ABOUT US

PicBand ™ is a guitar-playing concept invented by James T. (JT) Hollin, Jr. in 2001.  Having loved the art of guitar playing since a child, JT would often watch , fascinated with his grandfather playing guitar in a down-to-earth gospel band which backed up the choir in a local church his family attended.  Oftentimes, during visits with his grandparents in Phoenix, Arizona, JT would lift his grandfather’s hollow-body guitar off its rack on the family room wall and make a crude attempt at playing a familiar tune, or striking strings in unison, hoping to find a melodious chord (remember “melodious thunk?”).

Never having had the opportunity to take guitar lessons, JT eventually settled at playing drums and timpani in middle school and also in the high school marching band.  He became an accomplished rock and jazz drummer playing in clubs and other venues in the sixties, to help earn money during his college years at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

JT served in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot, and often on his off-duty time, he plucked around on the guitar by reading self-teaching guitar books and copying blues licks he heard from Albert King, Buddy Guy, Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Ponder, and the like.  While playing guitar, he couldn’t help but notice that the pick often twisted out of position while held between his thumb and forefinger and began to envision different ways to minimize this problem.  Drummers always kept a couple of spare drumsticks near the bass drum while playing, so why couldn’t guitarists have access to spare picks within reach, or better, some way of retaining the pick they used?  Plus, it is not uncommon to drop a pick while playing, or to set it down somewhere after a song, and then be unable to find it afterwards;  it’s almost as if the pick had gotten legs of its own and walked away somewhere!

Years later, while a pilot with Delta Airlines, JT began carrying a travel guitar on his trips, attempting to practice during boring hotel layovers.  JT never got to the point where he could make a living as a professional guitarist, his experience being limited to occasional sit-ins at jam sessions, or like his grandfather, for a short while, playing guitar as part of a music backup with a church choir.  Eventually he enrolled in the College of Music at Georgia State University in Atlanta.  After three years of diligent study and practice, it became evident that, at his stage in life, he would not become a tremendous success as a jazz guitarist, one of his dreams.

Nevertheless, having an engineering degree, JT became more involved with designing what he imagined would become an "ultimate” guitar pick, thus PicBand ™ came to be.  From a hole drilled into a pick and attached to a string, to a flat tether-like flexible attachment, to the present design, PicBand ™ evolved.  More versions and variations of PicBand ™ are currently being worked on, and will be marketed in the future.  Feedback from those of you who try this device are welcome.

INVENTOR OF MY PIC BAND

JT Hollin presently works as a registered patent attorney, including prosecuting patent & trademark applications, copyright matters, licensing, IP litigation, with offices in Fayetteville Georgia.

JT’s aviation career includes a stint as a US Air Force pilot, serving a tour in South Vietnam as a reconnaissance pilot for Special Forces.  Over many years, his flying career culminated as an international qualified Captain with Delta Air Lines, Inc.  Aircraft flown include the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom, Convair 880 (flight engineer), DC-9, Lockheed L-1011, McDonnell-Douglas MD-11, Boeing 727, 757, 767 and 777.  International routes flown include European destinations, Africa, South America,and Japan.

Engineering experience encompasses work as a development engineer with AiResearch Manufacturing (formerly a division of Garrett Corporation) as a technical manual writer, and a  fluidics design assistant at Sky Harbor Airport in  Phoenix.

His educational background includes a law degree from Woodrow Wilson College of Law,  Atlanta, Georgia (J.D.);  University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; B.S. Aerospace Engineering; and studies as a music major, emphasis jazz performance, at Georgia State University, Atlanta.