NGD: Proper “Custom” Gibson

smudge_lad

I’ll start this post with a couple of pics to hopefully perk your interest before boring you to death with the story behind this guitar and some of the work that’s gone into it.

Before

After

So, some of you may think you recognise the guitar, or at least where I got the idea/inspiration for it - Barrie Cadogan’s gorgeous ES-345.

I’ve basically always wanted a Gibson ES-345, specifically for the split-parallelogram fretboard. I just think they are the best looking inlays on a ES style guitar. Just beautiful. I started looking at the used market, and soon realised that they were a bit more expensive than I could probably afford this year, with everything that’s been going on.

I also always wanted a 345 with a Bigsby. Then, earlier this year I stumbled upon a video of Barrie with his 345 and I just fell in love with how it looked. The black over sunburst with some showing through, the reflector knobs, the Bigsby - just WOW!

I obviously knew I would never own this guitar, and the chances of finding another black over sunburst was probably next to none. 

Late last year, a good friend of mine had a Telecaster custom-built by a luthier who stayed local to me, so I decided to get in touch with him to ask about him building me an ES-345 guitar to look like Barrie’s. After a few chat’s, he advised that he wouldn’t want to build from scratch, but would be happy to take on a custom finish job if I was able to source a 335. The hunt was on!

I managed to pick up a really nice guitar from the awesome Pat @toneclone ;here on the forum, which was the perfect starting point. As soon as it arrived, I promptly handed it over to Smiggs who had already sourced the inlays and the Bigsby. This was back in June 2020.

Over the course of the past 5 months, I kept in touch with Smiggs about how the build was going, but seen very little in the way of photo updates as I wanted to wait until the build was finished and see it complete. 

I also purchased an aged Faber locking bridge from @CloudNine on the forum, but when it came to fitting this, Smiggs found that the original bridge on the guitar was not centred and was off by around 2mm! The saddle for the high E string was slotted WAY off-centre to compensate. Well done Gibson!

Amazingly, Smiggs managed to machine new bushes for the Faber bridge that basically corrected the error made by Gibson and now the bridge is absolutely bang on and in-line. Unreal work!

Here is a link to an album containing images showing more of the fretboard build process, and painting

https://imgur.com/a/P8lUPWl

Now that I have the guitar back, I’ll be working towards putting my own little touches to it to make it more “mine” so it doesn’t look like a direct copy, but I’m totally stoked with how it looks and I’m not really bothered that it’s a close match to Barrie’s. After all, there’s so many “artist” guitar models out there already anyway.

I honestly can’t believe this is the same guitar I parted with in June! The work carried out and the finish are exceptional! The worn area where the burst is showing through should tarnish a little more as the nitro hardens and I get round to playing it more often. 

I can’t recommend Smiggs enough to anyone local to Fife, you can get in touch via his website:

http://smiggsguitars.co.uk

I hope I haven’t bored you all to death!

Cheers

Keir

LPManic

Fantastic story and fantastic project! Thanks for the photos.

p90fool

Looks awesome!

MattP

That’s amazing! Wonderful end result

stickyfiddle

Crikey! That looks a bit good. I'm interested to know if it was actually cheaper than buying an actual 345..??!!

Bill_S

What a project and a fantastic result 

guitars4you

Looks like some amazing work to complete such a project - Thanks for posting the interesting story + pics - It looks cool with plenty of individual character - Congrats

lustycourtier

Incredible work. Barrie is great too.

DannyP

Love it!

ICBM

Fantastic work!

Bridges and tailpieces being misaligned is a very common problem with Gibson, and always was even in the ‘golden age’. That’s an interesting solution, rather than filling and redrilling the post holes - technically it’s correct, since the misalignment is usually caused by the neck joint being very slightly off straight rather than the actual bridge position.

I’d touch up the bit where the black has rubbed off though .

CloudNine

Blimey, well done mate, cool project and amazing result!

RandallFlagg

Terrific, looks an excellent result with real character.

smudge_lad

Cheers for the comments guys

smudge_lad

stickyfiddle said:

Crikey! That looks a bit good. I'm interested to know if it was actually cheaper than buying an actual 345..??!!

Long answer - I wasn't overly fussy if it came in around the same cost as an actual 345, even more so, since it would be a custom finish that I was unlikely to find on a 345. I knew this would be a guitar for life, so I was happy to pay the cost. I spoke with Smiggs quite a bit before we went ahead regarding cost for parts and labour, and while we couldn't put a figure on it all up front, I was more than happy with what we discussed.

Short answer - way cheaper than I expected

guitars4you

smudge_lad said:

stickyfiddle said:

Crikey! That looks a bit good. I'm interested to know if it was actually cheaper than buying an actual 345..??!!

Long answer - I wasn't overly fussy if it came in around the same cost as an actual 345, even more so, since it would be a custom finish that I was unlikely to find on a 345. I knew this would be a guitar for life, so I was happy to pay the cost. I spoke with Smiggs quite a bit before we went ahead regarding cost for parts and labour, and while we couldn't put a figure on it all up front, I was more than happy with what we discussed.

Short answer - way cheaper than I expected

good answer as it is now what you want - and that is all that matters - Buy a 345 and it still would not be your 'custom' ES345 anyway - Your '345' is loaded with character - Hope you keep it for many years and enjoy it

stickyfiddle

Right attitude and good result by the sounds of it. It does look bloody marvellous

Hattigol

Wow, that looks fabulous. Love it.
As a minor point, would a 345 not normally have a Varitone? Was that an option?

Also, how has he managed to hide where the previous dot markers were? As they were centred and there is a gap between the new inlays, I would have thought it would be near impossible to hide them. What do I know... 

Stunning...

smudge_lad

Hattigol said:

Wow, that looks fabulous. Love it.
As a minor point, would a 345 not normally have a Varitone? Was that an option?

Yes, and we discussed this also. I knew I wouldn't have been fussy for using a varitone, but I do think it looks cool on the 345's. Originally I was going to get the base plate and chicken-head knob added, purely for aesthetic purposes.

In the end however, I decided that my guitar was not, and never would be a '345' so I thought it was an added extra that would just add cost without adding any value, or really make much difference to the end result - the guitar looks stunning and cool without it

Hattigol

smudge_lad said:

Hattigol said:

Wow, that looks fabulous. Love it.
As a minor point, would a 345 not normally have a Varitone? Was that an option?

Yes, and we discussed this also. I knew I wouldn't have been fussy for using a varitone, but I do think it looks cool on the 345's. Originally I was going to get the base plate and chicken-head knob added, purely for aesthetic purposes.

In the end however, I decided that my guitar was not, and never would be a '345' so I thought it was an added extra that would just add cost without adding any value, or really make much difference to the end result - the guitar looks stunning and cool without it

A big plus one to that.

Interestingly, as well, I don't know the figures but making an educated guess at it, I suspect that if you did come to sell it, you probably wouldn't lose much on it, if at all - not often you can say that about a modded big-name guitar. I'd certainly buy it off you for what I suspect it cost you!

But glad to hear it's a keeper - enjoy it.

ICBM

smudge_lad said:

In the end however, I decided that my guitar was not, and never would be a '345' so I thought it was an added extra that would just add cost without adding any value, or really make much difference to the end result - the guitar looks stunning and cool without it

The Varitone is also a nuisance on a guitar with a Bigsby since it's too close to the arm cam, both visually and practically if you do want to use it. It's better without.

AlexO

Stunning 
does it make you play like Barrie?