CLAYTON HISTORY

Clayton Custom and its parent company Steve Clayton, Inc. is a manufacturer of musical accessories, primarily guitar picks based in Talent, Oregon. Founded by Steve Clayton, who started in the music business in 1966 at the age of 16. The first products produced were poster chord charts sold to music stores across the nation. The business then evolved into a music store in Calabasas California (Clayton Family pictured cir. 1981). Once moving to Oregon the company shifted into manufacturing, starting with guitar picks. The company grew quickly, supplying music stores across the world with its high-quality musical accessories. The first company logo and picks featured an elephant to exhibit strength, and then shortly evolved to their now famous eagle logo. The company has now grown to occupy a 16,000 square foot factory and serve millions of customers around the world.

High-profile musicians found Clayton picks to have superior quality to the competition, and started requesting that Clayton picks be made with their logo on them. Some of the first musicians with Clayton Custom imprinted picks in the early ’90s were Jonny Cash and Ted Nugent. These picks are now highly prized among collectors, and both are printed on Clayton’s signature Acetal material.

Clayton Custom was the first custom guitar pick company to go direct to the public offering lower quantities and full-color imprinting. Large bands generally were only able to create custom picks, however, quantities of only 30 or 100 pick made customized picks obtainable to the general public. Clayton Custom uses a proprietary printing method developed in-house to create full-color designs on guitar picks with fast turnaround time, amazing clarity and durability.