I was driving along in my truck this morning and heard that a woman somewhere in California was arrested for selling tortoise shell picks. She was arrested and charged with a felony under the Endangered Species Act. She had sold about 80 picks and was in possession of another 800! The police claim the picks were made from some exotic tortoise and the woman is in serious trouble.
I did not catch all the details as I was half way listening. Has anyone else heard this story? Wow!

did today's date have anything to do with that story?

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

You know I did not think about that! I might have been punked!
It was on a serious newscast but..........

What!!!!

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Go ahead CV!!

Yeah but the cops never woulda caught her if she wasn't moving along at a tutle's pace ...

Sorry fhop, only just noticed this thread. Not sure but there could have been something in that story. I was under the impression that tortoise shell picks had been banned years ago. I could be wrong.
We used to use them back in the sixties and I never found them very good anyway, the points broke off easily. Better to use the modern stuff like v-picks, stronger, good sounding and better in every way.

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just use fender picks!!! i use the medium and they have better sound wuality

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--I got it on eBay--

I wonder how many picks you can get out of one tortoise? Must be able to get 15 if your carefull cutting. Why on earth are they protected any way, they serve no purpose. How do they prosecute those pesky eagles that pick em up and drop em from high up to get at the meat. What other endangered animals can we mutilate to get plectrums. I'd quite like a dolphins tooth one or koala bear claw.

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No no and no

You are right Rhumba my friend only V-Picks for me!!

Am I the only one who got fooled on April Fools Day??

Updated!
It took 2 seconds on google to find the news story!!

Nikki - How delightfully bent you are!

Gridlok

That's bizarre. I can't conceive of using actual tortoise shell for picks. I'm very particular about which picks I pick, and it's nothing but Dunlop Tortex .50s for me. I know a lot of people are prone to expounding the many virtues of Fender picks, but I've never liked them at all -- in fact, I'd rather use just about anything. Yet the big F must be doing something right because their picks are the only one of their products I loathe.

Here you go fellow posters. The link to the news story.
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20 ... hell-picks

Well???!!!

She is facing up to 5 years in federal prison and $200.000 fine!

I've been checking in on this thread and WOW at the fact that this is a true story and not an April Fool's joke. This lady sold turtle shell picks, supposedly desirable to musicians (Huh? Why?) for like $7 a pop (she made $350 off of 50 picks...)

What a news story...

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"There is more to life than increasing its speed." Mahatma Gandhi

Owner of:
-2008 American Standard Strat in Candy Cola Red
-Vibro-Champ XD
-Fender CD-60 Acoustic (Sunburst)