D’Andrea Custom Picks

Bio:

Celluloid was the world’s first plastic and D’Andrea was the very first manufacturer to produce celluloid picks back in 1922. Before that, picks were made of natural and organic substances like bone, ivory, ebony and other hardwoods, stones & rocks, and ... of course ... real tortoise shell. It all started in downtown New York City in 1922. Luigi D’Andrea, a Neapolitan vacuum cleaner salesman, happened upon a sidewalk sale offering some sheets of tortoise shell colored cellulose nitrate plastic and mallet dies, used to make little heart shaped decorations for the tops of powder puff boxes. He punched out a few hundred of the little 1” flat hearts on his kitchen table. When his young son, Anthony, observed that the hearts resembled an uncle’s tortoise shell mandolin pick, it gave Luigi the idea to try to sell the plastic heart “picks” to a music store. As it turned out, he was able to sell a cigar box of the little hearts to the G. Schirmer & Son Co. in New York for the amazing sum (in 1922) of $10.00! He knew he had something to build on here, and so he started a small factory on 27th St.

The rest is history! We invented the method and the shapes for the picks and, for all intents and purposes, it hasn’t changed much in the last 85 years. You are certainly familiar with 351, 358, 355, 346, 354 ... all those numbers represent original D’Andrea die mold numbers. We were the first to offer custom imprinted guitar picks to guitarists and we were the ones who gave a card of picks to a frantic Leo Fender at his very first NAMM show back in the 1940s. While there are a few pick manufacturers in the US today who truly come up with some new innovations, anyone, other than D’Andrea, who makes a celluloid pick in the 351 shape is merely copying the archetype. We take pride in our quality, our history and our customer service. Why don’t you join the tens of thousands of guitarists, famous and not-so-famous, who have found that a pick made by D’Andrea is a true original! ..

Member Since:

March 11, 2008

Members:

And about 25,000 others....the list just continues to grow!
Why don’t you join us!

Influences:

• For a full list of custom imprint materials, shapes and art specs, please go to: www.custompicks.com

• For a quote please send me a message and briefly describe what you want. Thanks for visiting!

Sounds Like:

We're the ORIGINAL manufacturer of picks! No other company before us manufactured picks and we made the very first plastic pick. So, we sound like no one ... everyone else copied D'Andrea!