Ordering a Custom Guitar

Options and Pricing

To begin, we will consider what you want in a guitar. This includes talking about your playing style, ergonomic concerns, and aesthetic choices. You can specify the model, the woods, inlays, colors, nut width, fret wire, neck shape, hardware, string spacing, scale length, the pickup, case colors — anything else you want.

Pricing can vary greatly depending upon the choices made but I can say that my guitars are in the $7000-$14,000 range. I do ask for a non-refundable down payment of $500 to hold your place in my schedule. 

Knowing what you want in your guitar, I will work up a cost and present it to you. Price quotes given on custom orders are good for 30 days. Shortly before I begin the construction of your guitar, I will contact you and we will confirm the agreement and design. At that time, I will ask for an additional 40% to proceed.

During the building process I will be contacting you to approve details and I will send you photos of the work in progress.

When the guitar is completed, I will contact you and ask for the final payment plus any shipping charges and taxes that apply.

When the payment is confirmed, I will ship the guitar to you, fully insured. Instruments in my shop and in transit are covered by Heritage Insurance. 

I accept credit cards and PayPal but there is a small electronic payment fee of 3%.

Standard on all guitars 

• Dovetail neck joint and hide glue. Flattop acoustic guitars have scalloped bracing and the tops are tap tuned to bring out the wood’s full potential.

• All backs, soundboards and sides are book matched solid wood. You can choose Mahogany, Indian Rosewood, Bolivian Rosewood, Ganadillo, Bubinga, Maple, Myrtle, Padauk, Wenge, Lacewood, Macaasar Ebony, Ovangkol, Purple Heart, Zebrawood or many others.

  • Some woods like Cocobolo, African Blackwood, Koa, and Malaysian Blackwood require additional charge.

• Soundboards are choice Sitka spruce or Carpathian red spruce.

  • Adirondack spruce, sinker Redwood, Lutz spruce, torrefied spruces and other soundboards are optional; prices and availability vary.

• Red spruce bracing is used on all acoustic guitars.

• The neck is a five-piece laminate of Mahogany, Maple, and Walnut.

• The headstock is attached with a scarf joint to make it withstand impact.

• The body binding is your choice of Indian Rosewood, curly Koa, Ebony, curly Maple, Bloodwood, or Walnut.

• Neck and headstock binding with purfling is standard (same binding choices apply).

• Black/white/black top, back and side purfling on the body is included.

• Choice of Indian Rosewood or Ebony fingerboard and headcap, and Indian Rosewood, Ebony or African Blackwood bridge.

• Ebony bridge pins with abalone dots, bone nut and saddle and Ebony end pin with abalone dot is included.

• Abalone rosette or Helix rosette is included. (Many other rosettes styles are available.)

• Mother of pearl or abalone marking dots, and headstock inlay are also included.

• Gotoh 510 tuning machines are included as well as a two-way truss rod.

• Gloss lacquer finish.

• A hard-shell case and lifetime warranty are included in the base price.

• Changes to nut width, neck thickness, scale length, string spacing, fingerboard radius are no charge.