The MooPick story
“What is the best material for a guitar plectrum?” The subject of a slightly intoxicated kitchen discussion sometime over the 2014-2015 festive period in a household with more stringed instruments than residence and where the music rarely stop’s. A myriad of picks of all shapes, sizes, colours and prices was on a computer screen, cheap bargain bags up to the super expensive, hand crafted in exotic materials.
Many have an opinion, “I like them thin and flexible”, “Thicker the better for the tone”, “Can’t use the things, me fingers are good enough!” opinions based more on how they preferred a pick to perform rather than a material choice. On questioning the web we found, although banned, the shell of the Hawksbill sea Turtle is traditionally assumed to be the best all around material for guitar and other stringed instruments. “Disgusting! Wouldn’t play with one even if it was the best” was heard, fortunately we found Casein plastic was an available alternative which could be made to have the same properties both physically and aesthetically as the endangered turtle shell. Having some experience of this material having done a few experiments some years previously and my background in working with different materials and processes I found myself saying I would make some picks out of casein and we would find out what it was all about.
What started perhaps as a rash statement of intention turned into a 2 year quest to manufacture a product with this mostly forgotten material. Research involved much reading of very old books and patents rarely less than 60 years old for clues on how to best deal with the peculiarities of creating with this now unusual material. I have investigated many different sources of the protein and many different methods of acquiring it from milk. I have explored different ways of colouring, shaping, drying and polishing Casein to produce a reliable material and quality product. For each of the numerous stages in manufacturing with Casein I have had to create my own, possibly unique solutions to best exploit the behaviour of the material while in a workable state making machines and facilities from scratch as I went, mainly due to the absence of any proprietary machinery for working with this specific material.
This work continues as I would like to further improve and expand my products and include new ones, hopefully to include plectrums made from vegetable protein.
It has been a great journey of discovery creating the MooPick, I am very pleased with how they have turned out and hope you buy and enjoy my product.
Many have an opinion, “I like them thin and flexible”, “Thicker the better for the tone”, “Can’t use the things, me fingers are good enough!” opinions based more on how they preferred a pick to perform rather than a material choice. On questioning the web we found, although banned, the shell of the Hawksbill sea Turtle is traditionally assumed to be the best all around material for guitar and other stringed instruments. “Disgusting! Wouldn’t play with one even if it was the best” was heard, fortunately we found Casein plastic was an available alternative which could be made to have the same properties both physically and aesthetically as the endangered turtle shell. Having some experience of this material having done a few experiments some years previously and my background in working with different materials and processes I found myself saying I would make some picks out of casein and we would find out what it was all about.
What started perhaps as a rash statement of intention turned into a 2 year quest to manufacture a product with this mostly forgotten material. Research involved much reading of very old books and patents rarely less than 60 years old for clues on how to best deal with the peculiarities of creating with this now unusual material. I have investigated many different sources of the protein and many different methods of acquiring it from milk. I have explored different ways of colouring, shaping, drying and polishing Casein to produce a reliable material and quality product. For each of the numerous stages in manufacturing with Casein I have had to create my own, possibly unique solutions to best exploit the behaviour of the material while in a workable state making machines and facilities from scratch as I went, mainly due to the absence of any proprietary machinery for working with this specific material.
This work continues as I would like to further improve and expand my products and include new ones, hopefully to include plectrums made from vegetable protein.
It has been a great journey of discovery creating the MooPick, I am very pleased with how they have turned out and hope you buy and enjoy my product.