HPC or Southord?

[jfw]

I would go with HPC, and learn to use only a few picks. I only use the short hook HPC. Once you get to know the pick well it will work wonders all by itself. Cheap and efficient. You DON'T need a huge pick set, which is what a lot of beginners fail to realize. You may need replacements of the few picks that you get good at using, but you DO NOT need many different types of picks. I thank the people on the keypicking forum for teaching me this. It is just a waste of equipment, and money. I have multiple short hooks, and a few homemade rakes, like a city rake in my set. I don't like to rake anymore but I still use it on double sided wafers. Hope that helps. Good luck.

[Solomon]

I have no experience with HPC but I can tell you that the 74 piece southord kit is way over the top. Their 22 piece slimline set contains all their pick profiles; the 74 piece set has the exact same pick selection, just there are 4 of each and it includes their warded picks. You don't need duplicates of each and every pick. It isn't a bad idea to have spares for the few picks you use most, but having 4 of every pick is ridiculous. Get the 22 piece set and when you find what you like the most, order duplicates individually if you want. You'll save a lot and there'll be much less clutter.

[Luissen]

I'm really disorganized, so my solution was simply to buy ~5-6 torque tools and maybe 6 3 pick sets of 1diamond (I use these to count pins since I'm not very good yet) a long hook and a short one. Since I'm a hobbyist, I haven't found much use for the Srake or the ball (wtf is this for? Wafers?) but I keep a few at home.

I agree whole heartedly, you don't need too many tools, you just need to know how to use them.

[MrAnybody]

The 22 piece SouthOrd is a great set, and covers all the bases.

However, when I bought one I did a little bit of a tweak on it. Firstly, I bought the bigger case (C3010) and the 15 or so picks of the 22 piece set separately. I think it turned out to be about $10 more (?), but I then had a case to fit some other favorites in to go along with them. Tension wrenches are nothing to make, and I prefer using Peteson Pry-bars whenever I can.

Secondly, I put a couple of layers of hockey tape on the pick handles and sealed it with some heat-shrink tubing to give some very tidy soft handles.

[ARF-GEF]

Did anyone try the HPC pro mixer 24 with the tighter european keyways? They don1T explicitly say it's slim line so I'm not sure about it, but it looks enticing.