Scott Memmer’s Charmed Life Picks Offers Handcrafted Alternatives to Tortoiseshell Plectrums
Scott Memmer of Charmed Life PicksFew would have ever guessed that a songwriter, playwright, and tenured English professor would gain renown for guitar picks made of casein and other high-performance plastics—least of all the professor himself. But as fate would have it, Scott Memmer’s cutting-edge products have indeed brought him lots of fans in the world of acoustic instruments.
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Memmer moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1969, eventually getting a BA in English before embarking on a lucrative career in sales. When he burned out on sales in his 40s, he went back to school and got a master’s in English from the University of Southern California. By then, the tortoiseshell picks he’d used on acoustic guitar since the 1970s were getting old and frayed. “I began making picks for myself with some of these materials I’d read about online,” he says. “Then someone asked me to make one for them, then his buddy, then his buddy, and six months later I’m in the pick business!”
Nearly a decade later, Memmer’s company, Charmed Life Picks, offers plectrums made from the organic material casein, as well as a selection of offerings cut from space-age materials like DuPont Vespel SP-1 polyimide, polyether ether ketone (PEEK), and a proprietary polymer he calls “black aerospace.” Each material boasts slightly different tonal properties: Casein comes closest to Memmer’s beloved tortoiseshell picks; the brown polyimide aerospace is warm and articulate while being far more durable than tortoiseshell or casein; and picks made of blonde and black aerospace have a brighter attack, with more bite, excellent for unamplified ensemble playing. Each pick comes in teardrop and triangle formations, available in several sizes from .75mm to 1.5mm.
Cerulean Casein Sea Turtle FundraiserMemmer’s deep dive into high-end polymers has taken him into topics as varied as petrochemicals, sintering, and semi-crystalline molecular structures—as well as “more than 10,000 hours” of trial and error while sanding, polishing, cutting, and machining. He has been rewarded by players who pay $40 and up for each one of his picks and buy his discounted, cosmetically imperfect “blems.” He’s also lauded for his free shipping policy, friendly online presence, attentive customer service, and no-questions-asked returns policy.
“Life’s too short to argue over a refund,” says the turtle conservationist and former surfer. “I’d rather lose a sale and make a friend. Plus, we don’t make everything in every material and every shape, although we’ve been fortunate to happen upon some unique and unusual materials with amazing mechanical properties. I just tell people, ‘Try them and see if you like them.’”
What is Vespel, and who else uses it for picks?
BlueChip is the only other company that offers picks made of Vespel, an aerospace polymer that’s the most expensive plastic on earth. If you’re building a jet fighter and every ounce matters in terms of fuel efficiency, you want the lightest and strongest material, and Vespel does the job better than many metals.
How does that make it good for picks?
Vespel has a fast release off the string, is slightly self-lubricating, and has an incredibly warm tone. I don’t think any plastic will ever completely replicate tortoiseshell, but Vespel—we just call it “brown aerospace”—comes pretty darn close. It’s also more durable than tortoiseshell. Some people have owned the same Vespel pick for five or ten years, with hardly any wear on the edge.
Conch Shell Casein TriangleDoes it cut through in a band situation?
In acoustic jams without amplification, the guitar is always the weak link—all the other instruments have to back away—so anything you can do to be heard over the banjos and mandolins is good. Our blonde and black aerospace picks go head to head with anything you throw at them and have a little more bite than Vespel. Players love them.
Besides aerospace materials, you also use casein, which can look almost identical to tortoiseshell.
When we started in 2016, we were just going to make Vespel picks, but then I played some casein picks by John Pearse and fell in love with them.
You list your .75mm casein picks as your favorites and the closest to tortoise tone.
Thin casein picks are incredible. As someone who has played all the major materials, I think casein has the closest tonal properties to genuine tortoise. These are superb for recording and studio work. However, just like tortoiseshell, casein will get brittle and chip over time—I don’t recommend that you do Pete Townshend–like windmills with them. But tone? Oh my. We’re the only company in the industry that offers picks made from both casein and Vespel.
What’s so special about tortoiseshell, and why is it the gold standard?
It’s the finest pick material you’ll ever find but is now highly illegal. Tortoise picks are thin but rigid, have just the right amount of flex, and are bright with a snappy kind of sizzle, but never harsh. That’s hard to find all in one material.
DuPont Vespel Sea TurtleHow does that inform the way you make your picks?
Even though its day has passed, tortoiseshell is, and always will be, our reference standard. We measure everything we make against tortoiseshell tone and feel. Here’s a funny note: I’ve been playing tortoise picks longer than most of my competitors have been alive. When tortoiseshell picks became illegal in 1977, I went to McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California, and bought the last of their picks. Ironically, they’re now one of our dealers.
How have the laws changed over the last few years?
It used to be that if you found a piece of tortoiseshell that was at least 80 years old, you could peel it off and cut picks out of it. That is known as repurposing. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has tightened up those regulations, and you can no longer take old tortoiseshell and change it from what it was originally designed to do.
How strict are they about it?
Is the FBI going to break down your door if you have a couple tortoise picks? No. The laws are focused mainly on international and interstate commerce. I’m not a tortoiseshell cop, but I feel it’s important that people understand that it is considered illegal to trade in this stuff. In the pick industry, we’re trying to move on from tortoiseshell by offering great materials that come very close to the real thing. Again, the tortoiseshell era has passed. That boat has sailed. The turtles are still being killed all over the world, mainly in Asia, as well as Central and South America.
What else do people make with tortoiseshell?
People have used it for combs and all kinds of jewelry for thousands of years. Tortoiseshell artifacts hold a special place in the pyramids of ancient Egypt. There are seven species of sea turtle, but only one—the hawksbill sea turtle, which crawls up on the beach and lays its eggs—produces the gorgeous shell we know as tortoiseshell, and it’s by far the most endangered sea turtle.
Green CaseinAre you doing anything to protect endangered sea turtles?
Yes. We are in the process of forming our own 501(c)(3) corporation, the Charmed Life Foundation, to raise and donate money to sea turtle preservation organizations. For the past two years, we’ve donated more than $1,500 through sea turtle fundraising pick models on our site. My dad, Franklin Memmer, was a biology teacher and an early ecologist, so I caught the conservation bug as a kid. So this effort is partly to honor the memory of him and my mother, Carolyn. I’ve also recently been invited by NAMM to participate in a music-industry sustainability project. We’re proud to take a leadership position in the music industry.
It’s unusual that you make so many picks under 1mm.
We go thinner than anyone else. The Fender medium, which is probably the most popular guitar pick in the world, is .73mm thick. We’re the only boutique pick company that offers thin picks under 1.0mm using the best materials.
Many of your customers seem to be country and bluegrass players who want speed and accuracy.
Bluegrassers are playing thicker picks; their sweet spot tends to be mostly triangles in the 1.25 to 1.50mm range. These are bulletproof. They’ll never break and may not even show wear.
Imitation Tortoise CaseinDo you do speed bevels, too?
I would say that 90 percent of our picks leave with right-hand bevels, but we’re happy to do lefty or standard rounded bevels on request, for no extra charge.
What’s more important in a pick, feel or tone?
Even if there’s no sonic difference between a cheap pick and a boutique pick, many players will choose a boutique pick because they like the feel of it. Many play them on both acoustics and electrics. Have you seen the picks Django Reinhardt used? They’re gigantic. They’re canoes! You have to find what works for you.
So, material trumps everything else?
Even in our first year in business, when we were still working on our fit and finish, people would tell us how much they loved our picks. The fact that we use the best materials available shined through, even if the polish, sanding, or edges weren’t perfect. In real estate they say it’s all about location, location, location; for picks I say material, material, material.
Your picks and your customer service get high marks online.
I’ve always felt that if you have a high-end product, you must match it with high-end customer service. More than 50 percent of our sales every month come from return- ing customers.
What made you decide to sell blemished and b-stock picks?
It just makes good business sense. We have so many hours and dollars tied up in our blems, so when we go to shows, we gladly sell them at 25 to 35 percent off. We like saving people money. Most of the blemishes have just minor cosmetic issues, and the picks play like new.
Vintage Cabernet Casein 1R TriangleWhat do you say to folks who consider your picks expensive?
I tell people to let their ears and hands guide them. It’s fun to hand someone a pick, walk away, let them play with it, and watch them come back to us wide-eyed. I do find it ironic, though, that some people will play a $5,000 or $10,000 acoustic guitar with a pick that is not helping them get most of what that guitar has to offer. Another way to think of it is, a high-end pick is about the price of three sets of strings, but it will last forever.
A pick makes that much difference?
After your strings and your setup, a pick will change the tone of an acoustic guitar more than any other element in the signal chain. It’s the point of contact between the player and the instrument.
What’s easier to work with—the casein or the aerospace materials?
Casein is miserable—it warps, it doesn’t like heat, it doesn’t like sanding, it doesn’t like water, it doesn’t like anything. But the material itself is not expensive. Aerospace materials are just the opposite: very expensive, but much easier to work with.
What other materials might you work with in the future?
There are more than 100 industrial engineering plastics and aerospace polymers that have never been made into picks by anyone. BlueChip opened a Pandora’s box [laughs]! The search is so much fun. We currently have four materials in prototype. We will continue to be a leader in discovering and introducing new materials to the industry.
What are your plans for the future?
We would like to partner with one or two major artists to develop a signature model to their specs, but only if there’s a charitable fundraising aspect connected to the project. We’re also interested in talking to select retailers both in the U.S. and abroad for future growth. Our production is increasing, and we’re well positioned for a bright future.
Nine years into this adventure, how do you feel about where you are?
We’re still learning, but we’ve come a long way. We’ve shipped picks all over the world that have made music more beautiful for thousands of people. What’s better than that?
