Anyone have a custom guitar built for them?

[Confuzzled]

I've been eyeing a vintage eko, or sekova big horn. Love both shapes but I dont want to pay the $600 - $1000 for a vintage subpar instrument. I know I'm probably out of my element with this cash wise but does anyone know of a site that I can submit a design and get a quote for a custom build? Similar to the way people can design their own car with whatever specs they want.

[le lambin]

Warmoth sells “blank” bodies that have a pre cut neck pocket but you can cut the body shape yourself. They may be open to cutting up a blank for you- doesn’t hurt to reach out to them.

You may want to reach out to small builders that you like and see if they’d do a one off build for you. I think dunable used to do this before they got big. Very expensive and cash up front most likely, but at least you’d get what you wanted.

Third option, you could pay the money for the actual vintage guitar and pay to have it modded/set up so it plays well. I think it would be cheaper than a custom guitar no matter what you had to do to it.

[Blackened Soul]

True… but I almost always make my own or mod so I might have the best point of view

Here is the thing.. because of tooling setup, wood stock costs, finishing setup and so forth most builders have to specialize in a “type” like fibson and gender types.. same reason you have acoustic and electric and bass specific builders… doesn’t mean they can’t build everything but they had to settle on something that works for them.. the more varying things you build means you need: a bigger shop with more tools, or more people to help, or take a extremely long amount of time to build anything… that is why I don’t build my own necks, I don’t have the space for a table saw and a big sander.. I can and have built them in a small space with mostly hand tools but I don’t want to spend that amount of time on any of my projects at this point in my life..

My advise is to look for a builder that builds stuff in the vein of what you want.. or get parts builders to make you a body and a neck to your idea and then either assemble it diy or find a local guy for that

[coupleonapkins]

IIRC the Bighorn was a copy of the Burns Bison, which is like 3x more than a vintage Sekova nowadays, but I thought Eastwood was making a similar shaped guitar (the Hounddog), though it's not as slender/tall as an Eko shape

If you have the time/tenacity for it, those japanese guitars can be found for less money (most will appear "unbranded" to most sellers at this point, so be sure to widen your search feed parameters), and as with any 50+ year old guitar, will need some TLC (set-up, possibly new pickups, and most definitely a wiring upgrade, and maybe even a new neck! And by then you're in parts-guitar territory). Factor that in, and you're still in for cheaper than a from-the-ground-up build from anywhere (3-4k easily, usually with a waiting list that's about a year out, with sky's-the-limit for non-custom shapes, on average).

However, I must ask: is it simply the shape you're after? Or are you trying to settle an unrequited love? Those guitars have their charm, but a majority of them have aged terribly, and are eons away from what the grade standards are today.

We also exist in a buyer's market of near-limitless off-the-rack, easily modified possibilities, and, like any instrument, with a proper set-up, even a $200 guitar can play like a dream. My dreams are some people's nightmares, but you get the idea

I was always fond of this 12-string Eko, who also manufactured guitars for Vox:



Also, I remembered seeing this other Eko that Lou Doillon plays:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiWotj5BTjM

That scale looks extremely strummable

[Dandolin]

dag them ekos

[goroth]

I have bought two custom guitars and both took absurd amounts of time and in the end my 800 dollar jackson with a pickup upgrade and a good setup is still my favourite guitar. I understand it's hard being a one-man show - planning is hard, sourcing stuff and getting production sorted is hard. At least in my experience the Venn diagram of business-logistics/luthierie skills has a really small overlap in the middle. I don't know if I'd do custom again.

Having a guitar and getting a good tech/luthier to mod it is however something I would definitely look into.

[Confuzzled]

IIRC the Bighorn was a copy of the Burns Bison, which is like 3x more than a vintage Sekova nowadays, but I thought Eastwood was making a similar shaped guitar (the Hounddog), though it's not as slender/tall as an Eko shape

If you have the time/tenacity for it, those japanese guitars can be found for less money (most will appear "unbranded" to most sellers at this point, so be sure to widen your search feed parameters), and as with any 50+ year old guitar, will need some TLC (set-up, possibly new pickups, and most definitely a wiring upgrade, and maybe even a new neck! And by then you're in parts-guitar territory). Factor that in, and you're still in for cheaper than a from-the-ground-up build from anywhere (3-4k easily, usually with a waiting list that's about a year out, with sky's-the-limit for non-custom shapes, on average).

However, I must ask: is it simply the shape you're after? Or are you trying to settle an unrequited love? Those guitars have their charm, but a majority of them have aged terribly, and are eons away from what the grade standards are today.

We also exist in a buyer's market of near-limitless off-the-rack, easily modified possibilities, and, like any instrument, with a proper set-up, even a $200 guitar can play like a dream. My dreams are some people's nightmares, but you get the idea

I was always fond of this 12-string Eko, who also manufactured guitars for Vox:



Also, I remembered seeing this other Eko that Lou Doillon plays:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiWotj5BTjM

That scale looks extremely strummable

You're all correct and I thank you for talking me off the ledge. Its a bit of shape/unrequited love and wanting to be able to get the best of both worlds. My dream guitar would be a Vox phantom VI with a maple fingerboard but that's like trying to find a unicorn. I dig this EKO shape:

http://reverb.com/p/eko-700-slash-v3?hf ... 8wEALw_wcB

Mainly because it has that cutaway at the bottom so I can play it in a couple of seated positions especially if I'm recording by myself. If it was a custom build I'd add 2 jazzmaster soapbar pickups, the maple fingerboard, tremolo and maybe have it finished in the clear green with the black sunburst like the sekova (which I had one years ago that someone painted white and took the frets out). I'm the proud owner of a teisco, hagstrom that's a frankenstein of hagstrom parts, as well as some oddball fender guitars. I know what I'm getting into that's why I was thinking maybe I should invest the cash and get what I want instead of looking online and settling.

[Blackened Soul]

Well there is always Phantom Guitars…
https://www.phantomguitars.com/phantom.html

[Confuzzled]

Well there is always Phantom Guitars…
https://www.phantomguitars.com/phantom.html

Meh, they make great guitars but I already reached out and the guy was adamant about vox guitars not coming with a maple fingerboard and not willing to make one. Besides I hate that brush script font so I'm not willing to compromise for the money they charge.

[Blackened Soul]

That is a bit silly… but as much time I’ve spent around builders I’m not surprised… I know I saw some one that was making a phantom shaped body on one of the custom body sites.. I’ll post it the next time I find it again…

edit:
https://www.supra-tone.com/product-page ... ody-32-402

I've had contact with these guys before.. there is a upcharge for custom work...
"Our machines cut four identical bodies at one time, so if we produce only one custom body (even if it has "less cuts") it is more expensive than a "standard" body."

This is a pretty normal response from the part builders.. I've contacted about 10 recently about a custom neck that is not a strat/tele/Pbass/Jbass and only 2 that actually responded would even try... most guys ONLY know how to make fender clones... how boring...

[Blackened Soul]

Ok so.. for the last month I have been communicating with Aurora Guitar company https://auroramusicco.com/about-us/
About having a 12 string bass neck made, this is the only person I have found that is willing to do it, has built 12 string basses and isn’t saying they need to charge you for cnc setup costs.. and isn’t actually a company that “custom” makes stuff in china.. after a lot of emails and talking on the phone I’m pretty confident that they will do good. I will post results in this thread later. But do sift through their site their creations are mixed in with the other items… they seem to like to do oddball things..

And with putting my deposit down I cancelled my pre-order I had on a schecter I’ve been waiting on since feb.. I never liked the idea of getting a signature model, and I have had doubts about the sudden drop out in all 12s made in Korea at the same time… schecter told me a different answer than what they told sweetwater about lead times.. water stone is saying they are going to put out a run in August… I bet all 3 brands are made in the same shop…. Anyway.. I’m glad I found a possible alternative