We just donated several custom picks to a local business called Dasil, they are a Community Drop-In Center for people with disabilities, the homeless, and those struggling with poverty and is a non-profit organization. They recently approached us for a donation of custom picks to use as their business cards for the Project Homeless Connect 2009 event on June 5th. We agreed to give them several picks, which you can see in the scan. They actually requested that we put our logo on the picks which was kind of them . The Project will be providing many services such as medical/dental screenings, hygiene products, meals, childcare, vision screening, employment counseling, mental health screening, financial conseling, clothing, domestic violence services, haircuts, sleeping bags/blankets as well as several more. We are proud to have our picks featured in this amazing event in our community and hope it helps people find their way to Dasil or other organizations like it.

I knew when I saw these picks that it was something familar! If you don’t know this band has songs on the soundtracks of Robert Rodriguez‘s films Desperado and From Dusk till Dawn. We just shipped out an order of several picks for them. They ordered Acetal, Rounded Triangle, 1.52mm. These colors turned out just amazing on the Acetal. It is actually very bright and stands out very well. You can check out their music on their official website by clicking here. I just got done checking it out myself…and I have to say that they are really good! I like the sound of the singers voice, it is very unique. The lyrics seem very interesting, may have to look those up . We use to suggest white delrin for hot pink/magenta but now that we’ve seen this on the acetal it’s a toss up. It turned out just a bright as the white delrin would! These are a new staff favorite, someone even called them cute, haha.

We often get asked if we can imprint photographs on picks, and the answer is yes we can! Here are some examples of our most recent photo orders. There are two printed on white delrin and two on acetal. Normally we suggest acetal for most photographs as it tends to take all shades very well including the lighter tones. Especially if you have a paler skin tone you might want to go with acetal. All photos we print on our picks will have a glossy finish to them wether you get acetal or white delrin. As you can see in the example the way the photo turns out on the two materials is quite different. If you are getting a black/white photo you should definently go with the acetal, as lighter grey does not turn out well on white delrin. If you are getting a photo with very bright colors in it then either pick will work however due to the bright white surface of delrin it will be brighter on derlin. There also is usually no problem with convering the entire pick with a full bleed of the photo like the group on Acetal. Although sometimes the border does look nice. The last thing we’d like to mention is that unfortuantely not all flesh tones turn out on either pick, some may look somewhat transclucent, if this is the case we will let you know if it will not turn out. We hope that this aids you in any questions you may have had regarding getting photos imprinted on picks. If you still have some questions don’t hestiate to send us an email questions@steveclayton.com

We just completed a new order of picks for Intel. We have done picks for them in the past on Acetal, White Delrin and Blue Delrin. This time they chose to go with the White Delrin which complements their blue logo very well! We often make picks for companies, and not just guitarists . Custom Picks are a great way to promote your business! Instead of handing out the traditional business card, hand out a custom guitar pick instead. It’s very memorable and won’t just get thrown in a walet, trash or forgotten. Also, if your having an event for your company this would be a great hand out instead of pens, pencils or notepads. Yes, the pick is small but believe it or not we can fit a ton of text on these! We can often fit a logo with a phone and email on one side of the pick. If you are hosting a large event and are in need of more then 1,000 picks we can print in much larger quanties up to the 1,000,000′s . Just call us for a quote, we also can accomadate most in hands dates.

Looking for a pick that is a specific color? We can help! We offer Color Pearl in almost every color imaginable. We have a color chart on our designer that allows you to choose from 256 colors. Here are examples of some color pearl we did this week. These picks take 4-6 weeks for production. Because these picks are already so colorful the imprint color is black ink only. It stands out on just about every color. We often get asked if we can do a black pearl pick. We do not have black pearl but we can do a very dark gray. The color pearl picks are made out of the same premium celluloid material as our White Pearl picks. It is available in Standard, and Rounded Triangle shape in 6 gauges. This pick truly is an all around custom pick!

Yes, believe it or not we do get orders for picks that have completely adorable artwork on it. The scan for this post is of picks that prompted us to make this post. They were printed on Ultem, in the small teardrop shape. Normally we just imprint brown, red and black because they seem to imprint best on the ultem. However, since this was a thinner gauge we were able to get the yellow, orange, pink and blue to turn out quite well. We really suggest the black, brown and red because we are certain these colors always turn out well. However, we are not opposed to trying new colors so feel free to submit an order with different colors if you like. We will always send a message if we feel that it will not turn out before sending it on to production, or if it didn’t after production. These picks really are adorable, there’s just no other way to put it! Everyone here who was shown them gave the same response “Aww!” even if they wouldn’t admit it .

You may have noticed we ship out our custom guitar picks really, really quick. We are the fastest by far in the business. Most of our competition takes anywhere from 2-8 weeks to ship a custom order out. So, why are we able to print our picks so fast? Well, we have been doing this for 30 years, and have managed to streamline everything down to a quick and efficient process. Also this is our full time job and we have lots of dedicated professionals working at it.! A lot of our competitor websites are individuals working out of their home/ garage, and most of them have a different full time job. So, since they have so much other stuff going on, they tend to have long lead times. So when you are looking for a place to buy your picks from, taking a look at their lead time will let you know how devoted to their company they are.

A lot of our competitors also have a long turn-around time so that they can charge your card and hold onto the funds for that whole time… which is less than ideal. So basically if they take 4 weeks to ship your picks, that is 4 weeks that you have paid for those picks. At Clayton, Inc. even though we don’t take long to ship most orders, we don’t even charge your card until the picks have shipped. So you never have to worry about that!

There are some exceptions to our 48 hour shipping window though. It does not include weekends or holiday. Also, if we have to contact you regarding your artwork, then the 48 hour window starts over again once we are able to place your order into production. We will not rush your order through to make the time window if it means hurting the quality of the final product.

Here are the most common problems that can slow your order down:

#1: Too small of text – This by far is #1! When you are designing your pick in our designer, there is a small replica of your design in actual size in the lower left area of the window. If you can’t read it there, then you don’t want to submit the artwork, because you won’t be able to read it on the pick. If we think your text or graphic is too small, we will contact you and put your order on hold status because we want to make sure your text or images are clear and visible on the pick.

#2: Wrong selection of pricing – If you accidentally upload a full color graphic, but select single color pricing and submit the artwork as single color, your order will often get placed on hold so that we can verify with you if you want a graphic artist to turn the image all to one color, or if you want to upgrade your pricing.

#3. Complex artwork - If you haven’t already noticed we deal with a lot of complex artwork. It takes work to make it look good. We may do a run of your picks and decide they don’t quite look right, so the graphic artists will revisit the image, and order a re-print of the job until it looks good. Artwork like this may take up to a week to ship out. Also some-times artwork that contain over-bleeds can take a little longer as well.

#4. Out of stock material- This is really rare, but on occasion, we will be out of stock on a certain gauge of material, which can cause a delay. We notify our customers of this delay and always offer that they can switch to a different gauge or material if they are in a rush.

#5. Specialty Picks - We have a few specialty picks that don’t fit in the 48 hour time frame. These include Black Raven (4-6 weeks), Just Text (10 working days) and Colored Pearl (3 weeks). So if you are in a rush, we don’t recommend ordering these materials.

Hope that helps educate you on how we are able to ship fast, and how you can help ensure your order ships out fast. If you want to read more reasons on why you should choose Clayton Custom as your company of choice, please visit Why Choose Clayton.

We received another set of contracts back from Glasstone Records, this one is for the band Brotherhood of the Lake. They are located in Plymouth, United Kingdom. This band is considered metal/rock/hardcore. While listening to their press kit I definitely got the idea that they were a heavy metal band. Which it was great to hear for a change, since we’ve been receiving mostly rock/punk/country press kits lately, which of course is just as great! We like variety around here, music is music, right? We are more then interested in reviewing all stages of bands, and in endorsing new bands. If you are interested in an endorsement and use our products you can mail us a press kit to:

Steve Clayton Inc.

Attn: Endorsement Relations

201 Rogue River Pkwy

Talent OR 97540

Every once in awhile when I am looking for something in my office I come across a custom pick we did from a long time ago. Just today I happened upon this Johnny Cash pick that we made. This exact pick is probably about 18 years old! Yes, very old. It is our Rounded Triangle Acetal (in Black) Johnny’s signature color, with his signature on it in white, gauge .50mm. Johnny loved our Acetal so much, but didn’t want it in white, so we had our Acetal material made in black just special for him. This pick is pretty hard to come by now a days because Johnny didn’t use them as his toss out picks. They are the true picks he played with and loved. I have often seen this pick go for over $100 on ebay. So if you ever come across this pick or already have it in your collection, It was made by Clayton! From what I know most other Johnny Cash picks are either newly made fakes, or were his toss out picks. Johnny ordered 1,000′s of picks from us until his passing in 2003. He actually ordered so often from us that we would pre-make the picks a head of time. So when Johnny passed we were left with about 2,000 of his printed picks that were made in advance. People who knew we made the pick have called and begged for at least one of them, but sorry we will not give or sell the picks. They were only meant for Johnny.

You know it is right around the corner! If your Father is a guitarist then you know that a boring tie just won’t do! So, why not give him a gift that he will smile at every time he plays his guitar… Custom Picks! We have tons of affordable options that are sure to fit any budget. For just $24.99 plus $5.00 shipping you can put any saying you want onto a guitar pick for good old Dad. Perhaps “Dad you Rock” or “I love you Dad” are always classic options each year. For a little more money you can add graphics also, your options are practically endless.

If you think your Dad would have more fun designing the picks himself, then we suggest getting him one of our Custom Guitar Pick Gift Cards starting at only $30. You can order these from us online, and shipping is free!!! Each card comes nicely packaged with a scratch-off code on each one. All Dad has to do is go to our pick designer at www.claytoncustom.com and design his pick. Once it is looking just how he wants, he redeems the card with the number on back, and he pays nothing not even shipping! Either option is a great gift that Dad is sure to love this upcoming Father’s Day.

We print hundreds of thousands of Father’s Day picks each year. We will keep you updated with some of our favorites in future postings.