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It's plec not pick


Les

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2 hours ago, steve-bbb said:

oh i dont know... it almost kicked off on faceberg the other day because someone had the audacity to say 'guitar luthier'

:facepalm:

What’s wrong with 'guitar luthier'?

A luthier someone who makes/repairs stringed instruments, which usually consist of a sound box and a neck.

Derived from the Latin (?) for Lute.

Seems logical to me then that a guitar luthier is one who makes/repairs guitars.

(Similarly 'driver' is generic, but 'bus driver' is specific)

Back on topic, isn’t "pick" yet another Americanism?  It’s a fairly recent change, it’s always been 'plectrum' for the 50+ years I’ve been playing guitars of one sort or another.

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3 minutes ago, Baxlin said:

Back on topic, isn’t "pick" yet another Americanism?  It’s a fairly recent change, it’s always been 'plectrum' for the 50+ years I’ve been playing guitars of one sort or another.

This

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If you insist on being correct can you please refer to it by it’s full title as a guitar plectrum, or guitar plec.

I may otherwise think you are referring to one powered by a jack hammer on a Harpsicord, or another stringed instrument of some description.

That would be awfully confusing

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1 hour ago, chris_b said:

That was Michael Miles. Didn't know he was a bass player.

No? Boiiiing - sorry Mrs you haven't won the Yes/No interlude.... 

With these spelling things, I was recently advised by a Government official to remember who invented the language to determine which version is right...

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15 hours ago, FinnDave said:

And if there's some thing that disturbs my normally placid outlook on life, it is people who insist on using latin plurals. They are obviously unaware that once a loan word has been assimilated into a language, it takes the grammatical forms of the host language. 

Do you have any datums to back that up?

Edited by Earbrass
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8 hours ago, NoRhino said:

While we're in the mood .... we're bass players not bassists. 

(Dons tin hat and takes cover)

Just like this thread has opened again the debate for the gender of the bass, which is neutral like any animal or a baby, even if the latter does not play a six strings bass guitar.

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I suppose I think of the distinction between a pick and a plectrum as a thickness or maybe flexibility thing. A tortex orange 0.60mm that I used to use for guitar was always a plectrum, but a purple 1.14mm that I used to use for bass was definitely a pick. These days I use the same 1.26mm for both, therefore I use a pick.

Plec just sounds wrong to me since round where I live, a ‘pleck’ is an old colloquialism for a mess - usually used in reference to a dirty or untidy house, like “his place is a total pleck”. I only heard ‘plec’ for the first time when I was at uni and played in a band with a guitarist from Lincolnshire.

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Technically, the "plectrum" (noun) is the small bit of plastic that you hold to "pick" (verb) the string.  Calling the bit of plastic a "pick" is like calling a football boot a "kick".  However, language is a living thing and I will continue to refer to it as a pick as its a more confortable word to pronounce and I'm essentially a lazy b*****d.  Never heard anyone call it a plec.

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10 hours ago, NoRhino said:

While we're in the mood .... we're bass players not bassists. 

(Dons tin hat and takes cover)

So a violinist is really a violin player, a flautist is a flute player? A drummer is a drum player? A vocalist is a git voice user? etc etc etc. :lol: 

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