Have you had a guitar made for you ?

grappagreen

imalrightjack said:

@grappagreen - What are you going for?   Are you local to him?  Exciting!

I’m going for an Evo but with some Aura specs (22 frets/scratch plate) - think Anderson Drop Top Classic style shorty!

I’m based in Herts so a long drive but worth it

To the OP question I’m comfortable with this as Haydn has a fantastic track record, is supremely knowledgeable/experienced and builds his instruments from start to finish. Furthermore I’ve chosen modifications to a tried and tested design so risks are limited... I’d be far less comfortable with my own ‘creation’ and as alluded to by @LastMantra the chances of my killing off Uncie Herb’s business by building a monstrosity is avoided! It should be able to play La Cucaraca if desired so.. (only long time Simpsons fans will get this stuff!)

Si

Jalapeno

spark240 said:

I guess even if it does turn out as the best guitar ever... its still pretty worthless to anyone other than you.

This.

My Le Voi Maccaferri (3 mth build) - great !

My Morgan LP (2+ yr build) -very rarely touched.

FelineGuitars

I also make & get to play my own 

Haych

I had a Tom Anderson made to my spec a few years ago.

It was a thing of beauty and it, and everything on it, was perfectly made.

On paper it was perfect and it was a lovely guitar to own.  As a guitar to play it was nothing special, though, and it just didn't inspire me to play my best.

Any half decent Strat was a much nicer and much more rewarding instrument to play.  

Lewy

I had a custom guitar made some years ago. The idea was to create the ultimate bottleneck electric - sort of like my take on the Coodercaster.

It had 2 Lollar Chicago Steel pickups, a hipshot trilogy bridge for quicky changing tunings (this was pre-Robo tuners), and a wide fat neck with a flat radius. It was really well made by a (now somewhat disgraced) luthier/forumite but ultimately it just turns out I don't like guitars that just do one thing. 

I think it's in the loft somewhere. It ticks all of the boxes in the "worthless custom guitar" scorecard....Unknown/vilified luthier - check. Querky spec - check. Good for one thing only - check Original use-case no longer relevant - check!

Winny_Pooh

@Lewy said:

I had a custom guitar made some years ago. The idea was to create the ultimate bottleneck electric - sort of like my take on the Coodercaster.

It had 2 Lollar Chicago Steel pickups, a hipshot trilogy bridge for quicky changing tunings (this was pre-Robo tuners), and a wide fat neck with a flat radius. It was really well made by a (now somewhat disgraced) luthier/forumite but ultimately it just turns out I don't like guitars that just do one thing. 

I think it's in the loft somewhere. It ticks all of the boxes in the "worthless custom guitar" scorecard....Unknown/vilified luthier - check. Querky spec - check. Good for one thing only - check Original use-case no longer relevant - check!

I really want to see this thing, or own it haha

Lewy

Winny_Pooh said:

@Lewy said:

I had a custom guitar made some years ago. The idea was to create the ultimate bottleneck electric - sort of like my take on the Coodercaster.

It had 2 Lollar Chicago Steel pickups, a hipshot trilogy bridge for quicky changing tunings (this was pre-Robo tuners), and a wide fat neck with a flat radius. It was really well made by a (now somewhat disgraced) luthier/forumite but ultimately it just turns out I don't like guitars that just do one thing. 

I think it's in the loft somewhere. It ticks all of the boxes in the "worthless custom guitar" scorecard....Unknown/vilified luthier - check. Querky spec - check. Good for one thing only - check Original use-case no longer relevant - check!

I really want to see this thing, or own it haha

Your wish.....

Clecko

I have a Morgan Strat-style guitar. It was made as a raffle prize that someone else won back in the Music Radar days and he just really, really wanted a Strat, so we swapped his Morgan for my Fender US Deluxe. 

So not made for me, but it's what I'd have wanted in terms of pickup type, finish, fretboard, neck profile and so on. From memory I'd paid £800 for the Fender (50th Anniversary edition) and Neil said he'd have priced the Morgan at £2,300 if it had been a standard commission.

On the face of it then, I got a great deal, but I think it's probably a bit more nuanced than that. The Morgan guitar is fantastic and I love it. I'd never sell it, but if I wanted to I'd get a lot less for it than it's (notionally) worth. I reckon the Morgan is way better/nicer than what you'd get from the Fender CS for £2-2.5k, but the resale value won't come close. 

imalrightjack

Nice, @grappagreen - I've an Evo as well as my Aura but I just bought it after playing it in the workshop.  If you pop back, don't play anything he has hanging around, it can be expensive

@FelineGuitars - LOVE the Dredd!  Custom one-off?  So cool!

AlexHunter

The genesis on this topic for me went:

Had a guitar built (maybe 15 years ago), it was good. Then my musical tastes and playing style progressed and the guitar didn’t suit any longer.

Had half a guitar built (12 ish years ago). Specifically, I liked the neck and hardware on a custom charvel I had but didn’t like the floyd rose routed body so had a new body made by a luthier with neck and hardware transferred from Charvel.  As above, GAS hit, playing style progressed and got rid of said guitar.

Posted a query on the MusicRadar forum (I think 9 years ago...) looking for recommendations for guitars with maple necks, ebony fretboards and jumbo frets. Some talented so and so called @FelineGuitars replied and posted one of his recently built guitars. It didn’t have the neck shape, pickups or colour that I would have spec’d but curiosity got the better of me and I drove to Croydon to try it. An hour later I left with the best Les Paul I’ve ever played, that remains my number one to this day.

Lesson: I couldn’t try and spec exactly what I wanted. When I did my musical taste evolved and it didn’t suit. Without trying every possible neck shape, wood combination, body shape etc etc ever known to man you can’t really know exactly what you want (Rumsfeld known unknowns and all that) but starting with a smaller custom builder’s stock model is a great starting point as they often have significant experience in wood and hardware combinations and you might find the guitar you would have spec’d if you’d known it existed.

Creed_Clicks

Should have added the pic courtesy of Fidelity

Winny_Pooh

Lewy said:

Winny_Pooh said:

@Lewy said:

I had a custom guitar made some years ago. The idea was to create the ultimate bottleneck electric - sort of like my take on the Coodercaster.

It had 2 Lollar Chicago Steel pickups, a hipshot trilogy bridge for quicky changing tunings (this was pre-Robo tuners), and a wide fat neck with a flat radius. It was really well made by a (now somewhat disgraced) luthier/forumite but ultimately it just turns out I don't like guitars that just do one thing. 

I think it's in the loft somewhere. It ticks all of the boxes in the "worthless custom guitar" scorecard....Unknown/vilified luthier - check. Querky spec - check. Good for one thing only - check Original use-case no longer relevant - check!

I really want to see this thing, or own it haha

Your wish.....

Looks awesome (maybe more than it is!) You could always slap on a Duesenburg Bigsby and it'll shred pretty well  
If we have a Woking jam again you should bring this along. 

JerkMoans

Been tempted, but I'm (a) so diffident about my (in)abilities, and (b) such a fickle tart I fear that by the time the thing is even halfway built, let alone in my trembling, sweaty paws I'll have gorn orf the whole 12 string Flying V double neck I had in mind and want nothing more than an acoustic with a Fishman  

In all seriousness, just concerned that I'll blow a bundle on something that I find to be a bit 'meh', through no fault of the luthier.

...Although I do have a hankering for something probably built by @FelineGuitars along the lines of a Gibson 'The Paul', but looking like a yellowed, off-white LP Custom...

FelineGuitars

JerkMoans said:

...Although I do have a hankering for something probably built by @FelineGuitars along the lines of a Gibson 'The Paul', but looking like a yellowed, off-white LP Custom...

We rather like those, a simple yet very effective guitar:

JerkMoans

Just out of, er, academic interest Jon @FelineGuitars, would it be possible to have binding (or faux binding) on the front with that arm chamfer, or would you have to forego one or the other.  

Asking for a friend  

FelineGuitars

JerkMoans said:

Just out of, er, academic interest Jon @FelineGuitars, would it be possible to have binding (or faux binding) on the front with that arm chamfer, or would you have to forego one or the other.  

Asking for a friend  

I think it's one or the other really

viz

My partner in crime had a gorgeous one made for himself, which I lusted over until eventually is passed it onto me, and I did some customisations. For me it’s absolutely the perfect guitar.

Philly_Q

Those "The Paul" style guitars are very, very close to an ideal design for me - that territory somewhere between an LP, a Junior and an SG.  Or make it korina and it's a Flying V disguised as an LP.  Sort of.

The tuners on the mahogany one have unusual housings - are they Ratios sitting on top of those little adaptor plates?

Lewy

Winny_Pooh said:

Lewy said:

Winny_Pooh said:

@Lewy said:

I had a custom guitar made some years ago. The idea was to create the ultimate bottleneck electric - sort of like my take on the Coodercaster.

It had 2 Lollar Chicago Steel pickups, a hipshot trilogy bridge for quicky changing tunings (this was pre-Robo tuners), and a wide fat neck with a flat radius. It was really well made by a (now somewhat disgraced) luthier/forumite but ultimately it just turns out I don't like guitars that just do one thing. 

I think it's in the loft somewhere. It ticks all of the boxes in the "worthless custom guitar" scorecard....Unknown/vilified luthier - check. Querky spec - check. Good for one thing only - check Original use-case no longer relevant - check!

I really want to see this thing, or own it haha

Your wish.....

Looks awesome (maybe more than it is!) You could always slap on a Duesenburg Bigsby and it'll shred pretty well  
If we have a Woking jam again you should bring this along. 

Funny you should mention that because I've been toying with the idea of dropping a Jag/Jazzmaster floating trem onto it.

FelineGuitars

Philly_Q said:

Those "The Paul" style guitars are very, very close to an ideal design for me - that territory somewhere between an LP, a Junior and an SG.  Or make it korina and it's a Flying V disguised as an LP.  Sort of.

The tuners on the mahogany one have unusual housings - are they Ratios sitting on top of those little adaptor plates?

Yes - correct . I'm a fan of the Ratio tuners and the invisimatch plates are a good idea without having to make multiple tuner housing designs