Category: Customer Builds

Anthony’s quilted maple beautiful. I just absolutely love the look of this! The quilted maple cap looks liquid, like it’s moving. Wow. Love it, great craftsmanship.

 “Hi Phil, I thought you would like to see the finished article. It sounds and plays like a dream, many thanks.

Pickups are Lollar Imperials with the bridge pickup being the high wind option.

Electrics are CTS 500k true vintage taper pots, Luxe bumblebee caps, switchcraft selector with braided wiring.

I’m hoping to capture a vintage bluesy tone in the neck and a sweet singing tone with a bit of scream at the bridge. The guitar is becoming an international affair with parts being sourced from all corners of the globe; the filthy swine at British Customs are having a field day.”

 

This is Keith’s first build.

Here is the order of what he did to the quilted maple cap. Ends up being beautiful.

Pic 1

Here it is dyed with red mahogany dye as the base layer

Pic 2

Here is the first colour session. You can see where the colour absorbed more on the perimeter in some places, so it was destined for another layer.

Pic 3

Here is the how the final dye session turned out. I found that I had to over-concentrate the dye about four times the recommended strength that the dye suggested in order to get the yellow to come forward the way I wanted. Like I said, I will send you a good picture of the finished product all strung up with close to eight hours playing time on it. I just have to go take it first. I just finished it up last Sunday at about 11pm, so it is still adjusting to string tension, but man does it sound great.

Pic 4

Here is a photo of it before I strung it up. It’s strung up now but I don’t have any photos of it as it stands. The sound and sustain is incredible, I used all vintage pots and resistors so I could get an old school vintage sound. Can’t beat the sound of a vintage guitar so that’s what I was going for, and I achieved it.

He is going to send me along some pics of it strung up. Will post them when I get them.

Pure cool craftsmanship. This is a stunning guitar.

“Hi Phil…I am very happy with the way this build went.  You really got this thing right!
Excellent foundation for a one-off custom guitar.”

I asked Steve how he built this guitar.

“I started by gluing down a fine sheet of walnut burl and routing the binding channel. Then I enlarged the control cavity and made the tummy cut and the PRS like cut at the bout. then the body got a very light stain and many coats of lacquer.
The peg head has an ash burl veneer with lacquer, the rest of the neck is tung oiled only. I installed a General guitar gadgets booster circuit and used a .047 oil and paper type capacitor on the tone pot. The pick-up is a DiMarzio P-90 with a walnut cover homemade. The guitar has a nice feel and sounds good. Will probably build one of your LP kits next fall.

Thanks again, Steve”