Current Custom Brands

[ThePIGI King]

So I guess all the brands I used to lust after in the custom world are kind of gone now? I can't hardly find anything about Oakland Axe Factory, Xen, or Ran anywhere. What happened?

I have never, and am not in the position to purchase customs, but I like looking. Who are the builders now that everyone loves? Bonus points if they make headless 8s and 9s.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

So I guess all the brands I used to lust after in the custom world are kind of gone now? I can't hardly find anything about Oakland Axe Factory, Xen, or Ran anywhere. What happened?

I have never, and am not in the position to purchase customs, but I like looking. Who are the builders now that everyone loves? Bonus points if they make headless 8s and 9s.

OAF is dead, Drinkwater doesn't really build anymore.
Xen still exists afaik.
Ran basically ran out of money and had to close shop.

Aristides is making headless 8 and 9 strings. They make impeccable stuff imo.

Kiesel is still kicking and they make headless 8 strings (not sure about 9 strings). Generally pretty good quality imo, but they've been cranking their price points a fair bit over the last 5 or so years. My old aquaburst VM8 cost like 1800$ back in 2016 and now it'd cost 2800 to build the same thing.

Skervesen still exists, but I've never tried one so I can't vouch for the quality.

Dean Gordon is doing headless guitars now but I haven't seen him do an 8 or 9 string yet. I've heard nothing but good things about his builds though.

TK instruments still exists and still does excellent work from what I've heard.

Waghorn does great work ime but idk if he'll do headless builds. He'd probably be open to it.

 

[Captain Shoggoth]

I have a XEN, it was my dream guitar when I got it but I vastly prefer playing my name-brand high end guitars at this point. The brand's dormant and has been for a long while. Eric was a longtime user here, I know he's wanted to revive it in the past but nothing happening at the moment AFAIK

Waghorn is still working and going strong, although I've let my queue spot sit for ages now so not spoken to him in a year or so

 

[JDB123]

Dean Gordon is doing headless guitars now but I haven't seen him do an 8 or 9 string yet. I've heard nothing but good things about his builds though.

Yeah the build form on his website says he'll do a 7 in 25.5" or 27" scale. No mention of anything with more strings than that

 

[jco5055]

Yeah, as someone who is not into headless 8s or 9s I might not be aware of all the current guys, but Aristides and Skervesen are I guess the two safest bets for quality.

 

[SalsaWood]

BRJ in da house.

Just kidding, turn caps lock back off.

 

[MFB]

BOND does up to 8 string guitars, and he's doing a 7-string bass for Forrest at the moment, not sure about headless but I'm sure you could inquire about it

 

[ThePIGI King]

OAF is dead, Drinkwater doesn't really build anymore.
Xen still exists afaik.
Ran basically ran out of money and had to close shop.

Aristides is making headless 8 and 9 strings. They make impeccable stuff imo.

Kiesel is still kicking and they make headless 8 strings (not sure about 9 strings). Generally pretty good quality imo, but they've been cranking their price points a fair bit over the last 5 or so years. My old aquaburst VM8 cost like 1800$ back in 2016 and now it'd cost 2800 to build the same thing.

Skervesen still exists, but I've never tried one so I can't vouch for the quality.

Dean Gordon is doing headless guitars now but I haven't seen him do an 8 or 9 string yet. I've heard nothing but good things about his builds though.

TK instruments still exists and still does excellent work from what I've heard.

Waghorn does great work ime but idk if he'll do headless builds. He'd probably be open to it.

Thanks man. Yea, it seems a lot has changed in this space. Almost seems like customs aren't the rage they were 5-10yrs ago.

Skervesen looks like the mellowed out, less offerings and not as exciting/crazy stuff.

Kiesel looks wild expensive! And all their models are fugly lol

Aristides looks dope. Might start saving for a used one to try.

A google search turned no working links to Xen...I can't find anything except FB, which I don't have. It's a shame, I love my two .berg*s, but they're not doing anything exciting either.

 

[AltecGreen]

Thanks man. Yea, it seems a lot has changed in this space. Almost seems like customs aren't the rage they were 5-10yrs ago.

I disagree. There are probably way more companies out there. So many that it's hard to know them all.



As a Dean Gordon owner, I highly recommend a DG although he doesn't do 8 or 9 string headless guitars.





Here are some examples not already mentioned above: (some do headless)


Vandermeiji (Netherlands)
Red Layer (Netherlands)
OD (Israel)
Overload (Italy)

Rusti (the darling brand of SSO )

GNG (Italy but now Swiss??)
O3 (Spain)

RevGuitars (Japan)
GTI (Japan)
962 Woodwork (Japan)
Sago (Japan)

C.GIG (Germany)

Carillion (UK)

Oni (Australia)

Stradi (Poland)

I can name probably another 20-30 makers.

 

[JDB123]

I can name probably another 20-30 makers.

Do it for us mere mortals!
I recognized about half of the builders you mentioned, but I'm not on social media so I miss out on the marketing the smaller companies do on Instagram and such.

 

[AltecGreen]

Do it for us mere mortals!
I recognized about half of the builders you mentioned, but I'm not on social media so I miss out on the marketing the smaller companies do on Instagram and such.

Ok.

I'll add some more. I am limiting to those who make more modern guitars. If you add the custom makers that do more traditional designs or weird things, the list is more like several hundred.

 

[AltecGreen]

Do it for us mere mortals!
I recognized about half of the builders you mentioned, but I'm not on social media so I miss out on the marketing the smaller companies do on Instagram and such.

How about this. There's way more since I'm cherry picking certain styes of guitars. I can go on and on. There are so many custom makers out there.


David Teller Brute Bass. (UK)

WKM Guitars (USA)

Tobon (Columbia). (Bought a used one. It was the shortest time I owned a guitar. The Harley Benton lasted longer).

Ave Guitars (Turkey)

Prophecy Instruments (USA)

Beard Guitars (USA)

Koca Guitars (USA)

Moar Guitars (Denmark)

Alquier (France)

SBC Guitars (UK)

GVG Guitars (Slovakia)

Padalka (formerly Russia, now in Canada)

Dark Art Guitars (Switzerland)

AC Guitars (Alan Cringean) (UK)

Reiver Guitars (UK)

K.rileycustomguitars (USA)

Vertige Instruments (USA)

Zerberus (Germany)

Jersey Girl Guitars (Japan). I need to buy one of these.

Ironside Guitars (Canada)

Fibenare (Hungary)

Oroboro Guitars (Italy)

Ivee guitars (Indonesia)

Runt Guitars (Japan)

Ambler Guitars (UK)

GF Custom Guitars (Portugal)

Ergon Guitars (Portugal)

Murray Kuun Guitars

Odem Guitars (Germany)

Valenti Guitars (Italy)

Knauer Guitars (GermanY)

Liuteria Arda (Italy)

ETJ violin & Guitar Design (France)

Motherplucker (USA)

Marconi Labs (Italy)

 

[JDB123]

How about this. There's way more since I'm cherry picking certain styes of guitars. I can go on and on. There are so many custom makers out there.

You’re a saint! Thank you x3

 

[AltecGreen]

Just for fun, here's my list of Japanese guitar makers (all types except acoustics)

962 Woodwork

Addictone

Aria Pro II

Airline

Altero (Kanade Sound Design)

Aster Guitars

Atelier Z

Atlansia

Bacchus

Bizen

Black Cloud (Black Smoker)

Black Zoo Works

Blast Cult

Burny

Caparison

Combat

Cool Z

Crews Maniac Sound

Deviser

Dragonfly

Dyna (D_Sound and other brands)

E-II

Edwards

ESP

Extreme Guitar Force

Fernandes

FGN

Four Spirals

Freedom Custom Guitar Research

Fullertone

G-Life

g7

GrassRoots

Greco

GTI

Guitar Traders

Headway

History

Ibanez

iHush

Infinite

Jersey Girl

K.Nyui

Kaminari

Kigoshi

Killer (ESP OEM)

King Snake

Kino

Kusakusa88

Kusunoki

Kz Guitar Works

L's Trust

Lore Crow

Loveless

Ltd

Mary Guitars

MD-MM Produce

Metal Farm

Momose

Moon

Nakagawa

Navigator

Nishgakki

Odashima

Ogi Factory

Oopegg

Provision

Psychderythm

Rabbit is

Red House

REVguitars

Rokugen

Ruina Miyashiro

Runt

Ryoga

Sago

Saito

Scoop

Sera Sound Products

Seventy Seven

Shikagawa

Sonic

Stilblu

STR

Sugi

Suzuka

T.S. Factory

T's

Taku Sakashta

Three Dots

Tokai

Trafzck

Tsubasa

Vellmor

Vita Guitala

Vola

Y.O.S. (very low production)

Yellowgem

Zemaitis

Zodiac

 

[ThePIGI King]

I didn't remember Padalka! Awesome they're in Canada now.

Whatever happened to Daemoness?

 

[AltecGreen]

I didn't remember Padalka! Awesome they're in Canada now.

Whatever happened to Daemoness?

Read the last few hundred posts from this thread.

Official Daemoness Guitars Thread

did you get your deposit back? In a round about way. Someone purchased my deposit spot from me before all the issues started popping up - this was still around the initial onset of lack of comms.

www.sevenstring.org

Padalka now works for Dingwall. It is unclear how much time he has to build his own stuff.

 

[Jotun@]

I can honestly recommend OD. The guitars are pretty awesome, but the wait time is not.

Also, pretty steep point of entry for the basic models.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier with mine.

 

[Kosthrash]

Have fun!

Design your dream guitar!

Let's design & post our dream guitar(s) and have some fun!!! (I didn't find any related thread, if there is already, pls delete/ignore mine 😂 ) https://voodoocustomguitars.com/custom-electric-guitar-html.html https://www.666strings.com/configurator/...

www.sevenstring.org

 

[sezna]

Dean Gordon is doing headless guitars now but I haven't seen him do an 8 or 9 string yet. I've heard nothing but good things about his builds though.

Yeah the build form on his website says he'll do a 7 in 25.5" or 27" scale. No mention of anything with more strings than that

As a Dean Gordon owner, I highly recommend a DG although he doesn't do 8 or 9 string headless guitars.

Alpha: This is no longer true, as of extremely recently. After much verbal abuse from me, Dean is building me his first headless 8 with his new headless Mirus shape (pictured below). Carbon reinforced neck and everything.

 

[AltecGreen]

Alpha: This is no longer true, as of extremely recently. After much verbal abuse from me, Dean is building me his first headless 8 with his new headless Mirus shape (pictured below). Carbon reinforced neck and everything.
View attachment 138090

Ha Ha Ha!. Dean kept that quiet. Time to mock him.