Having a guitar made... who would you pick to do it?

Teetonetal

A student of mine just had a guitar custom made by Patrick Eggle. It's stunning. It took a while 8 months, but the end result is glorious. 

I know lots of people on here have custom guitars. Who made yours? How much choice did you have over the design and of course, post a pic.

guitars4you

We are lucky on our small island that there a few talented luthiers - Patrick Eggle as you mentioned and Rob Williams in Wales for starters - I own a Feline Cub built by Jon - Very similar to a late 50's LP Junior and I would seriously recommend his work  - Granted mine was 'off the shelf' as such as I purchased a finished product, already built, but I would not change anything about it - My personal 10 penneth is to buy what you can already touch as you know what the finished product is - To sit down and design a guitar from the ground up and hope it turns out ok is to be a risk for me personally, based on feel and tone as much as anything - I know it would be good, if I ordered a custom built guitar, but would it be the bees knees and one to keep for ever ?

Moe_Zambeek

i'm on the precipice of a Probett. 

Gassage

Jonathan @FelineGuitars ;

Roland

Have you thought about making your own? If you are after a traditional shape, particularly a bolt-on, then you could buy all of the parts and assemble it yourself. If your desire a specific colour then there are several people on the forum who could spray it for you.

digitalscream

Jaden made both of my Teles - I pretty much had free choice of everything (although I heeded his advice on most things).

I couldn't be happier with them. I don't have any pics at the mo @Teetonetal - however, I think you saw one of them at the Guitar Show?

underdog

Feline for me too, I'd have a late 50s Les Paul but with his neck joint, headstock correction and general quality.

Teetonetal

Roland said:

Have you thought about making your own? If you are after a traditional shape, particularly a bolt-on, then you could buy all of the parts and assemble it yourself. If your desire a specific colour then there are several people on the forum who could spray it for you.

When it comes to making things, I am awful. If I want a really badly made guitar I could just by another Schecter!

digitalscream said:

Jaden made both of my Teles - I pretty much had free choice of everything (although I heeded his advice on most things).

I couldn't be happier with them. I don't have any pics at the mo @Teetonetal - however, I think you saw one of them at the Guitar Show?

Not me, but I think you've posted pics of them on here before?

crunchman

If I do get another guitar in the near future it's likely to be a Tele or a slightly tweaked Tele.  I associate Feline more with the Lion and Lion Cub, likewise I associate Eggle more with humbucker guitars as well.

Does anyone know anything about Eternal guitars in Chichester?  Or does anyone know anyone else who builds decent guitars based on the classic Fenders?

Rocker

Andy of this parish, Mark Bailey, Feline etc. Lots of builders building great instruments.

ICBM

crunchman said:

Or does anyone know anyone else who builds decent guitars based on the classic Fenders?

Fender

ArchtopDave

I'm going to Mark Bailey's next week for a design session - he's going to make me a custom guitar on this occasion. I've got most of the spec done myself. I shall be picking out some wood for the build, and fine tuning the design with him.

I know him pretty well, as I've built 3 guitars on his Build Your Own Guitar Courses. You can assess my sanity, or lack of it,  on basis that my very first build was an Archtop. I then made a "Les Paul" and lastly an Acoustic. All have turned out very good indeed - the link below is to my Acoustic Build. The finished guitar photos are toward the bottom of Page 6.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/69464/om-acoustic-build-mark-bailey-course#latest

Teetonetal

ICBM said:

crunchman said:

Or does anyone know anyone else who builds decent guitars based on the classic Fenders?

Fender

There's always a smart arse!

The fender CS and MB prices are insane. I think there is scope for a Fender inspired guitar, not built by fender!

fretmeister

Teetonetal said:

ICBM said:

crunchman said:

Or does anyone know anyone else who builds decent guitars based on the classic Fenders?

Fender

There's always a smart arse!

The fender CS and MB prices are insane. I think there is scope for a Fender inspired guitar, not built by fender!

Of course there is.

And they are worth at least 10% of the original price when they are 5 mins old.

Jack_

Many of the custom builders want near CS prices for a Fender build, with the catch that resale is so much harder.

digitalscream

fretmeister said:

Teetonetal said:

ICBM said:

crunchman said:

Or does anyone know anyone else who builds decent guitars based on the classic Fenders?

Fender

There's always a smart arse!

The fender CS and MB prices are insane. I think there is scope for a Fender inspired guitar, not built by fender!

Of course there is.

And they are worth at least 10% of the original price when they are 5 mins old.

You'd have to be a fool to get a custom build with resale value in mind. The whole point is that you don't sell it on.

fretmeister

Of course. And yet you do see them on sale.

digitalscream

fretmeister said:

Of course. And yet you do see them on sale.

Hence not having any sympathy for such people when they complain about not being able to sell...

joeyowen

Just to add something different to the mix, Collings.  I'd have to win the lottery, but booyyyy are they nice

crunchman

ICBM said:

crunchman said:

Or does anyone know anyone else who builds decent guitars based on the classic Fenders?

Fender

I wouldn't mind a few minor tweaks to the classic design - definitely different switch placement.  I'd probably have to go for a custom order from the CS to get that.  It would get seriously expensive.

I'd be after a control layout something like this:


Edit:  image insert seems to have completely failed.  Might also prefer something other than the normal Tele neck pickup.

Danny1969

Mine was made by Sims Customs in Kent, he did a fantastic job and turned it around in about 9 weeks. Spec is Mahogany body with Maple cap cut into a Strat shape then Gibson scale length neck, 24 fret with a Strat type headstock. Pickups are EMG 81 back and 89 tappable  front without whatever the single coil is called in the middle

Single volume, no tone but small kill switch. Trem is Wikinson I think





Bass player and other guitarist in my main band also have Sims guitars, as does our lighting engineer who owns about 3