Back in 1997, Steve Vai toured Australia for the first time. By a stroke of luck I managed to acquire one of his picks (my brother Steve reached up and plucked it from the headstock of Vai’s guitar during ‘The Animal’ – in 2004 I returned the favour when I caught one of Billy Sheehan’s bass picks and giving it to Steve). Anyway, I loved this pick and I wanted to keep it with me as a sort of shred good luck charm. I took it to a jewelry store and had them drill a tiny hole into it and affix a little metal ‘O’ so I could attach it to a chain. A rather inelegant solution which, let’s face it, defaced the pick a little bit in an irreversible way.

If only Pickbay existed then! I wouldn’t have had to drill a big hole through my prized Vai pick! Pickbay is a pick-shaped pendant which proudly displays the guitar pick of your choice, along a few more depending on the gauge you use. It serves a dual purpose of cool fashion accessory for guitarists as well as a handy way of ensuring you’re never without a pick within easy reach. You can slot up to four picks in there (less if you use chunkier gauges like I do), and they’re pretty easy to get out when you need a pick in an emergency.

There are various models available, including a natural eco-brass version, as well as chrome, Gold-N (shiny brass that looks like gold without the price) and sterling silver. The colours seem quite cleverly chosen to work nicely with guitar hardware – the gold would go great with my Ibanez Jem, while the chrome would like awesome alongside my UV777BK 7-string. When you order your Pickbay you can also choose from various chains. I like the way the nickel-plated ball chain is described on Pickbay’s site: “Resizable 24″ max length nickel ball chain is our low-cost solution to getting you in one of our 925 sterling silver pendants without forcing you to eat only Ramen noodles for two weeks.”

I think Pickbay would make a cool gift for guitarists (certainly better than my last minute gift ideas back in December), or a neat merchandising idea for bands. Plus, if you’re like me, you probably just dig having a little visual thing that tells people “Yeah, I’m a guitarist – as if you couldn’t already tell by looking at me.”

LINK: Pickbay

Thanks to Pickbay for turning me onto this little slice of awesome.

I Heart Guitar pick courtesy of Grover Allman.