Custom Built Guitars
Shown here are some of the guitars we have built - let us build your dream guitar for you too!
Click on each photo to enlarge.
Scroll down further to see some of our Project Guitars.
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CUSTOM 'ALL-BLACK' FENDER STRATOCASTER
Our latest custom build started with a Mexican Strat body. Added to this were a 1986 Fender Contemporary Strat neck, vintage Fender Japan tuners, Seymour Duncan SSL-3 pickups, a Callaham tremolo block and arm, chrome hardware and 3-ply black pickguard and rear tremolo cover plate.
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60's/70's STYLE FENDER STRATOCASTER
This custom built Strat features a superb cherry sunburst ash body, a Fender late 60's reissue Strat neck with Gotoh tuners, Wizard 'Texas' Strat pickups, chrome hardware, black pickguard and a 2-point synchronized tremolo.
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FENDER '58 RELIC STRATOCASTER
Based on a 1958 Stratocaster, this guitar was built with a teal blue solid ash relic Fender Strat body, a Japanese Fender '58 reissue Strat neck, aged gold hardware, Fender Jeff Beck Hot Noiseless pickups, gold Kluson-type staggered tuners, an aged mint green pickguard and aged plastic parts.
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FENDER TELECASTER
This beautiful sunburst Fender Telecaster was assembled with a 3-tone sunburst Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster body, a Deluxe Series Fender Telecaster neck, a gold American Vintage '52 Telecaster bridge, Wilkinson compensated bridge saddles, gold Kluson Deluxe tuners, GFS pickups, a custom made 3-ply pickguard, gold Fender hardware and custom switching.
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'1962 JAZZ' STYLE ELECTRIC BASS
A superb custom bass, this 'J' style was built with a licensed Candy Apple Red body and vintage style neck, custom pickups and electronics, Fender vintage reproduction tuners and bridge, red tortoiseshell pickguard and D'Addario flatwound strings
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CUSTOM TELECASTER GUITAR
We built this guitar with a wine red solid ash body, a 1990's Japanese Squier Telecaster neck, Gotoh tuners, GFS 'hot vintage' Telecaster pickups, a Fender 50's Reissue Telecaster bridge, a Fender 4-way pickup selector switch and chrome hardware.
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FENDER SQUIER '51 GUITAR
This particular model has had most of the parts upgraded, essentially resulting in a whole new guitar. Added to the original Squier '51 2-tone sunburst body were a new neck with custom headstock decal, a new GFS custom 3-ply black pickguard, a Kent Armstrong humbucker (bridge position), a vintage Fender Strat single coil pickup (neck position) and a GFS hardtail bridge.
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CUSTOM EPIPHONE LES PAUL JUNIOR
An example of how great a simple guitar can be. This was constructed with the neck and body from two separate Epiphone Juniors, vintage Kluson Deluxe Keystone tuners, a Gibson 'Super Vintage' P90 pickup, Gibson 'top hat' knobs and a Gotoh wraparound tailpiece.
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RELIC 'TELESTRAT' GUITAR
Initially built for use as a test guitar in our workshop, this one turned into quite a vibey little player with its own personality and character. It was built using a relic Telecaster body, a Stratocaster neck, a white pearl pickguard, aged chrome hardware and a set of active EMG Telecaster pickups.
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Project Guitars
Epiphone G-400 SG Electric Guitar
This guitar had a broken neck, which had then been reglued by its owner. It had no electronics or hardware, so in order to make it a useable guitar again it was fitted with two hot Gibson humbuckers, a new bridge and tailpiece, new pots, jack and switch, new Grover tuners and a new rear control cavity plate. It was then set up with new strings.
Epiphone Les Paul Junior Platinum Edition
Take a $100 Epiphone Les Paul Junior and add a Bigsby vibrato, Grover tuners, a Gibson Burstbucker Pro pickup, a new bridge and new Gibson knobs. What do you end up with? A very cool looking and superb sounding little guitar that's great for live and studio work.
Vintage Harmony/Silvertone Hollow Bodied Electric Guitar
This guitar landed in our workshop in a very sorry state. Initial research strongly suggested that it was a US-made Harmony 'Stratotone' electric guitar from the 1960's. That was partially correct; it turned out that it is actually a Harmony-made 'Silvertone' Stratotone. After considering using it as a 'wall-hanger', we decided to have a go at repairing and restoring it, and make it playable and useable again.
Because of the awful shape it was in when we got it keeping it 'vintage' just wasn't an option, so we decided to have some fun. We added some more contemporary features while trying to retain the original character and sound of the guitar. Luckily it came with the still-working original single coil pickups but needed new electronics, hardware, bridge and tuners.
The configuration we decided upon kept the stock pickups in their original locations, but instead of individual volume and tone controls for each pickup there are now master volume and tone controls with a three-way pickup selector switch. We also installed Kluson tuners with white buttons, and had a white pearloid pickguard specially made for the guitar.
Sound-wise, it's somewhere between a Gretsch Duo-Jet and a Danelectro U2. The original pickups are very weak with a DC resistance reading of only about 3.4k ohms each, so it's necessary to turn up the volume on the amp a bit (never a bad thing!). With the Bigsby-style vibrato it's possible to achieve some nice vintage (albeit quiet) tones. The restoration was documented and recorded with photographs following the entire process, which you can see below.
"Fender", "Stratocaster", "Strat", "Telecaster", "Tele", "Squier", "Precision Bass", "P-Bass" and "Jazz Bass" are registered trademarks of the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC).
