Who are some good custom luthiers in the USA for 6 strings and beyond ?
- Thread starter alilcluless
- Start date
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danresn
Well-Known Member
Etherial is actually Australian.
Fiction
For Mod
And ethereal sucks.
Kidding,
Or am I.
No, just a joke. Although as many have said, their work looks questionable.
Honestly depends on what you want, but acacias look mighty fine.
Kidding,
Or am I.
No, just a joke. Although as many have said, their work looks questionable.
Honestly depends on what you want, but acacias look mighty fine.
What matters to me is quality and reasonable price. Your feedback is much appreciated!
You realize that "reasonable price" does not mean a low price, right? A barebones custom is still something they're making for you, and will probably start at $2100 or so. You're also going to have a wait time of at least a year, on average, with any reputable luthier.
Do you know what specs you want 100%? If you're still uncertain, it's probably best to wait.
Yes, I've bought a custom guitar. It was made from top quality wood, the finish came out exactly how I wanted it, but in the end the details I couldn't afford to change were the ones I didn't like. Still one of the top two guitars I've ever plugged in though.
guitarnoize
Well-Known Member
The close ups I've seen of Ethereal look terrible
danresn
Well-Known Member
Its actually Etherial. There is another unrelated brand called Ethereal which has never seen the light of day on this forum. Etherial customs start at $1000, in Australia about $200 less than a schecter hell raiser. Not exactly going to be Vik Quality.
I don't know if your definition of reasonably priced is the same as mine, but here are the CS's I have an opinion on. You won't be getting any decent custom any time soon, a year to wait isn't uncommon, and twice that still wouldn't surprise a number of people. A couple of shops can churn guitars out in 6 months, Mayones and Acacia being relevant examples.
Jackson CS has a great reputation, price isn't too bad but still $4k+ probably. I've owned a couple US Jacksons an played a number of customs, the quality is incredibly good.
BRJ has its issues, I'd let it lie til that's resolved
Acacia looks great, no experience myself but cheap! The guys there are super friendly
Avoid Sherman like the plague
Siggery is British, so tax, seem pretty cheap, don't know any more than that
Strandberg quality is amazing, but pricey and long wait unless you go for a modifiable production guitar
Strictly 7 looks good but I've heard as many slightly disappointed customers as happy ones. A number of people who've said in private they weren't happy don't ever seem to have posted publicly so the public view tends to be skewed toward to positive. Can't say anything with conviction as I have no personal experience, but people I trust have had less than perfect experiences. They may be more consistent recently...?
Ibanez CS isn't for us ordinary folk
ESP seems to have a long wait but great quality.
Gibson CS I thought was just a badge they put on some random expensive guitars, similar with Fender thinking about it.
Daemoness is British but quite reasonably priced, long wait though
Mayones is Polish, but quick turnaround an good quality. I don't know how well the price translates to the US Market though. You can order CS through a dealer and they do all the leg work, I've heard of people receiving these within 3-4 months.
KxK looks cool and gets a good rep, looooong wait though, don't know if he's even taking orders
Vik are European, Belarus, 18 month wait, $3-4k+ amazing quality
Blackmachine....
just kidding
Jackson CS has a great reputation, price isn't too bad but still $4k+ probably. I've owned a couple US Jacksons an played a number of customs, the quality is incredibly good.
BRJ has its issues, I'd let it lie til that's resolved
Acacia looks great, no experience myself but cheap! The guys there are super friendly
Avoid Sherman like the plague
Siggery is British, so tax, seem pretty cheap, don't know any more than that
Strandberg quality is amazing, but pricey and long wait unless you go for a modifiable production guitar
Strictly 7 looks good but I've heard as many slightly disappointed customers as happy ones. A number of people who've said in private they weren't happy don't ever seem to have posted publicly so the public view tends to be skewed toward to positive. Can't say anything with conviction as I have no personal experience, but people I trust have had less than perfect experiences. They may be more consistent recently...?
Ibanez CS isn't for us ordinary folk
ESP seems to have a long wait but great quality.
Gibson CS I thought was just a badge they put on some random expensive guitars, similar with Fender thinking about it.
Daemoness is British but quite reasonably priced, long wait though
Mayones is Polish, but quick turnaround an good quality. I don't know how well the price translates to the US Market though. You can order CS through a dealer and they do all the leg work, I've heard of people receiving these within 3-4 months.
KxK looks cool and gets a good rep, looooong wait though, don't know if he's even taking orders
Vik are European, Belarus, 18 month wait, $3-4k+ amazing quality
Blackmachine....
just kiddingSeanthesheep
Well-Known Member
I dont know, I think gibson will actually do custom specced guitars in their CS. A couple years ago, before I bought my PRS I was looking at a bunch of guitars, ended up going down to the US even to try some, and I ended up talking to an employee there about it, and he gave me the contact info of someone at the gibson CS that he said could get a custom built for me. God knows how expensive thatd be 
Im pretty sure I still have the contact info too but I have checked in a while
Im pretty sure I still have the contact info too but I have checked in a while 
Webmaestro
Ibanez Fanatic
I ordered from the Jackson Custom Shop back in 1997. Obviously, a long time ago, so things may have changed considerably since then. It was a very good experience (mostly, see last paragraph), but I didn't deal with the JCS directly. I ordered the guitar and did all the speccing through Drum City Guitar Land in Colorado (great little shop, btw).
Unfortunately, I no longer have pics of that guitar (I've since sold it), but it had the following specs:
- 6 strings
- Dinky body
- Mahogany body, AAAA flame maple top
- Finish was natural--Watco Danish Oil
- 3pc maple neck w/ebony fingerboard
- Small white, offset dots on the fb
- Compound radius fb... 12" - 16"
- Jumbo frets
- Black headstock
- Ibanez Lo-Pro Edge trem
- 1 vol, 1 tone, 3-way toggle
- Lifetime warranty (to original owner only)
If I remember correctly...
Time: about 6 months
Cost: just under $3k
Wish I could post pics and dig out the actual receipts and paperwork, but don't have those handy at the moment. The workmanship was amazingly good, as to be expected. The only hiccup was that they didn't initially send me a compound radius fb. It was straight 12" all the way, which I noticed immediately. They took it back, paid all shipping, and fixed the issue free-of-charge. No problems other than being without the axe for 2 months.
Unfortunately, I no longer have pics of that guitar (I've since sold it), but it had the following specs:
- 6 strings
- Dinky body
- Mahogany body, AAAA flame maple top
- Finish was natural--Watco Danish Oil
- 3pc maple neck w/ebony fingerboard
- Small white, offset dots on the fb
- Compound radius fb... 12" - 16"
- Jumbo frets
- Black headstock
- Ibanez Lo-Pro Edge trem
- 1 vol, 1 tone, 3-way toggle
- Lifetime warranty (to original owner only)
If I remember correctly...
Time: about 6 months
Cost: just under $3k
Wish I could post pics and dig out the actual receipts and paperwork, but don't have those handy at the moment. The workmanship was amazingly good, as to be expected. The only hiccup was that they didn't initially send me a compound radius fb. It was straight 12" all the way, which I noticed immediately. They took it back, paid all shipping, and fixed the issue free-of-charge. No problems other than being without the axe for 2 months.
Konfyouzd
Return of the Dread-I
That was my plan... I'm selling my soul to Drakkar later this week actually...
By the way... I'm poor so when I want custom work done I just bug the dudes that do it here for a hobby. A lot of them are really good. There are also some sweet luthiers here too like Bowes (Canuck Brian) and Decibel (Darren)
Webmaestro
Ibanez Fanatic
This is a great point, actually. If you browse this category enough, you're going to see some freaking amazing work by ss.org members. It was one of the first things that stood out to me when I joined here.
Konfyouzd
Return of the Dread-I
Allright, I read the hole thread and came to this conclusion:
Go and learn how to build a guitar (took me a year) and build it yourself.
Thats faster, cheaper and you get a guitar that is exactly how you specified it...
Go and learn how to build a guitar (took me a year) and build it yourself.
Thats faster, cheaper and you get a guitar that is exactly how you specified it...
Konfyouzd
Return of the Dread-I
A year's not bad...
alilcluless
Well-Known Member
Ah, thanks! I sort of forgot about this and have since learned some what through fb and youtube about most of what you mentioned, as the orginal few people to reply kind of seemed like 
... strange that I can't ask a legit question, when I had used google quite a bit already. 
There is also: Decibel guitars, Oni guitars, atomic guitar works ... Dont know if they are good though.
... strange that I can't ask a legit question, when I had used google quite a bit already. There is also: Decibel guitars, Oni guitars, atomic guitar works ... Dont know if they are good though.
I don't know if your definition of reasonably priced is the same as mine, but here are the CS's I have an opinion on. You won't be getting any decent custom any time soon, a year to wait isn't uncommon, and twice that still wouldn't surprise a number of people. A couple of shops can churn guitars out in 6 months, Mayones and Acacia being relevant examples.
Jackson CS has a great reputation, price isn't too bad but still $4k+ probably. I've owned a couple US Jacksons an played a number of customs, the quality is incredibly good.
BRJ has its issues, I'd let it lie til that's resolved
Acacia looks great, no experience myself but cheap! The guys there are super friendly
Avoid Sherman like the plague
Siggery is British, so tax, seem pretty cheap, don't know any more than that
Strandberg quality is amazing, but pricey and long wait unless you go for a modifiable production guitar
Strictly 7 looks good but I've heard as many slightly disappointed customers as happy ones. A number of people who've said in private they weren't happy don't ever seem to have posted publicly so the public view tends to be skewed toward to positive. Can't say anything with conviction as I have no personal experience, but people I trust have had less than perfect experiences. They may be more consistent recently...?
Ibanez CS isn't for us ordinary folk
ESP seems to have a long wait but great quality.
Gibson CS I thought was just a badge they put on some random expensive guitars, similar with Fender thinking about it.
Daemoness is British but quite reasonably priced, long wait though
Mayones is Polish, but quick turnaround an good quality. I don't know how well the price translates to the US Market though. You can order CS through a dealer and they do all the leg work, I've heard of people receiving these within 3-4 months.
KxK looks cool and gets a good rep, looooong wait though, don't know if he's even taking orders
Vik are European, Belarus, 18 month wait, $3-4k+ amazing quality
Blackmachine....
Konfyouzd
Return of the Dread-I
Anyone mention OAF? Then there's always XEN... You can get those from OAF as well. I'm not sure who else is officially going to be building them yet, but then again, I live in the US, so OAF is all that really matters...
AwDeOh
Well-Known Member
This thread should have ended at the first mention of Black Water Guitars.
