Charmed Life

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by s2y

I just ordered a CLF 1.15 and an NFR 1.0. Can't wait to try them out!

Hi, thanks for your post. Happy New Year.

I saw an order come through, but it only had the clf-1.15 on it. That's totally cool. I assume you changed your mind about the nfr-1.0, so just wanted to let you know I saw only the one order.

Thanks for your interest in CLP. Please feel free to post here or PM with any questions.

Happy 2018!

scott

[David MacNeill]

Aside from the traditional shape and thinner profiles you offer, how do your “n” series picks compare with John Pearce Fast Turtle picks? Are they casein protein based? I can see your picks are impressively polished and beveled, but they are three to four times the cost of the JP picks.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by David MacNeill

Aside from the traditional shape and thinner profiles you offer, how do your “n” series picks compare with John Pearce Fast Turtle picks? Are they casein protein based? I can see your picks are impressively polished and beveled, but they are three to four times the cost of the JP picks.

David, hi, I just realized you posted this question in two different threads, so I thought I'd answer it hear too, to avoid any confusion.

You'll find us pretty transparent about the way we do things, so I hope you find this information useful....


David, hi, Happy New Year. I hadn't been on here in a couple days, then just happened to notice your post.

I'm glad you asked, and I always play it straight.

The Jon Pearse picks are excellent picks and a superb value. In fact I first discovered the casein material myself as a player about four years ago through the JP models. Yes, we both use casein material. In fact, the casein industry, which was founded in Germany (JP is a German company, I believe) is almost dead, with almost every manufacturer gone out of business, but what's left is all in Europe. You can't buy the material in this country.

The JP models are excellent, but limited in selection and application. Again, I love them, but for one thing they only offer this funky offset point, which as a player drove me crazy. I finally had to write a "T" on the top, so I knew which side faced me when playing. But the material itself is a dream.

We try to be very traditional in our designs, with standard tris and teardrops, no weird features or doodads. Maybe that's why they sell so well, not sure. The red material is also casein, but we own a worldwide exclusive on that color so it's sorta supply and demand. People seem to like it. The red teardrop, at $40 a throw, is the number one seller in our entire company.

We searched two years to find the red material. Very shortly we'll be unveiling our new "flame" color, also a CLP exclusive.



The market is what it is. The JP picks are great and you should continue to play them.

BTW, you probably already know this, but we are also the only other company in the world using the same material as Blue Chip, which you'll see in our brown models.

Feel free to post other questions or PM me, or, if not, just have a great holiday and thanks for your interest in CLP. Very much appreciate it.

Scott

[David MacNeill]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

I'm glad you asked, and I always play it straight.

Thanks for the detailed reply. What drew me to check out your company is the 1mm and smaller profiles you make. I love the warm, precise tone of the Fast Turtles but I want something a little smaller and a little thinner with the same wear and feel characteristics. I also appreciate your choice of alternate colors; every time I drop a tan pick, it instantly turns into the color of the floor.

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

The market is what it is.

Indeed. I don’t mind paying more for the perfect design and I would never begrudge anyone from making a profit on their excellent work. That’s why I’m a Collings guy.

All this said, I intend to put in my order soon.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by David MacNeill

Thanks for the detailed reply. What drew me to check out your company is the 1mm and smaller profiles you make. I love the warm, precise tone of the Fast Turtles but I want something a little smaller and a little thinner with the same wear and feel characteristics. I also appreciate your choice of alternate colors; every time I drop a tan pick, it instantly turns into the color of the floor.



Indeed. I don’t mind paying more for the perfect design and I would never begrudge anyone from making a profit on their excellent work. That’s why I’m a Collings guy.

All this said, I intend to put in my order soon.

David, sure, my pleasure.

BTW, you may tend to lose a little of the warmth you mentioned, depending on which models you order. In an identical pick material, when you go thinner, you introduce just a hair more high end, combined with a tiny loss of bass. Again, this is across all materials. If you're talking the nf-75ss, though, you'll love that thing. It came about by accident: I sanded a 1.0 mm down too low, then said, "Hey, let's take it down to .75 mm and see what happens." I kept waiting for that thing to break, but I played it for six months solid with no issues.

Collings. Cool. You playing a D1? I don't think there's a better shop on the planet. We love appearing in the same sentence with them hehe.

Speaking of losing picks in the carpet.... If I'm sitting in our living room buffing one of our brown models... we have a dark brown shag carpet and a dark brown leather sofa. If I drop a pick, I'm screwed. My wife finds them all the time. LOL.

take care,
scott

[s2y]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

Hi, thanks for your post. Happy New Year.

I saw an order come through, but it only had the clf-1.15 on it. That's totally cool. I assume you changed your mind about the nfr-1.0, so just wanted to let you know I saw only the one order.

Thanks for your interest in CLP. Please feel free to post here or PM with any questions.

Happy 2018!

scott

PM'd. 123456

[s2y]

Originally Posted by David MacNeill

Aside from the traditional shape and thinner profiles you offer, how do your “n” series picks compare with John Pearce Fast Turtle picks? Are they casein protein based? I can see your picks are impressively polished and beveled, but they are three to four times the cost of the JP picks.

Speaking of John Pearse, have you tried their Handfull of Picks combo pack? I played them all and their dimpled bone pick is currently my go to. Might order a 6 pack of those after my Charmed Life picks arrive. The material, bevel, and thickness work perfectly for my technique and guitars seem louder. Mine is getting very worn down.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by s2y

Speaking of John Pearse, have you tried their Handfull of Picks combo pack? I played them all and their dimpled bone pick is currently my go to. Might order a 6 pack of those after my Charmed Life picks arrive. The material, bevel, and thickness work perfectly for my technique and guitars seem louder. Mine is getting very worn down.

Interestingly, bone is actually not considered that dense of a material. Magnified, it has millions of tiny air pockets. That's probably why it wears so quickly as a plectrum. Conversely, I suspect those air bubbles are what make it such a perfect saddle material. Somehow, those bubbles must act like millions of tiny loudspeakers, all of them resonating slightly to amplify signal. My take anyway.

scott

[s2y]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

Interestingly, bone is actually not considered that dense of a material. Magnified, it has millions of tiny air pockets. That's probably why it wears so quickly as a plectrum. Conversely, I suspect those air bubbles are what make it such a perfect saddle material. Somehow, those bubbles must act like millions of tiny loudspeakers, all of them resonating slightly to amplify signal. My take anyway.

scott

Makes sense. It seems to be wearing fairly fast, given how thick it is.

[Charmed Life Picks]

Originally Posted by s2y

Makes sense. It seems to be wearing fairly fast, given how thick it is.

I've heard that from other players over and over. Glad you like the tone, though.

sm

[caimi]

I have a question for the Charmed Life Guy and thanks in advance for your response. For electric guitars I've used the Fender Heavy tortoise looking pick for years. But I file the thickness of the pointiest part of the pick for picking accuracy. So, I like the rigid Heavy pick, which is probably 1.00, but the thinner tip, which is probably .75 or thinner. Also, I have no idea what material the tortoise looking Fender picks are made of but I like the hardness for the tone they prouce. So what Charmed Life pick would I choose to approximate what I'm using?

[Charmed Life Picks]

Hi, I shut it down for the day to hang with my honey. Definitely, you'd want to look at the brown or black lines, either 1.0 mm or .75 mm. These materials have a very similar feel to the Fenders you play, made of celluloid, and many electric players love them. They also kick butt on steel string acoustic, so they're a double threat.

Thanks for your question.

Happy New Year!

Scott

[David MacNeill]

Originally Posted by Charmed Life Picks

BTW, you may tend to lose a little of the warmth you mentioned, depending on which models you order.

Collings. Cool. You playing a D1?

I can only use my JP Fast Turtles for melodic lines. When I strum with them they are too “clacky” and don’t record well, so I fall back on Dunlop Ultex .73 dulls. My hope is that your .75 casein pick will do both jobs, as well as warm up my CA OX stage guitar — I really want to find One Pick to Rule Them All.

In my studio I write on a D2HG and a B2H.

[Groberts]

Well I ordered a couple CL picks to see what works . Starting with black 1.0 and a Tort .90 to see if maybe that gives a little more detail and high end. Although normally I have plenty of highs on my D-18 (2015j and m6 Collings OM1A and Collings OM2H Madi/ German. Will be fun to find out how these work out.

Been using Dunlop ultex 1.0 for along time. But have a Blue chip TD50 that I use when recording.

Edit: Guess I didnt see that paypal kicked me back to the CL website. So on second thought, ordered a RED.

[Mr Fingers]

V-Picks and Gravity picks, both made from acrylic, work well for me on electric -- I like the Razer (pointed) shape as it is both fast and expressive. But on acoustic, I find that acrylic creates not only excessive pick noise, but a pretty ugly squeal. The CL Red is my preference for acoustic. I find that it has a better feel on the string even than BC (the contact actually feels ridiculously good -- really pleasurable. Try it!), has little pick noise (no click, no squeal), and has just that perfect bit of give to crete exceptional touch without really displacing the pick tip. As the posts indicate, CL is the one maker really working with thin (or as I would put it, not-excessively-thick) picks. I don't know why the mania for unresilient thick picks developed, but CL manages to produce picks that feel really precise and strong without feeling totally, dead rigid. I honestly enjoy paying money for a distinctively fine product made by a good guy.