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Today there are more people than ever building guitars and every major company has a "custom shop". We are not interested in being known as another guitar builder, but builders of musical instruments. Sound and feel is what drives us. That is what drives great musicians. I learned this many years ago. Great players only care about the sound and feel, they could care less about flame tops and ornate pearl inlay. They listen with their ears, not their eyes.
I have been very fortunate to have access to truly great vintage instruments and have developed my ear from their remarkable tone. That is why we work everyday not to just be equal to those instruments but to exceed them.
If you have never played a really great vintage instrument and have only been exposed to reissues by the major manufacturers, you may not understand what I hear in terms of tone. Great instruments make the hair stand up on your neck. They talk to you and it is hard to put them down. That is what I want out of our instruments.
All of our guitars are handmade one-at-a-time from hard selected wood. Necks and bodies are sanded by hand to remove all sharp edges, blending them into a soft radius, giving the instrument that smooth worn in feel. The bodies are finished only with nitrocellulose lacquer from the bare wood out. Our hardware is known as being the absolute best. Paying attention to the details is what distinguishes our instruments.
To all those who have bought our instruments and hardware we would like to say "Thank you" for helping us to get where we are today.
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S Model
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Click for a bigger view
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Click for a bigger view
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Body contours on all guitars are deep 50's contours. You will feel every note through our contours. The color of this guitar is Blue Ice.
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Candy Apple Red and Ocean Turquoise S model Guitar
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S Model features:
- Body: One piece Swamp Ash for sunburst and blonde finishes. One piece Alder for solid colors.
Neck: Our necks are available in four different contours that have been patterned after originals: 54 Club, 57 Vee, 58 Soft Vee, 60 Flat Round (boat). We start with the finest hard maple and rosewood as materials and reproduce the feel of an old neck. All sharp edges are removed and finished with a special oil that give the necks a soft broken-in feel. The standard fret board radius is 10" and Dunlop 6105 frets are used. This combination is necessary if you play with a lot of bending. The original 7" radius and small frets are available at no extra charge, but you will sacrifice some playability.
Pickups: Fralin Vintage Pickups are used in all S models. The middle position is reverse wound, reverse polarity for hum cancelling. I get my pickups specially wound for me. These are the best sounding vintage pickups available. All guitars come with a 5-way switch and a base plate on the lead pickup. All our guitars are completely shielded to eliminate single coil hum as much as possible. All parts are cryogenically treated giving our pickups an extremely warm wide frequency response with a very fast response time. A blender pot is available as an option.
Hardware: Except for the tuning machines and jack plate, we make all of our hardware. Our bridge is known worldwide as the best vintage bridge made. All screws are brushed stainless steel along with our neck plate, strap buttons, string tree, and trem arm which is high strength. Pickguards are either our special single ply parchment white, our 3 ply parchment white or our 3 ply mint green.
Finishes: Traditional two and three tone sunbursts are the most popular with blonde close behind. We have all of the custom colors available, most are at no additional charge. The most popular custom colors we have done have been: Lake Placid Blue, Blue Ice, Firemist Gold Metallic, Burgandy Purple Mist, Foam Green, Aged Olympic White, and Daphne Blue. We would love to do others. Blondes are an extra $75.00. Aged Olympic White is an extra $50.00. Black is an extra $30.00. Painted matching headstocks are an extra $50.00. All finishes are done in nitrocellulose lacquer.
- Case: Tweed, cream, or brown tolex.
- Base Price: $2,700.00 with case.
- Options: Blender Pot add $10.00. Left-handed add $100.00. We do not offer any other options but what is listed.
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T Model
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| Sorry, old bridge pictured
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T Model features:
- Body: One piece Swamp Ash for sunburst and blonde finishes. One piece Alder for solid colors.
Neck: Our necks are available in four different contours that have been patterned after originals: 54 Club, 57 Vee, 58 Soft Vee, 60 Flat Round (boat). We start with the finest hard maple and rosewood as materials and reproduce the feel of an old neck. All sharp edges are removed and finished with a special oil that give the necks a soft broken-in feel. The standard fret board radius is 10" and Dunlop 6105 frets are used. This combination is necessary if you play with alot of bending. The original 7" radius and small frets are available at no extra charge, but you will sacrifice some playability.
Pickups: Lindy Fralin Tele with hybrid magnets are our standard pickup. With our cryogenic treatment and rewaxing, these pickups are outstanding. Very wide frequency response without any harsh high end. If you play country to rock, these are the only Tele pickups to use. Again all parts are cryogenically treated.
Hardware: Again except for the tuning machines and jack cup (electrosocket), we make all our hardware in-house. The bridge is carbon steel nickel plated with our slant or enhanced vintage compensated brass saddles. The bridge is rigid reducing unwanted feedback. All screws are stainless steel as well as our control plate, neck plate, string tree, ferrules, and strap buttons. Our control knobs are brass nickel plated with a heavy knurl. You have a choice of either our dome knobs or our flat top knobs. Also there is a choice of our black lacquered bakelite pickguard, our special single ply parchment white, or our 3 ply parchment white.
Finishes: Traditional two and three tone sunbursts are the most popular with blonde close behind. We have all of the custom colors available, most are at no additional charge. The most popular custom colors we have done have been: Lake Placid Blue, Blue Ice, Firemist Gold Metallic, Burgandy Purple Mist, Foam Green, Aged Olympic White, and Daphne Blue. We would love to do others. Blondes are an extra $75.00. Aged Olympic White is an extra $50.00. Black is an extra $30.00. Painted matching headstocks are an extra $50.00. All finishes are done in nitrocellulose lacquer.
- Case: Tweed, cream, or brown tolex.
Base Price: $2,575.00 with case.
Options: Left-handed add $100.00. We do not offer any other options but what is listed.
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Terms: All guitars are made-to-order. A $300 non-refundable deposit is required to secure an instrument. We are flexible in arranging payment for the instrument. You can pay in small amounts over the course of the building of the guitar or you may pay one final sum upon its completion. Guitars must be paid in full before shipment in the form of a certified check or money order. FedEx shipping charges will apply. 48 hour approval is given on domestic guitar orders.
The wait for a guitar is currently 24 months plus. We are a small shop and I will not allow anything to go out unless I am completely satisfied with the end result. Guitars not meeting my standards are burned. Every guitar is special to me and I want the customer to feel that they have also received something special.
It naturally does not take 2 years to build the guitars. Our primary business is the manufacture of our parts used by custom builders and home builders worldwide. The deposit gets you a place in a very long list. The guitar will start to become a guitar at the 18-20 month mark. If you need to know about the guitar's progress, please do it by e-mail. Please only call the shop if you have a technical question. Again, we are very busy and I will not go to some kind of voice mail system. Someone will always answer the phone but that means production is interrupted, so please keep that in mind.
Domestic Guitar Orders: Mail us your $300.00 non-refundable deposit in the form of a personal check and your guitar specs. See contact page for mailing address.
International Guitar Orders must
e-mail us for further details.
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