Custom Built Guitars

Below are examples of some of the custom built guitars I have made over the years.  If you want to find out more, talk to me about your custom order or come and experience one for yourself, please go to Contact Me.

THE "Surf greeN"

Having gone down the experimental route with the mahogany Fender style guitars I had made, I decided it was time to take a mostly traditional route, albeit with some modern additions.

This is a light weight swamp ash S-style guitar with a tight grain quarter sawn maple neck with rosewood slab fretboard and medium jumbo 6150 frets, sourced from Tommy and the guys at USACG.  The body is an exact copy of a 1954 Strat body, but this one has an added contour below the neck pocket to give you more access to the higher frets. I gave this guitar a gorgeous, 50s correct hand sprayed nitro finish.

Get yourself a custom built S-style guitar that competes with the big boys for a lot less money!

For more detailed specifications and to see some stages of the build please click here.

The "hog"

Possibly the heaviest Strat many people have played! I wanted to try using Mahogany for a Strat style guitar to see if I could create a warmer and bassier example of the iconic guitar. Apart from a hernia, this guitar also produces very big and crystal clear tones. Think piano-like in buckets!!!

The neck and body from USACG are both Honduran Mahogany (Legally sourced) and the fret board is Indian Rosewood. Paired with vaughn Skow's 1954 single coil set and a Wudtone Constant Pivot vintage tremolo bridge this guitar is a rock blues beast capable of many styles from convincing heavy rock to clean country twang. The guitar retains all the usual strat feel and tone but with a chunk of added warmth and clarity from the Mahogany. Schaller locking tuners and a hand cut bone nut add to tuning stability and clarity of tone.

Something different in mind? Get in touch and we can plan out your custom guitar ideas.

Telecaster hybrid

This started as my tribute to early led Zeppelin. As many guitarists may know, Jimmy Page apparently used a Telecaster on a lot of the early recordings, so I wanted to get a Tele as close as I could to a Les Paul. The result was an extremely versatile guitar capable of country twang and searing rock lead as well.I wired this guitar so that the humbuckers can be coil tapped and put out of phase for a very honky Frank Zappa or Peter Green tone.

For the main part this guitar is laid out similar to a Les Paul with two humbuckers and the classic tunamatic bridge and tail piece, (both Faber made, best I've experienced) but the controls are more classic Tele with 1 volume and 1 tone, push pull pots for single coil and phase.

This is one of my absolute favourite guitars, it is supremely touch sensative and has a beatifully soulfull tone! The body and neck are Honduras mahogany (legally sourced) with a Madagascan rosewood fretboard. Vaughn Skow Custom 60 Humbucker set, Gotoh tuners and a hand cut nut. This guitar has clear oil finish on the body. This is my go to guitar when I need to cover many musical styles.