, I have about 25 of 'em. Bought a bunch a year ago so I never have to worry about not having one, and I'll probabley never have to buy one again. I've always done the same with guitar pics, I just buy a hundred at a time because they break or wear out and I always lose guitar pics for some reason. A hundred pics will usually last me a year or so, sometimes longer. It's always amazed me about some people who only ever have one guitar pic or they'll have a couple of guitars and have only one strap for them all?:-) OR they never keep extra packs of strings around! Amazeing! For guitars I always buy a box of strings (10 packs) and when I get down to 2 or 3 packs I order another box. I use Carvin .009's for my electrics and Elixers .012's for my acoustics, which I think are great (if anybody here plays guitars also).
When I got my MPS I also bought 10 packs of Pyramids, SO I ALWAYS HAVE STRINGS. So the point of this is,
Buy a half dozen or so mizrabs and a couple of packs of strings, then you dont have to worry about these sort of things. You may think its exspensive, but ya have to buy 'em anyway in the long run.
A hundred pics will usually last me a year or so, sometimes longer. .
Wow, Jeff! do you eat them?
Hold on now, did you know that i have a barss guitarpick that i made in 1987!? So i have had it for about 16 years or so. Actually its the only one i have. Once i lost for a year or so, but it came back. .
Q: I have thrown out old 1 or 2 old Mizrabs when they started to get old and dirty.
No need to throw em away, fine sandpaper and steelwool, and there like new and sound nice again - unless they are plastic coated - then you schould throw em away anyway, like Matt says.
Anybody here build their own mizrabs? I'd like to try with very thick wire, but don't know how to bend it.
OT: Now, thats getting weird/kafkaesque - I got me a new user name, so I can edit my posts, as I lost my first password. Now I tried to edit misspellings (schould etc. Schould Basant??)) with my new password via "modify"-button, and the machine said to me:
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Process Error
Sorry, you cannot modify this message, because it was posted by an anonymous member.
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I am Franz K., in the end this machine will shoot me?:-)
Seems like there is two different logins, with one of them the user can post, but stays anonymous at the same time . . . hmmm?
jan (Nov 30, 2003 07:39 a.m.):
a little off topic. .
A hundred pics will usually last me a year or so, sometimes longer. .
Wow, Jeff! do you eat them?
Hold on now, did you know that i have a barss guitarpick that i made in 1987!? So i have had it for about 16 years or so. Actually its the only one i have. Once i lost for a year or so, but it came back. .
Jan
Actually Jan, The bulk pack I get from "Carvin" has 76 pics, But I do chew on them on occasion. They break, get lost, wear out, get stolen or borrowed?:-) I'm not sure which one. . . I dont care for brass picks but I do have a set of metal "Pro Pik" metal finger pics I like, havent lost them though. I havent really been playing guitar that much in the past year but I just started up again recently so I still have pleanty of pics right now. By the way I use Carvin mediums.
Matt (Nov 30, 2003 10:07 a.m.):
Estiven,
I'd suggest throwing out the plastic coated mizrabs ASAP and going with the regular wire ones - you'll be amazed at the change in sound.
I aggree with Matt, plastic coated mizrabs produce a different tone, at least thats what my ears hear. The metal ones will hurt some at first, but take the pain and good things will follow.
tarsi (Nov 30, 2003 11:20 a.m.):
OT: Now, thats getting weird/kafkaesque - I got me a new user name, so I can edit my posts, as I lost my first password. Now I tried to edit misspellings (schould etc. Schould Basant??))with my new password via "modify"-button, and the machine said to me:
Once you have a user name and profile, you can login at the top of the page. Any message that you post as a logged-in member you can modify as a logged-in member. Any message that you posted prior to being a logged-in member can never be modified, no matter if you logged in or not.
When you are looking at a list of messages, you will see to the left of the message under the poster's name things such as "Normal Member" and other stuff. These messages were posted by logged-in members of this board. If that info is not there, the person was no logged in, and, in fact, can be quite annonymous.
