Custom building usually starts with an idea from the customer.
It's hard to get away from the standards set in the past by all the majors - Gibson, Fender, Rickenbacker,Gretsch, Epiphone, etc. because their designs have been burnt into our psyches It's hard for us to deviate too much from the normal shapes we have become familiar with. Because of this, most custom builds start from, or are influenced by historic designs such as a Strat, Les Paul, Tele etc. etc.
If you have an idea for a design and need someone to get it together, drop me a mail with your thoughts, I don't make hundreds of instruments, each one is normally the result of someone wanting the unusal or hard to find instrument - I like a challenge.
Here's a few completed projects .........
Totally custom 7 string. Flamed maple top on Brazillian mahogany, 5 piece maple neck with ebony fingerboard bound in tortoise celluloid, jumbo stainless steel frets. Kahler seven string bridge, Steinberg tuners, EMG electronics.
A dry run with the 7 String kahler trem
The blue stain is first rubbed into the flamed maple top, a blue burst was then sprayed over subsequent clear coats.
Armed with it's hardware and electronics.
Stainless steel frets in an ebony fingerboard bound in tortoise celluloid.
Prototype Scroll as a 12 string.
Here's a dry run of the hardware being fitted prior to spraying and control holes being drilled.
Here's a few shots of the finished item.
The bridge is a Gotoh fully adjustable type, 6 strings feed through the body and 6 through the rear of the bridge - all 12 saddles are adjustable for correct intonation. (unlike a standard Rick!).
The pickups are Dimarzio mini humbuckers as used on Firebirds and LP Deluxe's - they're wired in PRS fashion with a 5 position rotary selector switch, vol and tone - on a six string guitar I'm not a great fan of this arrangement but on the 12st its superb for those jangly, phasey split coil sounds.
Tuners are Gotoh 510's with an 18:1 ratio, ensuring accurate tuning.
Body is Mahogany with a quilted maple top, Cuban mahogany 5 piece laminated neck, ebony fingerboard and Dunlop 6230 frets.
The following guitar is one that I have put together for myself, not that I think it will be mine for very long (bank manager knocking! (Sorry had to sell it - bank manager got the second best deal!!). Construction is Mahogany body with a AAAA flamed maple top, Maple neck with Indian rosewood fingerboard, Dunlop 6230 frets.
The guitar is wired as a normal Tele with a three-way switch, the middle pickup being added to any combination with a push/push switch located on the volume control - one of the only ways of acheiving front and back pickup, in other words standard Tele middle position.
The bridge is a Fishman Powerbridge, wired via a stereo output socket. When a normal mono jack lead is used you only get the normal magnetic pickups, when a stereo lead is used the second circuit gives the output of the Piezo bridge.
I had to try these new Steinberger tuners - a real innovation away from traditional tuners, they won't float everyone’s boat but they are impressive. The ratio is a stunning 40:1, there are no windings whatsoever, the string is pulled in a straight line down into the tuner. My initial reservation was that they were a little heavy, but the finished guitar doesn't suffer.
Another Scroll 12 string completed recently ........
Martin OOO style - Cocobolo back and sides, Bearclaw sitka spruce top, ebony fingerboard, 5 piece laminated neck.
Interesting Weissenborne project -
