Design your custom shop guitar here

Milnoque

Resident Curmudgeon
I'm just curious. If you could buy a guitar from a major manufacturer tricked out any way you wanted, what would you come up with? I'm thinking about standard designs (LP, Strat, D-28, Your favorite Schecter, whatever). If you could have one of those built any way you wanted what would you do?

What got me started was thinking about a Gibson J-185 EC. My dream would be to have one of those in VSB with ebony bridge and fingerboard (no inlays in the fgbd, just side dots. It would be 1 13/16 at the nut. I would probably go with engelmann spruce for the top. I don't need extra fancy maple on the back and sides their regular stuff is satisfactory. The neck would be honduras mahogany. It would have a 25" or 25 1/4" scale length. Gotoh 510 tuners in black with ivoriod buttons. The binding would be ivoroid as well. A factory Fishman Ellipse Aura system with custom images would be subsitiuted as well.

Tell me about your dream PRS.
 
Why just standard design? I'd be interested to hear what bespoke or other designs people may lust after? Helps me keep my finger on the pulse so to speak.
 
Firebird VII 12-string with a set bridge as opposed to that terrible lyre thing and 3 gorgeous minibuckers. While it does not exist, the concept of owning it keeps me up at night.
 
1930 Martin OM42 with planetary tuners, tobacco sunburst finish, Brazilian back/sides, Adirondack top, snowflakes, the works.

Lefty, of course.:D

I had an estimate about 1990 or so for just such a guitar of about $3500.

Wish I had pulled the trigger on that one.:(
 
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Hmmmm...definetely a T-style shape for me. Some kinda vintage trem, locking tuners, brass bridge-plate and pieces, cream binding, maple neck, neck and bridge pups wired out of phase with scooped mid-range (a la John Mayers 'Big Dipper' pups). Cherry colour with black guard.
 
Std. PRS body style w/ S/S/S pickup config, arch top w/ Gibson LP bridge and tail. Flame maple top w/ Onyx (black) stain. Gibson LP size frets on a ebony finger board. 4+2 peg head. Simple 5 way switch and just tone and volume knobs. SWEET:D:D
 
Why just standard design? I'd be interested to hear what bespoke or other designs people may lust after? Helps me keep my finger on the pulse so to speak.

We had a dream guitar thread a couple of weeks back. Might be time for another one. I was just curious what people would do to the standard designs.
 
We had a dream guitar thread a couple of weeks back. Might be time for another one. I was just curious what people would do to the standard designs.

Did we? I don't remember that? May have passed me by in the mayhem that was the festive season.

Along those those lines one day I'm going to do a HR design and build thread one day when I have the time. You guys fight out the spec and I'll build it and see what we come up with. Could be a blast if I can find the time.
 
http://www.andersonguitars.com/cfPa...ry.cfm?passedID=10&finishID=228&bodyWoodID=57

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A seven string variation of that. :D

Probably H-H, no pickguard, and a Floyd, and probably 24 fret, but that's pretty close. :D I even talked to Tom Anderson about ordering one, but he isn't interested in building sevens these days...
 
Small bodied guitar with Spruce Top and Rosewood back and sides, 12 fret neck 1 and 7/8th at the nut and ebony fingerboard and bridge with bone nut and saddle, 18.1 ratio tuners with a hipshot drop D tuner on there, K&K Sound pickups on it, all wood bindings and I almost forgot Mahogany neck.....
 
Did we? I don't remember that? May have passed me by in the mayhem that was the festive season.

Along those those lines one day I'm going to do a HR design and build thread one day when I have the time. You guys fight out the spec and I'll build it and see what we come up with. Could be a blast if I can find the time.

Please find the time. I would enjoy that immensely
 
Did we? I don't remember that? May have passed me by in the mayhem that was the festive season.

Along those those lines one day I'm going to do a HR design and build thread one day when I have the time. You guys fight out the spec and I'll build it and see what we come up with. Could be a blast if I can find the time.

That would be immensely cool. Dunno bout getting us lot to agree on anything though!
 
Right now, I'm in the process of collecting parts toward building a custom Tele. So far, I've got the body (routed for P90s and a Strat tremolo), a 5-way switch and the pots. Still need to get the neck, pickups (likely Seymour Duncan SP3 bridge/Seymour Duncan SP1 neck, like the Fender TC-90 and JA-90 have), pickguard, back plate and a few other miscellaneous electronics bits. After this one, I'm likely to build another similar one, except for having just a P90 at the bridge, and a 3-way switch wired a la Fender Esquire. I've also been planning to build a 12-string Telecaster Deluxe, in which everything will be reproductions of the Fender originals, but I'll actually use Fender Wide-Range humbuckers...and a Gotoh 12-string bridge.

Other future Fender style guitar plans will be 2 more Teles and a Strat...all that I'll be calling Jagcasters, in that I'll use some Jaguar goodies instead of typical Tele and Strat. The first Tele based Jagcaster will have a Jaguar/Jazzmaster tremolo, and I'll likely get the control cavity routed a tad longer, so I can get a custom control plate for the typical Tele volume and tone controls, but with individual switches for the pickups a la Jaguar. The second Tele based Jagcaster will be nearly the same, except for having just a Jaguar bridge pickup, and a 3-way switch wired a la Esquire. Then, I figure I could go for a Strat body with a Jaguar/Jazzmaster tremolo, 3 Jaguar pickups (custom rw/rp middle) and a switch plate and switching a la Bass VI.

Of course, if I had the money to be throwing around without giving it a second thought, I'd go to my nearest Fender Custom Shop outlet, and order what I want. Alas, I'm amongst the population of working poor, so I do what I can, when I can, as I can afford it (sigh).

Matt
 
I want a carved flamed maple top stained orange with white stripes with black edges, in the style and shape of a clownfish. The guitar should have a single shielded, underwound humbucker in the middle position, slightly towards the bridge. It should have a compound radius ebony fingerboard, but not dyed black, leave it natural. Gibson scale length. Green abalone inlay at 12th fret only, in a fish shape, and a fishtail shape headstock and cutaway. A green abalone nut would be nice too. Gold hardware; tune-o-matic bridge. Single volume knob, balanced output with switch for built-in passive DI transformer :) Of course, no pickguard, and rear routed controls :cool:
 
As a hobby I build most of my own guitars. I usually design what I would want to be my "signature model" of a certain guitar so they're all based on the basic idea but made unique by a couple of other features that sets them apart clearly. This is gonna be my next build:

JoFordTeleFinalJPEG.jpg


I've been wanting a Tele-type thing for a while, but I've also wanted the Strat neck and quack sounds, so I'm adding a Strat neck- and middle-PU. I've also got a Stewmac Golden Age Hot HB lying around and because I very rarely use anything but a HB at the bridge I opted for that. I wanted something that will set this guitar apart from Fenders, so I went for a er... different headstock. That and because I have a really nice pair of 3-a-side machine-heads lying around as well.

The color-scheme is based on my Ford truck, which has been our band's touring vehicle since 2004. It's taken us to more gigs that I can remember. It makes everything on the guitar just so much more meaningful.
 
As a hobby I build most of my own guitars. I usually design what I would want to be my "signature model" of a certain guitar so they're all based on the basic idea but made unique by a couple of other features that sets them apart clearly. This is gonna be my next build:

JoFordTeleFinalJPEG.jpg


I've been wanting a Tele-type thing for a while, but I've also wanted the Strat neck and quack sounds, so I'm adding a Strat neck- and middle-PU. I've also got a Stewmac Golden Age Hot HB lying around and because I very rarely use anything but a HB at the bridge I opted for that. I wanted something that will set this guitar apart from Fenders, so I went for a er... different headstock. That and because I have a really nice pair of 3-a-side machine-heads lying around as well.

The color-scheme is based on my Ford truck, which has been our band's touring vehicle since 2004. It's taken us to more gigs that I can remember. It makes everything on the guitar just so much more meaningful.

I'm building my dream guitar right now (one of 'em anyway). So I can relate. And that's a real sweet looking guitar. The Gibby style headstock looks good on the tele body, too.
 
I would never have thought that that configuration would look so good together but it really works very well visually. What is the scale length? When I have tried Strat pickups with a 24 3/4" scale length it didn't sound right to me. How does your mileage vary?
 
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