Here's my story. Hope you like it 
I am Orpheo. When I joined almost 10 years ago, I was just a snotty-nosed kid from the Netherlands. I am no longer snotty nosed kid from the Netherlands, but rather a long-haired, obstinate 30+ year old from the Netherlands
I never was truly satisfied with my gear so I started using parts by Warmoth to build my arsenal. I am willing to bet some of the folks who have been here for YEARS will remember my warmoth gear. I used to own a LOT. i still do, but no longer use it...
In 2012, I met my best friend. We spoke about guitars, drank way too much beer and thought of building guitars. In 2013 we simply started. Bought some timber, bought some tools and the first two guitars were made and played at the end of '13. Forum member Mincer was one of the first EVER to play a guitar of mine!
2014 was the year I started learning how to build in bulk (as much as possible, next to my daytime job). I met my current fiancee/girlfriend who has been a major driving force behind my work and by october 2014 I let loose 8 guitars upon this world. Of those 8, only 3 still exist in their first, original form. Two were merged into one, another totally rebuild and one destroyed. I can't recall what happened with that last one
2015, I started working more and more for myself; I experimented a bit with high gloss finishes later on in that year, I started with new shapes and at the end of 2015, I made 14 guitars.
Then, 2016. My business partner preferred to go on holidays abroad, leaving me alone to run the business (as we had become a true bizz since 2015, in the legal sense anyway). I surfed through a burnout, build guitars and at the end of '16, 24 guitars were completed (many I've posted here in this thread and on this forum in general). All the while, I was trying to hone in on what I wanted to build, exactly.
Now, 2017 is done for 2/3 of the way and I've already done 22 guitars. 30 isn't inconceivable at all, I have to admit.
My designs in '13 were so different than now. I wanted to make what I wanted to own: a stripped down Les Paul 'standard', with nothing but a good maple top, black or white limba body, exotic neck (rosewood, ovangkol or otherwise) and great hardware. Simple dye. Nothing too fancy. I was able to make and sell those for $1699 with a hardshell case, seymour duncan pickups, gotoh hardware etc.
Nobody wanted that. Handmade and 'stripped down'? Thanks, but no thanks, was the message I got So, I started using more exotic woods, more unique features, more elaborately figured tops, laminated necks and as I said, high gloss as of '15/'16.
I have to change the pricing accordingly, however, as much as I hate that. Timber and time cost money; but basically...? In its core, it's still the same. I still don't do inlay unless I have a really, really good reason. I still don't do binding and I don't want to do that either. I use side dots made of steel and brass so you get a duo-color look. I use contrasting pinstripes between the fretboard and neck blank, just because I like the look. I hand-roll all the fretboard edges, I buff everything by hand.
As to my methods. I don't use parts. I HATE guys who claim to make their own stuff, but simply buy their parts and have a professional sprayer spray the finish. Fretwork? Whatever's out of the box is good enough. Too bad the action is as high as a Weissenborn. Tone-matching? Nop. Multi-lam necks? Nop. Environmentially conscious? nop. There's no craft. i want to know, learn and master this craft. That's why I do EVERYTHING myself and if I don't do it myself, it's because it is more cost efficient for YOU, the customer, but without sacrificing what makes my guitar or my work, my work. For example: my lumber yard often bookmatches my tops and glues them to the backs. That is a cost-saving measure that happens to give me great results. Same with thicknessing my ebony fretboards and getting the CITES permits. I am still the one cutting, carving and sanding the guitar. I'm the one laying down the template, drawing it out with a pencil and setting up the router(table). Having my lumber yard do the basic work takes stress off of me. You can compare this to a painter who doesn't mix his own paints. Sure, he could, but when a paintstore does it just as good, why not? Having it routed out and sanded by a CNC you did not program, finishing the guitar: that's a whole different ball park. That's more like having someone make a line drawing and all you have to do is paint by numbers.
So yeah. I do it all myself. I do sell, but I'm also building just to learn. I want to be better as a luthier NOW, while I'm still under the radar (but, hopefully, slowly emerging) so I can post incrementally more beautiful guitars as I improve.
What began with one guitar shape has turned into a lineup with 1 shape in 9 iterations, 5 other shapes and 2 basses.
I don't see myself, my company, as a customshop perse. What is a customshop anyway? Is my business model ' made to measure' or 'bespoke'? I don't know. I think a bit of both. I can accommodate so many wishes and I can tailor the designs to a huge degree without additional hidden costs or great discomfort of my construction process. But for example, 101 ply binding on top and 96 ply on the back, 1962 piece inlay in the fretboard and paua purfling? No. I surely COULD do it, but I'd rather not, because it's too far removed from what I believe a guitar should be.
Each guitar I make (and sell!) is the result of a lengthy conversation and in the end, you get a piece of my personality, of my soul. A guitar is first and foremost an instrument, made to make music. It's here to do just that. And by choosing the right pickups, color, shape, hardware and timbers, we personalize the instrument more and more. But that's exactly that: personalization of an instrument. It's not a fashion accessoire. I want to remove the limitations you set on yourself technically and tonally, I want to make instruments that blend away with yourself when you play.
I will take it down a notch when 2018 hits. I would have made, eventually, close to 100 guitars when 2018 ends; I can't work 40 hours a week at guild Guitars and build 30 guitars a year There's a real limitation to what I can do. Not technically but temporally.
So. yeah. That's kinda my story.
I build guitars because I like to build guitars. I make what I think is pretty. I hope more people feel like I do and eventually decide to simply drop me a line, dare to ask me for pricing (for so long my website aint done: need 4 more guitars to be done for that to happen!) and pull the trigger on a handmade made-to-measure guitar with bespoke features.
Build. Built. Which one is it?! OH well...
you've seen this one:
OK the right one is a special one. Proto #2 of the guitar I posted earlier (the speedy project). I will remove the neck and install a new one with a totally new scale. I don't like this one yet. I wanna lighten her up to (11 lbs!!!!) and change the neck profile. More on that later!
I'm still a 3 pickup LP nerd. Can't help it!
My 'Star Trek Anniversary' set
just a crappy pic of a great guitar
One of my personals. purpleheart top with padouk sapwood contrast on a honduras mahogany body with walnut back. ebony/wenge/ebony neck, ebony board. custom made pickups. a major screamer, howler and sweet lover all in one. Hand applied shellac. I will sand her clean one day and finish her in high gloss though, to preserve the purple hues.
That's not even close to everything of the last 18 months but it is a fairly good representation.
I am Orpheo. When I joined almost 10 years ago, I was just a snotty-nosed kid from the Netherlands. I am no longer snotty nosed kid from the Netherlands, but rather a long-haired, obstinate 30+ year old from the Netherlands
I never was truly satisfied with my gear so I started using parts by Warmoth to build my arsenal. I am willing to bet some of the folks who have been here for YEARS will remember my warmoth gear. I used to own a LOT. i still do, but no longer use it...In 2012, I met my best friend. We spoke about guitars, drank way too much beer and thought of building guitars. In 2013 we simply started. Bought some timber, bought some tools and the first two guitars were made and played at the end of '13. Forum member Mincer was one of the first EVER to play a guitar of mine!
2014 was the year I started learning how to build in bulk (as much as possible, next to my daytime job). I met my current fiancee/girlfriend who has been a major driving force behind my work and by october 2014 I let loose 8 guitars upon this world. Of those 8, only 3 still exist in their first, original form. Two were merged into one, another totally rebuild and one destroyed. I can't recall what happened with that last one
2015, I started working more and more for myself; I experimented a bit with high gloss finishes later on in that year, I started with new shapes and at the end of 2015, I made 14 guitars. Then, 2016. My business partner preferred to go on holidays abroad, leaving me alone to run the business (as we had become a true bizz since 2015, in the legal sense anyway). I surfed through a burnout, build guitars and at the end of '16, 24 guitars were completed (many I've posted here in this thread and on this forum in general). All the while, I was trying to hone in on what I wanted to build, exactly.
Now, 2017 is done for 2/3 of the way and I've already done 22 guitars. 30 isn't inconceivable at all, I have to admit.
My designs in '13 were so different than now. I wanted to make what I wanted to own: a stripped down Les Paul 'standard', with nothing but a good maple top, black or white limba body, exotic neck (rosewood, ovangkol or otherwise) and great hardware. Simple dye. Nothing too fancy. I was able to make and sell those for $1699 with a hardshell case, seymour duncan pickups, gotoh hardware etc.
Nobody wanted that. Handmade and 'stripped down'? Thanks, but no thanks, was the message I got
So, I started using more exotic woods, more unique features, more elaborately figured tops, laminated necks and as I said, high gloss as of '15/'16. I have to change the pricing accordingly, however, as much as I hate that. Timber and time cost money; but basically...? In its core, it's still the same. I still don't do inlay unless I have a really, really good reason. I still don't do binding and I don't want to do that either. I use side dots made of steel and brass so you get a duo-color look. I use contrasting pinstripes between the fretboard and neck blank, just because I like the look. I hand-roll all the fretboard edges, I buff everything by hand.
As to my methods. I don't use parts. I HATE guys who claim to make their own stuff, but simply buy their parts and have a professional sprayer spray the finish. Fretwork? Whatever's out of the box is good enough. Too bad the action is as high as a Weissenborn. Tone-matching? Nop. Multi-lam necks? Nop. Environmentially conscious? nop. There's no craft. i want to know, learn and master this craft. That's why I do EVERYTHING myself and if I don't do it myself, it's because it is more cost efficient for YOU, the customer, but without sacrificing what makes my guitar or my work, my work. For example: my lumber yard often bookmatches my tops and glues them to the backs. That is a cost-saving measure that happens to give me great results. Same with thicknessing my ebony fretboards and getting the CITES permits. I am still the one cutting, carving and sanding the guitar. I'm the one laying down the template, drawing it out with a pencil and setting up the router(table). Having my lumber yard do the basic work takes stress off of me. You can compare this to a painter who doesn't mix his own paints. Sure, he could, but when a paintstore does it just as good, why not? Having it routed out and sanded by a CNC you did not program, finishing the guitar: that's a whole different ball park. That's more like having someone make a line drawing and all you have to do is paint by numbers.
So yeah. I do it all myself. I do sell, but I'm also building just to learn. I want to be better as a luthier NOW, while I'm still under the radar (but, hopefully, slowly emerging) so I can post incrementally more beautiful guitars as I improve.
What began with one guitar shape has turned into a lineup with 1 shape in 9 iterations, 5 other shapes and 2 basses.
I don't see myself, my company, as a customshop perse. What is a customshop anyway? Is my business model ' made to measure' or 'bespoke'? I don't know. I think a bit of both. I can accommodate so many wishes and I can tailor the designs to a huge degree without additional hidden costs or great discomfort of my construction process. But for example, 101 ply binding on top and 96 ply on the back, 1962 piece inlay in the fretboard and paua purfling? No. I surely COULD do it, but I'd rather not, because it's too far removed from what I believe a guitar should be.
Each guitar I make (and sell!) is the result of a lengthy conversation and in the end, you get a piece of my personality, of my soul. A guitar is first and foremost an instrument, made to make music. It's here to do just that. And by choosing the right pickups, color, shape, hardware and timbers, we personalize the instrument more and more. But that's exactly that: personalization of an instrument. It's not a fashion accessoire. I want to remove the limitations you set on yourself technically and tonally, I want to make instruments that blend away with yourself when you play.
I will take it down a notch when 2018 hits. I would have made, eventually, close to 100 guitars when 2018 ends; I can't work 40 hours a week at guild Guitars and build 30 guitars a year
There's a real limitation to what I can do. Not technically but temporally. So. yeah. That's kinda my story.
I build guitars because I like to build guitars. I make what I think is pretty. I hope more people feel like I do and eventually decide to simply drop me a line, dare to ask me for pricing (for so long my website aint done: need 4 more guitars to be done for that to happen!) and pull the trigger on a handmade made-to-measure guitar with bespoke features.
Build. Built. Which one is it?! OH well...
you've seen this one:
OK the right one is a special one. Proto #2 of the guitar I posted earlier (the speedy project). I will remove the neck and install a new one with a totally new scale. I don't like this one yet. I wanna lighten her up to (11 lbs!!!!) and change the neck profile. More on that later!
I'm still a 3 pickup LP nerd. Can't help it!
My 'Star Trek Anniversary' set
just a crappy pic of a great guitar
One of my personals. purpleheart top with padouk sapwood contrast on a honduras mahogany body with walnut back. ebony/wenge/ebony neck, ebony board. custom made pickups. a major screamer, howler and sweet lover all in one. Hand applied shellac. I will sand her clean one day and finish her in high gloss though, to preserve the purple hues.
That's not even close to everything of the last 18 months but it is a fairly good representation.
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I modded the bridge pickup to have just a touch more output and bite, but overall: great pickups 
