by thertel » 4 Nov 2004 9:35
I feel that since I was the one that made this suggestion to Jake, I should take the time to clarify why I made the recommendation.
The Southord Set is more expensive and in the long run most people tend to upgrade from it to something a little bigger and nicer to hold onto. There is nothing wrong with the Southord set for beginners, most of us in the forum probably started with a Southord set and enjoyed our time with it but after a while you want something a little more substantial to hold onto that will make your practice time less strenuous on your hands.
Another consideration is the cost, The Peterson JP-p and assorted tensioners will only set you back about 23 dollars as opposed to the southord which will set you back 35 dollars. Its only a 12 dollar difference but if you decide you don't like lockpicking you out very little overall when it comes down to it, plus you have a very effective and nice set.
Also until just recently it was difficult to get the Peterson Just Picks as a hobbyist, since none of the online retailers stocked them and/or made them available on their websites. This I believe explains a lot as to why the Southords are the recommended starter set on this site, simply because they were easily available, while the Peterson were not.
I hope through discussions like this the initial pickset preference can be changed from the Southords to the Peterson with some individual tensioners.
Thomas
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.
And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
~Friedrich Nietzsche
