custom electric guitar
Custom electric guitar - I’ve played guitar for almost 30 years now, and if you are like me, you’ve dreamed of owning your own custom electric gutar for quite some time. I’ve put together a collection of guitars that I’m quite fortunate and proud to own - more fortunate than most. I’ve got a Mark Morton Custom Jackson (which he signed the headstock in Kansas City for me), a USA Jackson Soloist model, a Dean Dimeoflame Razorback, a Jackson Randy Rhoads, a Peavey EVH Custom, and an Ibanez Artcore Semi-Holo body. I’ve also got a Peavey Millennium Bass, and an ESP bass. I’ll post some pictures of my babies in a future post, but right now half of them are in pawn because I lost my job and other unfortunate circumstances, which is driving me CRAZY daily…
If you have questions about custom electric guitars, and would like them answered by real musicians, go here. You can find information about literally hundreds of instruments, and makes and models.
Anyway, back to the post..
I’ve thought about it before, bought books and actually thought about making my own custom instrumnets. There is nothing like having EXACTLY what you want, custom built for you. Even more important, usually, is the quality of the custom electric guitar. Custom Shop instruments
aren’t normally build on an assembly line and use much higher grade
woods and components. Some are even individually hand built. You have
to check with the particular manufacturer for their policies and how
it’s handled.
Especially now, considering my circumstances, I don’t have the time as well as I don’t have thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to invest into expensive equipment that I would use once or twice to make a few guitars for myself or friends, or even a few to sell.
Custom electric guitar companies produce instruments based upon more popular assembly line models. For example, you can get a Custom Shop Gibson or a Custom Shop Jackson (my personal favorites) that are based upon their most popular mass produced models, such as the Les Paul and the Jackson Soloist.
Most companies now also relaease “Custom Shop”models, which are basically pre-made, or limited run productions built in their custom shop. When Jackson introduced their USA series in the mid 90’s, They were build in their USA shop, in limited production runs of 50 units each.
As well, Gibson has plenty of Custom Shop labeled models that are 50’s or 60’s reissues, replicating the original specs of the models as they were first released. These may be considered by some to truely be a custom electric guitar, but I consider myself a purest, and as far as I’m concerned, if you aren’t sending spec’s directly to the custom shop, or in direct contact with them in some way, shape, or form, or talking to someone, it isn’t a TRUE custom electric guitar.
If you are in the market for a Custom electric guitar, contact your local music dealer and tell them you want a true custom shop guitar, or even better yet, contact Jackson, Gibson, Fender, Dean, Washburn, etc directly on their website and let them know you want to order a custom shop guitar. Expect to pay for this. A custom shop Jackson can run anywhere to a few grand to whatever you want to pay. You can get excellent deals of pre-built custom shop guitars at guitar shows, etc, such as the annual Dallas Guitar Festival and Show in April of each year.
That being said, there are plenty of less expensive options if you are in the market for a custom electric guitar. Like mentioned above, you can shop for NAMM custom shop models or showcase models made by guitar companies for industry events . You will get a custom shop quality instrument with a much lower price tag, although, you won’t be able to spec it out as you would if you were to order it straigt from the factory.
This is also the case with some “Custom Shop” lines and custom electric guitar. Gibson offers some “Custom Shop” models that are stocked in retail stores that offer high quality, as well, Jackson, which is now owned by FMIC (Fender Musical Instrument Corporation) offers a USA series model. These “Made in USA” Jacksons are a bit cheaper than their custom shop counter parts, and also use higer quality components, and are of much greater quality than their instruments made in Korea, or even Japan. Jackson however, also offers a Professional Series, which is just a step down from their “Made in USA” series guitars, and of better quality than their Standard Japanese made guitars.
There are many things to take into consideration when purchasing an electric guitar, especially a custom electric guitar. BEWARE of cheap or standard series guitars labeled “custom electric guitar” which are in fact nothing more than a marketing ploy by some companies. You don’t have to worry about this as much with the major label guitar or more reputable guitar companies;
Till next time,
Mike
