How It's Made: Guitar Pick Tray

Intro & Benefits

Ever find yourself looking everywhere for a spare pick?
Or maybe you just want to add some semblance of organization to your jam spot?

Adding a pick tray to your guitar accessories list might be something to consider.
They help to keep all of your favorite picks in one place, they make a thoughtful gift for any guitarist, and can be made into your favorite guitar shape!

Scroll below to see some behind the scenes footage of how we make our trays.

And speaking of always being prepared with a pick on hand,
check out our other article on the benefits of >guitar pick holders<

 

Techniques

Computer Numerical Control

Much like our guitar picks, the process here begins on our CNC table using computer aided design & machining.

We start with our quality stock of solid cherry wood, where we attach it to the table & begin editing our design & programming the CNC on what cuts we need it to do.
This might seem easy at first glance but actually every dimension has to be accounted for like how deep to make the cuts, how many passes are needed, what tools to use where, and at what speeds to move the machine.

Also because we're using computer aided design, we're able to maintain true-to-life ratios of the guitar shapes.

Once we're ready to fire up the CNC router,
we begin with creating the tray's pocket. This is where all the picks will be stored once it's all finished.
Also beware that some guitar shapes have more space here. For example an "X" or "Star" shaped guitar might not have too much space to fit many picks but something like an ES-335 will have plenty.

After the pocket, we engrave our logo & your custom text if requested.
(We offer free text engraving for these)
After that, we bevel the edges for a more refined look & finally cut out the tray.

Hand-finished

Once we cut the tray out we begin to remove machining marks using our spindle sander before moving onto sanding by hand.

We want a smooth product that you can be proud to hold in your hand,
so we try our hardest to sand every nook & corner of the trays to remove any scratches or tooling marks.

Once we've sanded the exterior & inside the pocket, we've also bevel the underside by hand to remove any hard edges.

Finally we apply & soak the tray in some orange oil & beeswax.
This brings out some of the natural color of the wood & gives it a nice glow.

Once it's soaked in & dry, we give it a buff before applying a 2nd coat of wax.
This time we use a preservation wax, or "Ren Wax", to seal the wood.
This wax is the same used in many museums for preservation of leather, expensive paintings, & antique metals.
It's also something we've used as a final product to make our picks for a very long time, although we never really mentioned it.

Guitar Pick Tray Models

In the video above we made one of, if not thee, most iconic guitar shapes.
However we're able to make just about any other shape you can think of.
Here's a few guitar shapes we've done so far.
If you want to see one that's not on the list, comment below & let us know!

• 540pii (Ibanez)
• Boden (Strandberg)
• ES-335 (Gibson)
• Explorer (Gibson)
• Iceman (Ibanez)
• Jaguar (Fender)
• Kelly (Jackson)
• Larada (Abasi)
• Les Paul (Gibson)
• ML (Dean)
• Rhoads V (Jackson)
• SG (Gibson)
• Stratocaster (Fender)
• Telecaster (Fender)
• Type A (Solar)
• V (Gibson)

 

Conclusion

Anyways, I hope you liked the video & learning a bit more about what goes into making our products.
Your feedback is appreciated, so please let us know what you think about the video or comment below about any other guitar shapes you would like to see.

If you want to order your own guitar pick tray for yourself or for a friend,
>check out this link<

You can save $5 on your tray by using this exclusive promo code: Cherry-Tray

Thanks again & until next time.
-Alex & The Iron Age Team

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