El Cheapo is a rock & roll cover band from Atlanta, GA fronted by “Stuff You Should Know” podcast host Chuck Bryant. They’ve been known to tear apart a basement or two and wake the neighbors in the name of a good time. After years of working day jobs, getting married and having babies, the band formed in 2007 under the original name The Cox Project. After toiling away for a year without a rhythm section, lead guitarist Eddie Cooper, bassist Chris Cox and Bryant landed a score in drummer Jim Issa, and El Cheapo was born.

The guys use Fender and Gibson guitars and amps, and Tama drums. Their original Steve Clayton pick was inspired by their loud, fast and nasty brand of rock & roll, and love of cheap beer. They can be found in various basements playing for their pet dogs, or rocking the house of 40^th birthday parties around Atlanta.

Every rock star needs their own custom guitar picks!  The Tone King has put together an amazing video that shows you how to place a custom guitar pick order through our website claytoncustom.com.  His demonstration shows how fun and simple it is to get your custom guitar picks.  In the video you’ll find the step-by-step process it takes to create these rock star picks.  If you would like to show your friends how to place an order this is the blog to bring them to.  Just tell them to go to SteveClayton.com and become a rock star today!  To get the ultimate reviews on gear and more info about The Tone King just visit his website thetoneking.com

We receive a lot of designs for custom picks that are music-related, but today we wanted to show some designs that combine the love for guitar with another passion. You can put anything that you have an interest in on a guitar pick, whether it be your awesome pet, your soccer craze, or your favorite motorcycle. The picks shown here all happen to be acetal, and the designs look great on them. Picks like these can make perfect gifts for the musician that you know. Don’t forget that Father’s Day is just around the corner. If there is a great dad that you know who plays guitar, and you are unsure of what to get for him, custom picks can be the perfect present! They are practical and personal at the same time. Visit our custom site to create an amazing Dad design today: Clayton Custom Site

Here at Clayton, we love to see the different designs that our customers submit to go on our custom guitar picks. Sometimes we notice that people want to include a lot of information on their picks, or they have a design that has a lot of detail and takes up quite a bit of space. We know that guitar picks are small, and sometimes it is hard to cram everything you want into a small space. This is why we wanted to offer a solution to the problem; learn how to maximize your guitar pick design space!! The first move is to choose the rounded triangle shape. Of course, the shape of a pick can be a personal preference for guitarists, but if you are focusing on the design aspect, the rounded triangle picks, like the ones shown here, will definitely give you the most design space. We offer rounded triangle in our acetal, white pearl, ultem, colored delrin, and colored pearl picks. Then, if you want even a little more space, choose the full bleed option in the website designer. This allows your design to run all the way to the edge of the pick, instead of having a border. All three picks shown in the image below are full bleed rounded triangle designs. Visit our custom design site to try out these options with your guitar pick art!

Danny Miranda has signed with Steve Clayton and told us today he is currently touring with Meatloaf.  Miranda chooses to play with our black raven rounded triangle .8mm and 1.0mm guitar picks.   He has played are recorded with many big name bands such as Queen, Blue Oyster Cult, and Faith And Fire.  Queen has produced 18 number one albums including their big hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” which was number one for nine weeks in the UK charts.  Below you can watch his bass solo with Queen from a live performance in 2008.  The Blue Oyster Cult’s music has been placed recently in video game soundtracks for Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Shaun White Snowboarding featuring their hits.  We are happy to support such talented artists.  If you would like to be endorsed by Steve Clayton you may find out how through our contact information.

When customers are designing custom picks to order from us, we usually advise against light colors because they don’t always print as well as bold, bright designs. However, if you have an awesome design with some lighter shades in it, we definitely recommend our acetal picks. Acetals are white, with a slight opaque quality to them. They are available in eight different gauges ranging from .38 mm to 1.9mm. They are also available in three different shapes; standard, rounded triangle and teardrop. We usually recommend acetal picks for photo designs as well. Because acetals are “grainy” and opaque, they hold light colors and lots of detail better than some of the other picks we offer for custom design. Shown here are some light-colored designs that we are proud of. The cupcake pick in this image was a good alternative to pink delrin, so that it could have a full color design instead of just black. The pick with caricatures on it is for a wedding…the perfect whimsical favor to give to guests! So if you tend to gravitate towards the lighter side when creating your custom pick designs, definitely go for acetal, starting at just $49 for 100 picks!! Design your pick here.

This week we selected a pick on our Green Delrin pick material, by a group named Trees on Fire. The quintet’s first full-length album Organica connects the dots between rock, dance, roots, and pop music. Recorded in Virginia and Louisiana, Organica takes listeners from the heights of the ancient Blue Ridge Mountains to the buzzing swamps and bayous of the bottom-land. Produced by Rob Evans, Eric Heigle, and Trees on Fire, the exciting original music captured on this recording is only a part of the legacy the band hopes to leave behind.

The band has raised awareness and funds for a number of organizations over its four years in existence, including Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Building Goodness Foundation, Climate Ride, Chesapeake Climate Action Network and others. Trees on Fire was voted “Greenest Regional Band” by Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine and had a song featured on Sierra Club’s national website earlier this year. The band will donate 5% of proceeds from its debut album to both Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and Appalachian Voices in an effort to keep their important work moving forward.

What an amazing and inspirational band! Check more out at their website: treesonfire.com

If you want to rock with your music let our white pearls provide the extra energy to your performance.  The white pearl custom guitar picks are a great choice for vibrant colors and colors that need a little extra to make them stand out. If you didn’t notice our pick of the week, from Bon Journey, you’ll see why they chose our pearl clayton guitar picks. The pearl look has been very popular for guitars and guitar picks. Our custom design team has been recommending the white pearl picks for light colors and brighter colors so that they come out well like the picks in the photo. To provide a little extra texture to your design the pearls help making a three dimensional look such like the Hadlock pick with the flames.  If you’d like to become a rockstar be sure to make your picks through our website claytoncustom.com

The sun is finally starting to shine, and we have the perfect summer picks at Steve Clayton! Shown here are our yellow and orange colored delrin guitar picks. The designs in this image are good examples of ones that work well on our colored delrins because they are simple and easy to see, even on the small pick size. Our colored delrins are among the less expensive picks that we offer for custom design. They are also a great material for customers who are interested in ordering less than 100 picks. If you have a design that only has text in it, you can get  a set of 30 custom colored delrin picks for just $24.99!! Keep in mind that the colored delrins have varying gauges to match the different colors. The yellow delrins shown here are .73 gauge, and the orange are .6. All of our gauges and colors are shown on our custom site at www.claytoncustom.com.We especially liked the design shown here for a group called The Flip Flops…what a perfect way to promote the band! So if you are preparing for  a summer rock concert, or just some acoustic outdoor playing, get yourself some bright picks for the season!!

Just recently Eric Church has helped out Nashville’s Humane Society by providing some supplies after the devastating floods. He has been asking for additional support from his fans.  You can support Nashville by going to Donate Nashville.  He currently is our featured artist on steveclayton.com.  His big hits “Love Your Love the Most,” and “Hell On The Heart”  are on his latest album Carolina.  Carolina debuted at #17 on the billboards top 200 list.  He chooses to play with our white delrin standard shape .8mm guitar picks and our rounded triangle pearl picks.

He will be putting on great shows throughout the year as he headlines the 2010 Jagermiester Country Music Tour. Find our more news and info through ericchurch.com.