Last updated February 2007

To view pricing schedules for Electric guitars (solid, semi, and hollow): Electric Guitar Pricing
To view pricing schedules for Dragonfly guitars: Dragonfly Guitar Pricing
To view pricing schedules for Dragonfly guitars: Dragonfly Supreme Guitar Pricing
To view pricing schedules for Acoustic guitars: Acoustic Guitar Pricing

As with any custom venture the list of materials and options is almost impossible to exhaust. There are just as many new ideas as there are new materials. There are many parameters of design in the construction of a custom guitar. To break it down the basic categories would be: design, woods, hardware, electronics, and embellishments (inlay, fret markers, etc).

The following is a partial breakdown of these categories and the standard and additional options.

I offer both electric and acoustic instrument designs. The styles in the gallery can be used as a starting point for a new instrument or modified to fit your particular needs or something entirely new can be designed.

Electric Guitars

Electric guitars come standard with your choice of body styles or an original design, set neck (bolt-ons considered), chambering, and semi-hollow or full-hollow body options. 7 string and 12 string options are available, as well as any custom stringing such as a harp guitar configuration.

Acoustic Guitars

Acoustic guitars come with choice of tradinional top and back bracing, offset X-bracing on the top, or double-X bracing on the back. The different bracing patterns affect the tone significantly and there has been much research and exploration into the area of soundboard bracing that result in more choices for the particular responses and tonal characteristics that you are looking for in an acoustic guitar. Traditional dovetail joints as well as a bolt-on system can be used for the neck joint. Cutaways are standard options. Harp guitar options are also available.

An instrument can be made from any type of suitable wood that is stable and free of structural defects. There are many sources of good material that almost anything can be obtained. Most woods are included in the base price. The more exotic woods will be market value at the time of purchase. The following list includes the standard choices of woods:

Electric Guitars

Acoustic Guitars

As well as working with off the shelf hardware products I do also make my own wooden bridges for any style guitar. In the gallery you can see an example of a hybrid style electric guitar bridge on my electric guitars. These lower tailpieces are nice in that they are more out of the way for the player who like to rest their hand behind the tune-o-matic bridge. It is also lighter than the standard stop tail piece. Of course you can also supply your own hardware to incorporate into your instrument.

While specific hardware options are too vast to list here completely a basic list of manufacturers follow:

Hardware Manufacturers

For electric instruments a pair of pickups comes standard with basic volume and tone controls. Additional pickups and controls can be added to the design for a wiring system that is flexible and complete for your needs. In addition to magnetic pickups there are a piezo systems that can be used to add a nice tonal option. Piezos can be wired to blend into the magnetic signal and also have separate outputs for sending a signal to a separate amplifier. Control cavity layouts are customized to the specific instrument due to the wide array of switching options available. Prices are based on the number of controls and the complexity of the design. Top quality components are used throughout.

There are a great many pickup options out there as well as providing your own. A basic list of manufacturers follow:

• Bartolini
• Jason Lollar
• Joe Barden
• Jim Wagner
• Lindy Fralin
• Seymour Duncan
• Dimarzio
• Rio Grande
• RMC
• GraphTech
• LR Baggs
• B-Band
• Pickup The World
• Etc

Inlay

Inlays and embellishments can give a guitar your own personal touch and because of this I welcome any designs and ideas that you may have. Available materials include shell, bone, wood, metals, you name it. Anything that has aesthetic value can be used in an inlay or as a decorative piece to personalize and instrument. Included in the base price of an instrument are fret side markers, fret top markers, and a headstock logo. All of this can be customized. I do not have a problem redesigning my logo to tie into an inlay design as long as it still retains the general readability of the ligature. Truss rod covers are also a place to add detail. A truss rod cover matching the fingerboard is standard but this can also be customized.

Binding

On electric guitars faux maple binding is the standard option. Solid wood binding on the body, fingerboard, or headstock is also an available option on all instruments. Many purfling styles are available as well. Acoustic instruments come standard with both binding and purfling. All fingerboards have a binding edge to cover fret ends. The standard is to use the same material as the fingerboard. Different woods can be substituted as well.

Terms

The design phase of an instrument begins with the receipt of a 35% down-payment (minus the $500 deposit). This amount covers the materials and design time for the project. Once a design is locked down construction begins. During the process of construction I will email you with updates and photographs of the guitar as it progresses. Most aspects of the design are locked in at this point. Reasonable changes can be made to a point depending on where I am in the process. Major changes will incur a change order fee of $250 plus the cost of new materials in addition to a schedule change. The next payment of 35% is due when the guitar is ready for finishing. After finsihing and final assembly of the guitar the remaining 30% is due plus shipping. I will ship as soon as funds clear.