Charmed Life Pick Came In

[Brian N]

Well, I got my Charmed Life pick this past week and I have to admit, a good pick really makes a difference! The notes sound both clearer and louder with it. Thanks, Scott, for making me a believer!

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by Brian N

Well, I got my Charmed Life pick this past week and I have to admit, a good pick really makes a difference! The notes sound both clearer and louder with it. Thanks, Scott, for making me a believer!

Just wanted to give some props to Brian one more time for winning our recently-concluded Beatles Trivia Contest. He won one of our Tortoise-styled teardrops, which he is now playing on his Gibson J-15. Way to go, Brian!



That was a wild and woolly contest. You guys know a heckuva lot more about the Beatles than I ever knew. I think when it was all said and done we had over 4000 page views, 150 posts, something like that. And we all had a lot of fun with it.

We'll do something like that again in July. We love being members and sponsors at AGF, and this is our small way of saying thanks.

Let's all give a shout out to Brian one more time for his winning entry! Rock on, Brian!


thanks, everyone,
scott memmer

[6Strngs5Fingers]

I'm kind of a new player and just beginning to think about maybe trying some better picks. Will I notice the difference? I'm pretty happy with the Dunlops I use.

Thankx

[B Chas]

I have a couple of these picks, they're great, a lot like the blue chip (which are brown), made with the same material. Charmed life makes a .75mm and I have one that came in thinner too. I notice the difference, on the expensive side but when I consider the price of guitars, well worth the cost. The thinner ones have a little more flex, but still stand up to hard strumming like a champ. Great tone and playability. The thin ones are unique to Charmed Life.

I've not been on the board much lately, missed the Beatles thread completely.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by B Chas

I have a couple of these picks, they're great, a lot like the blue chip (which are brown), made with the same material. Charmed life makes a .75mm and I have one that came in thinner too. I notice the difference, on the expensive side but when I consider the price of guitars, well worth the cost. The thinner ones have a little more flex, but still stand up to hard strumming like a champ. Great tone and playability. The thin ones are unique to Charmed Life.

I've not been on the board much lately, missed the Beatles thread completely.

Mr. B, where ya been hiding? I thought maybe the misquitoes in SoFlo carried you off to the Dry Tortugus or something. How ya been?

scott

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Guitar Picks

Mr. B, where ya been hiding? I thought maybe the misquitoes in SoFlo carried you off to the Dry Tortugus or something. How ya been?

scott

Scott, would you equate the size/shape of your Charmed Life brown teardrop pick as being about the same as a BlueChip teardrop pick? The reason I ask this is that for gripping and pick-control, I wouldn't want a teardrop pick that's smaller than the size/shape of my BlueChip teardrop (TD35). I'm glad you offer your brown teardrops in a thinner thickness than my BC TD35, which is their thinnest thickness, as I find my BC TD35 just a bit too thick for my style of play. If your brown teardrop is at least the same size/shape as my BC TD-35, you've got yourself a sale. Thanks.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Scott, would you equate the size/shape of your Charmed Life brown teardrop pick as being about the same as a BlueChip teardrop pick? The reason I ask this is that for gripping and pick-control, I wouldn't want a teardrop pick that's smaller than the size/shape of my BlueChip teardrop (TD35). I'm glad you offer your brown teardrops in a thinner thickness than my BC TD35, which is their thinnest thickness, as I find my BC TD35 just a bit too thick for my style of play. If your brown teardrop is at least the same size/shape as my BC TD-35, you've got yourself a sale. Thanks.

Spruce, always good to hear from you. You know how I love to write looooong emails, but you guys hit us really hard when our site finally went live last week, and we're still sprinting to catch up. I'll TRY to keep this short (I didn't say I would—I said I'd TRY!).

Before jumping in, though, every once in a while someone jumps into a thread like this and says (they've actually used this language) we're “targeting” or “gunning for” Blue Chip and Red Bear. Oh good God. For the record, folks, these are the two leading pick companies in the high performance category. You should check them out and buy products from them. They make fabulous gear, and we own their products ourselves:

http://www.bluechippick.net/
https://www.redbeartrading.com/

And by the way, folks, if anyone tells you either one of these companies makes lousy products, they are lying to you and trying to get over on you. We wouldn't even exist if it weren't for these two companies.

So, putting that to bed, let's move on. Here are the dimensions (other than thickness) for all our cl/fs teardrop models:

Length: 29.64 mm (1.16 inches)
Width: 25.92 mm (1.02 inches)

Does somebody reading this thread have a TD-35 (or 40, or 45) and a caliper to measure for us? I have a TD-35 around here, but I'm too slammed to find it. I don't remember if the TD series is a direct copy of the standard Fender 351 shape or not, Spruce. Anyway, for reference, here are the standard measurements for a Fender 351:

Length: 30.30 mm (1.19 inches)
Width: 25.86 mm (1.018 inches)

Spruce, there's a lot of reasons ours are a little shorter than the standard size (basically about ¾ of a millimeter shorter), but the main reason is $$$$$. The stuff is so dang expensive that you're literally measuring in tenths of millimeters, and even microns! To shave our pricing and offer great value we had to be there.

Now, here's the interesting point: Because it has a smaller “field” of material (that is, the entire “face” of the pick, if you measured it, for instance, in square millimeters), it has allowed us to go thinner on the thicknesses. The reason? The field is smaller; therefore, there is less strain placed across the field of material. That's why we're able to go .75 mm, .60 mm. , and are now even prototyping a .50 model (more on that in another thread).

It was another in a series of “happy accidents” in putting this whole thing together. It's also known as dumb luck.

What I would suggest perhaps, Spruce, is ordering one brown and one tortoise (the tortoise teardrop is standard 351 size and shape) and seeing what you see. If you have really big hands, it's possible this will be a problem for you, at which point we're happy to issue a full refund upon return of the pick, although this hasn't happened yet to us. And the “tortoise” material is tonally incredible, which has been known for over 100 years.

Oh, folks, one more thing. Here's another great line of picks to check out, Wegen Picks:

http://www.wegenpicks.com/

These get a lot of discussion on AGF, and rightfully so. Great products, great value. What they've done is leave the material sort of “unfinished” and industrial looking, so you don't pay for all the muckety-muck of cosmetics, polishing, etc, but still get great performance. I actually play their mando model, and was playing it at a jam all night last night.

And Spruce, at some point we gotta have a serious chat about Trance Audio pickups. I'm gonna pull the trigger by the end of the year, and gotta decide which guitar to drop it into. We saw JB solo about two months ago, and boy, are his guitars glorious to listen to.

And this, dear friends, is my “short” response.

take care,
scott memmer

[SpruceTop]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the pick dimensions.

Measuring my BlueChip TD35 with digital calipers yields the following dimensions:
Length: 1.187"
Width: 1.007"

Charmed Life Brown:
Length: 29.64 mm (1.16 inches)
Width: 25.92 mm (1.02 inches)

Your pick is close enough in face-size to the BC TD35 that I will order a Charmed Life Teardrop Brown in .75 mm thickness.

Regards,

Ken

[Kyle76]

Originally Posted by 6Strngs5Fingers

I'm kind of a new player and just beginning to think about maybe trying some better picks. Will I notice the difference? I'm pretty happy with the Dunlops I use.

Thankx

I would say it's definitely worth trying a high-end pick to see if you not only like the sound but the way it feels in your hand. I use Blue Chip picks (yet to try Charmed Life) because I find them "grippier" than celluloid picks. Worrying less about pick slippage is great for beginners as it's one less thing you have to think about. There's enough to think about as it is.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the pick dimensions.

Measuring my BlueChip TD35 with digital calipers yields the following dimensions:
Length: 1.187"
Width: 1.007"

Charmed Life Brown:
Length: 29.64 mm (1.16 inches)
Width: 25.92 mm (1.02 inches)

Your pick is close enough in face-size to the BC TD35 that I will order a Charmed Life Teardrop Brown in .75 mm thickness.

Regards,

Ken

Ken, thanks for doing that. Good to know I'm not the only weird, scientific, nerdy guy on the Board who walks around with a digital caliper in his hand.

It looks like the TD Series is identical in length to the 351, but just ever so slightly narrower (but so slight that I doubt anyone would notice it unless someone pointed it out to them). Good info. Likewise, on the CL teardrop, unless you have gorilla hands I doubt you'll notice the .75 mm shorter heighth.

BTW, Ken, we cut this last batch a little thin, so once you place your order you'll be getting something on the order of .65-70 mm thickness, since that's what we have in the barn now. If you wanna swap it out later in 30 days, no problemo.

thanks,
scott

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Guitar Picks

BTW, Ken, we cut this last batch a little thin, so once you place your order you'll be getting something on the order of .65-70 mm thickness, since that's what we have in the barn now. If you wanna swap it out later in 30 days, no problemo.

thanks,
scott

Hi Scott,

Ooops! I should have checked your website before posting! It seems I remember that you had .75 mm CL Brown picks for sale awhile back or is my 66-year-old memory playing tricks on me? Thanks.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Hi Scott,

Ooops! I should have checked your website before posting! It seems I remember that you had .75 mm CL Brown picks for sale awhile back or is my 66-year-old memory playing tricks on me? Thanks.

Ken, I've moved my response and the rest of this discussion down to my Marketplace Ad. I want to respect AGFs policy of keeping the main Board for general discusssion, not promotional efforts.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...83#post4991483

Also, I sent you a PM on a somewhat related topic, when you get around to reading it.

take care,
sm

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by Kyle76

I would say it's definitely worth trying a high-end pick to see if you not only like the sound but the way it feels in your hand. I use Blue Chip picks (yet to try Charmed Life) because I find them "grippier" than celluloid picks. Worrying less about pick slippage is great for beginners as it's one less thing you have to think about. There's enough to think about as it is.

Yes, many players comment upon the "grippiness" (to use your term) of that material.

What's weird is, that same material also has a slightly self-lubricating property that was intentionally designed into it by the manufacturer. It also has a melting point of about 900 degress farenheit. That's why it is often used to replaced metal bearings, especially in high-performance aircraft applications where every ounce matters.

Very interesting material with an almost contradicatory set of values -- which is why it makes such great guitar picks.

scott memmer