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Guitar Gadgets: The Pick-a-Palooza DIY Guitar Pick Punch
Guitar Gadgets

Guitar Gadgets: The Pick-a-Palooza DIY Guitar Pick Punch


Updated: February 19, 2020

Quick Review

The Pick-a-Palooza is an awesome gift for any guitar player in your life. Most guitar accessories are incredibly personal and hard to gift. I for one know how picky I am when it comes to string brands, straps, or effects, but this is a fun gift that can be useful to any player at any level. It’s easy to see why this is on Amazon’s top gifted list. 

Pick-a-Palooza Pick Punch Gift Pack, Amazon

Intro

As anyone who lives with a guitar player knows, you can typically find them by the trail of picks that lie in their wake. Hansel and Gretel would be proud. 

As a guitar player, you know that the one thing you can never have too many of are picks. 

The Pick-a-Palooza DIY Guitar Pick Punch is a fun way to solve that problem, and a great gift for any guitar player that you know. While most players have a specific pick type that they like the most, this pick punch lets you create picks out of basically any scrap plastic that you have lying around. 


Check out: Using A Pick With An Acoustic Guitar


Personally, my go to pick for all types of guitars and playing styles is the Dunlop Tortex 1.00mm blue picks. I find the text, material, and thickness to be perfect for my style of playing, and I always keep my guitar room stocked with hundreds of them. 

Dunlop Tortex 1.00mm, Amazon

However, many players would love to have something that could create a pick out of nearly anything so that they’re never without one. With this, you can punch a bunch of picks and keep your pockets stocked so you’re never in that awkward position when someone hands you a guitar but you don’t have a pick on you. 

This package is an awesome gift because it also comes with 15 strips of plastic pick material waiting to be punched out. All of these strips equates to 100 picks. The strips are some pretty cool designs too, just in case your gifting to a kid. Who am I kidding, I think that leopard print is pretty rad. 

If you’re getting this for a kid, or for an adult, or for yourself, they will have fun creating picks out of old plastic cards, and will never be without a pick ever again! 

Pros

  • The pick-a-palooza can make guitar picks out of any old plastic card. 
  • The package is great as a gift because it comes with plastic cards to start punching picks immediately. 
  • Never be without a pick again!

Cons

  • The punch only creates one shape of pick. 
  • People can be picky about the type of pick they use. 

Summary

The Pick-a-Palooza DIY Guitar Pick Punch is an awesome gift for any guitar player in your life. When I first started playing guitar, I remember cutting picks out of old credit cards just with scissors. Those picks were not very good, and they would have been much, much better with a punch like this. 

While some guitar players can be particular about the types of picks they use, this is a fun gift that any player would like to have next to their guitar. 

My verdict? Awesome gift that you can’t go wrong with. You can also get additional pick sheets that are all designs and colors. How cool is that. 

Common Questions

Does the pick punch only create one shape and style of pick? 

Yes, the pick-a-palooza pick punch only creates one size of pick, which is the most standard pick size. This isn’t something that I’d worry about as non-standard picks are highly specialized and only for advanced players in very specific applications. 

For example the small pick size that you get out of the Dunlop Jazz III is perfect for fast, controlled picking. But only a handful of people who are even playing this style prefer this pick over a standard pick size. 

Especially if this is for a gift, the one size isn’t going to be a problem.

Does the pick-a-palooza pick punch hold up over time?

Great! According to a bunch of reviews on Amazon, the punch holds up over hundreds of punches and will create thousands of picks. I haven’t heard any feedback that says these dull over time if you’re using them on plastic. 

If, on the other hand, you try to cut metal with these. Then you’ll probably be looking at a dull punch. 

How many picks can you punch out of one credit card or gift card?

You can get about 4 picks out of a standard credit card or gift card size.