Pete’s Gear: Guitar Picks

1965–1967 – Herco Picks

John Entwistle’s Herco guitar pick. Courtesy rockstarsguitars.com. Pete and John used Herco heavy-gauge nylon picks until 1967 or 1968.

1968–1997 – Manny’s Picks

Pete Townshend’s guitar pick from Manny’s Music Store in New York. Courtesy rockstarsguitars.com. Pete used medium and heavy picks from Manny’s from approximately 1968 to 1997.

Visit Manny’s at mannysmusic.com.

From April 1980 issue of Sound International article, courtesy Joe G’s site.

My acoustic style is very, very Spanish influence and what I tried to do was to develop a way I could play very, very fast flourishes and still keep hold of the pick. I developed a technique — and this is only analysing backwards because I didn’t consciously do this — using a heavy pick, a large pick, not an enormous pick but a standard size like a Manny’s pick, I would float it in mid-air and not actually hold it. It floats between my fingers, and I somehow managed not to drop it, so it is very, very loose and you can get a lot of ododododododododododo (imitates in sound and posture a rapid strumming of a guitar). And a lot of that was a layover from the fact that I developed a lot of those techniques when I was learning the banjo. Those trad banjo solos always used a lot of syncopation and I took that over to guitar.

1989 – present – Pete’s Guitar picks

In at least 1989 and 1996–1997, Pete used medium and heavy picks from a store called Pete’s Guitar in St. Paul, Minnesota, owned by the late Pete Alenov. Pete’s Guitars was known as a provider to the stars, including ZZ Top, the Rolling Stones, George Harrison and The Who, among others. Their famous sign in the window: “By Appointment Only.”

1996 – present – Custom-printed picks

Beginning in 1996, Pete began to use custom-printed picks, often imprinted for the particular show. He also used Ernie Ball and Fender picks, also often custom-printed.

Please note: The photos included have been submitted by Whotabs readers. Whotabs makes no claim these photos represent authentic Pete-used picks.