Fender 354 Picks

[robb...@comcast.net]

Hi,

Guitar player, just visiting.

When I started at Berklee, back in the 70s, I was a Rock guy newly introduced to Jazz. So I experimented around, and tried to use those tiny teardrop shaped Jazz picks like Joe Pass used. But I found them a bit too small, so I switched to Fender 354 - same shape, a bit bigger. I later found that these are sometimes referred to as "Mandolin Picks", and thus my query here.

So here's a couple of questions. 

A). Are these, in fact picks often used by Mandolin players?

B). Why can't I get these anymore? I used to pick 'em up by the gross for like 12 bucks, and now no one sells 'em except occasionally I see 12-packs for too much money. And they're all tortoise-shell - I used to get white ones, much easier to find on stage.

C). If Fender has discontinued these, what's everybody using?

Again, this all supposes that alt-music.mandolin is the proper place to ask about these. Thanks for any help you can provide