seekfreed
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Because of general lack of information about this custom shop I wanted to share my experience with Aviator Guitars in this thread from the beginning to the final product.
This thread may act as a little orientation for people who might be similarily gun shy like me regarding this brand.
Also if any of you guys have your stories with them, feel obliged to share (I want to see some pics!)
But first of all, I am not affiliated to them or being paid. This is an experiment of mine that I like to have documented and shared. If I should recieve a lemon in the end, people will know about it, but if I recieve a great playing and sounding guitar it will be a win win situation for everybody involved.
I will keep this thread updated during the build process and do a little review once I have recieved it and gotten to know it better.
Pics can be found further down!
My experience
Anyways, let me tell you what led me to them. Basically I was in the market for a nice Telecaster and was browsing the common brands like Fender and different custom shops like Balaguer and others. The lack of body and arm contours drove me away from the classic models and left me looking for alternatives.
While browsing the net for ideas I stumbled upon the Aviator guitars custom shop. Due to living in the EU and having made good experiences with eastern European custom shops I thought to myself: lets see what they can do.
After browsing their webpage and being pleasantly surpised by the designer I decided to send them the filled out form. About one day later I recieved a message with an estimated price and a quick message saying that they were stoked about the specs and the project.
But I wasn't. To keep the cost down to a certain degree I opted for compromises and so I decided to look for different solutions (different brand/custom shop).
I continued my search but could not find anything remotely close to what I was looking for. Aviators designer did not leave me alone though..., I played with different options and the visual mockup that it provided made me want to pull the trigger. Still I was not 100% sure about it.
But then, one day, I saw an Instagram Black Friday ad proclaiming a 250€ on all custom orders during a specific time. That was all I needed.
After speccing out my Tele/Texan without compromises this time and sending out the form I recieved the quote the next day.
To me it still felt like plunging into cold waters because of the lack of information or reviews about this brand. So I decided to contact them on the phone to see what those guys were all about. It just makes me feel way better if I have somebody to talk to about my project and ideas, so that was basically what I was trying to find.
And I found it. Calling them and speaking to Mason showed me that I have made the right decision. He was passionate not only about their brand and products but also about my guitar and ideas. He did not hesitate to answer all my questions about their way of making guitars or their history in general. And even though they had to work their asses off because of their Black Friday deal, he took the time to make sure that everything was the way I wanted.
Let me tell you about their history and what they offer!
Aviator guitars were founded in 2014 in the Czech Republic by two friends who met during their time in university. Jan and Mason are the two masterminds behind the brand and split the duties of building the guitars and marketing.
The name itself stems from Jans families history of woodworkers building planes and gliders.
People liked what he did in the early days in his garage and things started to get rolling. After they build guitars for a band named Cabal the word spread and more and more people got on board. Their main customers are from all over Europe (Norway, Germany, France, the UK ...) but they are starting to get recognition in America as well. Just yesterday I found the first official dealer in the US on reverb!
Their philosophy is based on good QC and and attention to detail. Over the course of about 2 1/2 years they have manufactured around 190 guitars, making sure to have top notch quality as their priority. Focusing on slow and steady growth, they are not rushing to produce batches of guitars or to propagate themselves too much on social media. So far word of mouth worked well for them.
Those infos were provided to me by Mason one time we talked on the phone and to me personally this is a nice little piece of genuine history.
So what do they offer?
Their builder allows you to choose from different options:
-Modern --- this is their contemporary take on Super Strats, Vs and so on (8 styles)
-Classic --- guitars with a more "old schoolish" vibe (5 styles)
-Headless --- like the name suggests... (2 styles)
-Zeppelin --- a sexy semi-hollow option (2 styles)
-Bass --- if you want a bass, they go you covered aswell (4 styles)
If you can't find an option in their builder (different hardware, woods, nitro or acrylic and so on) you can always contact them and have them make it possible.
One of the unique features of their guitars are recessed input jacks and the idea sounds pretty darn good I must say. Also you can find many more interesting little details on their page.
Their build times are about 6-7 months (the ETA for mine is 7 months) and during this time they will provide you with pictures of important stages of the build. They even let me choose the top wood from a bunch of different flamed maple tops. That is a service that I have not encountered before!
My Texan 6
Enough talking now, it's time for some pictures! If any of you are interested in the specs of the guitar I can post them later.
This is the final mockup of my Texan 6
Here you can see the top wood that I have chosen
That should be enough for now. I'd love to hear your thoughts/stories/experiences if you got any.
I for my part enjoy the process so far and am pretty excited about the guitar!
This thread may act as a little orientation for people who might be similarily gun shy like me regarding this brand.
Also if any of you guys have your stories with them, feel obliged to share (I want to see some pics!)
But first of all, I am not affiliated to them or being paid. This is an experiment of mine that I like to have documented and shared. If I should recieve a lemon in the end, people will know about it, but if I recieve a great playing and sounding guitar it will be a win win situation for everybody involved.
I will keep this thread updated during the build process and do a little review once I have recieved it and gotten to know it better.
Pics can be found further down!
My experience
Anyways, let me tell you what led me to them. Basically I was in the market for a nice Telecaster and was browsing the common brands like Fender and different custom shops like Balaguer and others. The lack of body and arm contours drove me away from the classic models and left me looking for alternatives.
While browsing the net for ideas I stumbled upon the Aviator guitars custom shop. Due to living in the EU and having made good experiences with eastern European custom shops I thought to myself: lets see what they can do.
After browsing their webpage and being pleasantly surpised by the designer I decided to send them the filled out form. About one day later I recieved a message with an estimated price and a quick message saying that they were stoked about the specs and the project.
But I wasn't. To keep the cost down to a certain degree I opted for compromises and so I decided to look for different solutions (different brand/custom shop).
I continued my search but could not find anything remotely close to what I was looking for. Aviators designer did not leave me alone though..., I played with different options and the visual mockup that it provided made me want to pull the trigger. Still I was not 100% sure about it.
But then, one day, I saw an Instagram Black Friday ad proclaiming a 250€ on all custom orders during a specific time. That was all I needed.
After speccing out my Tele/Texan without compromises this time and sending out the form I recieved the quote the next day.
To me it still felt like plunging into cold waters because of the lack of information or reviews about this brand. So I decided to contact them on the phone to see what those guys were all about. It just makes me feel way better if I have somebody to talk to about my project and ideas, so that was basically what I was trying to find.
And I found it. Calling them and speaking to Mason showed me that I have made the right decision. He was passionate not only about their brand and products but also about my guitar and ideas. He did not hesitate to answer all my questions about their way of making guitars or their history in general. And even though they had to work their asses off because of their Black Friday deal, he took the time to make sure that everything was the way I wanted.
Let me tell you about their history and what they offer!
Aviator guitars were founded in 2014 in the Czech Republic by two friends who met during their time in university. Jan and Mason are the two masterminds behind the brand and split the duties of building the guitars and marketing.
The name itself stems from Jans families history of woodworkers building planes and gliders.
People liked what he did in the early days in his garage and things started to get rolling. After they build guitars for a band named Cabal the word spread and more and more people got on board. Their main customers are from all over Europe (Norway, Germany, France, the UK ...) but they are starting to get recognition in America as well. Just yesterday I found the first official dealer in the US on reverb!
Their philosophy is based on good QC and and attention to detail. Over the course of about 2 1/2 years they have manufactured around 190 guitars, making sure to have top notch quality as their priority. Focusing on slow and steady growth, they are not rushing to produce batches of guitars or to propagate themselves too much on social media. So far word of mouth worked well for them.
Those infos were provided to me by Mason one time we talked on the phone and to me personally this is a nice little piece of genuine history.
So what do they offer?
Their builder allows you to choose from different options:
-Modern --- this is their contemporary take on Super Strats, Vs and so on (8 styles)
-Classic --- guitars with a more "old schoolish" vibe (5 styles)
-Headless --- like the name suggests... (2 styles)
-Zeppelin --- a sexy semi-hollow option (2 styles)
-Bass --- if you want a bass, they go you covered aswell (4 styles)
If you can't find an option in their builder (different hardware, woods, nitro or acrylic and so on) you can always contact them and have them make it possible.
One of the unique features of their guitars are recessed input jacks and the idea sounds pretty darn good I must say. Also you can find many more interesting little details on their page.
Their build times are about 6-7 months (the ETA for mine is 7 months) and during this time they will provide you with pictures of important stages of the build. They even let me choose the top wood from a bunch of different flamed maple tops. That is a service that I have not encountered before!
My Texan 6
Enough talking now, it's time for some pictures! If any of you are interested in the specs of the guitar I can post them later.
This is the final mockup of my Texan 6
Here you can see the top wood that I have chosen
That should be enough for now. I'd love to hear your thoughts/stories/experiences if you got any.
I for my part enjoy the process so far and am pretty excited about the guitar!
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