Building a dream guitar, but....

[wmbarr8395]

So I'm currently designing a dream guitar of mine, Super Strat with a single-single-humbucker set up, ash wood, and so forth, but I'm not sure who to go to.

PRS makes AMAZING guitars, and I love that they take such pride and care into building their instruments, and my whole design idea was if PRS made it, that I'd like a Silver Sky style body with a contoured heel, so no notch when the neck meets the body, and 24 frets on a thinner neck than normal, but I'm not sure PRS would be willing to do that... I've never worked with them personally so I genuinely don't know...

My other option is to order the individual parts online from Warmoth.com and find someone in my town who can build it, but I don't know if anybody near me can actually DO that.

Should I see if PRS can do it, or do I go with Warmoth making the parts individually and finding someone to build it for me, cause I don't have the expertise of building a guitar.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

Well, I guess it really comes down to your wallet, and if PRS will build your guitar with the specs you want. Anything is possible with enough money, but I would imagine a PRS custom one off would be prohibitively expensive; again, depending on your budget.

There are several places online that do custom finishing on guitars that will be considerably less expensive than a PRS I imagine, and will shoot your guitar in any color and finish you want, including old school nitro, if that's what you want. Lets talk about that:

- Are you talking about buying unfinished wood neck and body from Warmoth, picking out your own custom hardware and then wanting it all assembled and hardware installed?

- Or are you going to have Warmoth apply their finishes and you just want someone to assemble it and install the hardware?

Two different needs and two very different type of costs. Again, this is all determined by what your budget is. There are also other places that arguably, depending on your opinion, might make better necks/bodies than Warmoth. You will get recommendations from people to use several different suppliers. There is no shortage of shops online that offer a wide variety of finishing and other services. My opinion is that Warmoth does a good job for the money you spend, but do they offer the color and type of finish you want? They sort of do what they do and not much custom one off stuff, at least that I'm aware of.

Once we know a bit more about what you are specifically looking for, we can start to point you to some people that have better reputations. There are also members of this board that do custom building, so you may find a resource right here.

 

[Blille]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

My guess is that PRS would be incredibly expensive but then again I haven’t worked with them and don’t know your budget. A couple of intermediate options might be Kiesel and the ESP Custom Shop.

 

[wmbarr8395]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

I would love a slate grey brushed metallic looking color for the body and a gunmetal grey brushed metallic color pickguard. And since Warmoth doesn't have those color options available, I'd much rather have someone paint it that way. The neck will have a gloss black headstock front, but the back of the headstock and neck will be flame maple, so no color just natural wood. And my budget really doesn't matter...

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

There are lots of independent luthiers out there. I doubt PRS would do a one off guitars.


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[Mincer]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

Well, with Warmoth, you have to like their body shapes, but after that, it is just bolting everything together. It is pretty easy. But if you have $$ to spend, I'd bet you could find a private builder to do what you want, and even possibly give you options you hadn't considered.

 

[justFred]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

Look at Ernie Ball Music Man Silhouette...or some of their other JP models...you might find something very close to what you want...for sure the neck will be in your target zone....

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

Warmoth, Musikraft, USACG, etc. would be my suggestion...there are MANY finishing options outside of Warmoth to do the finish (I use Southbound Custom and have had only positive experiences)

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

...And my budget really doesn't matter...

Must be nice.

 

[chadd]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

Schecter puts out some amazing product from their custom shop

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Building a dream guitar, but....

Keisel/Carvin

Call them talk over all the stuff you want
Neck thru has the smoothest heel

Those guitars are built to be hotrods in every way
It may be expensive with all the options and such

Piezoelectric pickup
Multiple switching options
Custom neck contours
Choice of fretwire
I had a bass made by them in the late 90s
It was incredible