For ten years and more I have carried this broken Rotosound Clawpick fingerpick in my pocket. By 1987, I was down to my last two of these, having used them for as long as I can remember - certainly some time in the 1970s. The unique narrow, curving tip fits to the side of the finger, unlike plain fingerpicks which just fit dead under the tip. With regular picks, my picking style means the side of the pick strikes the string. I have to angled my hand in an uncomfortable fake classical crab position to get them to sound OK.
Rotosound clearly recognised that most bluegrass and British fingerstyle players, often using a wrist to damp on the bridge or their 4th fingers to support the hand on the pickguard, position the hand so that a nail is more or less over each string, not all in row over one string. The picking action is slightly sideways. This pick, uniquely, followed exactly the correct dynamics. See that little curve outwards at the tip? It provided a precise, fine pluck just like a strong nail entirely free of roughness - and the curve of the tortoiseshell led into this silently. These picks, on my 1st and 2nd fingers, allowed me to play faster and more accurately than with bare nails and with less noise. I have tried Alaska picks, those picks with hollow ends and all kinds of variations but never found anything as good as the original Rotosound Clawpick.
The only disadvantage, common to ordinary fingerpicks as well, is that you can't easily strike down with the back of the nail. That's what the third and fourth fingers are for!
Why on earth were they discontinued? I have tried all over Britain, the USA and Europe - every time I go into a dealer, I show this broken pick, but no-one has ever seen them and only one dealer remembered them and contacted Rotosound, who said they simply weren't made any more.
Study these photographs below. They show the pick from all angles (Olympus Camedia C1400L digital camera used to shoot them).
I hope this is of interest to someone out there - or that someone can find some of these picks new (there was a thumbpick under the same brand with a similarly unusual position of long thin blade angled to imitate the position of the nail, but not in the same way as the fingerpick). I will pay $20 plus shipping to the UK for a complete set; they did not seem to have various sizes, just one size, but I used to carry three picks and a thumbpick. If you can find a whole box of them somewhere, we can negotiate. I am sure other players would want these picks once they tried them.
If a silversmith can give me a fair quote to make a set of three from silver or white metal, with the missing part reinstated (sadly the broken bit is lost), give me a quote!
I have tried cutting, heating and bending tortoiseshell plastic regular picks but they don't have enough length on the blade and the result is always crude. I have also tried making a copy from sheet plastic but it just isn't strong or stiff enough.
email me if you have any leads or ideas - or comments!
david@maxwellplace.demon.co.uk
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