Tone and appearance aside....what impresses you about a custom guitar?

[Terry McInturff]

Tone and appearance (shape, inlays etc) aside....

what are some of the details of a custom guitar that strike you as being the hallmarks of a world-class guitar?

Examples could be
- squeeky clean wiring with high-grade components "under the hood"
- extremely stable neck, great set-up
- uber-thin finish expertly sanded flat right up into the corners
- extraodinarily level frets with perfectly rounded crowns, smooth ends
- well cut/shaped/polished nut

You get the idea. What are some of the little details that you feel a truly world-class guitar should feature? What things catch YOUR eye?

[dr.morton]

In case of my Teuffel tesla:

- original finish
- added features (kill switch, hum and feedback)
- attention to detail (compensated bridge, hand polished screws, high quality components etc.)
- personal relation to the builder and level of communication
- has a fresh identity (although a very few consider them "avangard guitars")

[STINNETT]

- squeeky clean wiring with high-grade components "under the hood"
- extremely stable neck, great set-up
- uber-thin finish expertly sanded flat right up into the corners
- extraodinarily level frets with perfectly rounded crowns, smooth ends
- well cut/shaped/polished nut

All of that.

[JoeB63]

Aside from tone....perfect playability (fret and nut finishing, set-up, etc.). Stable neck is super-important, but not something you can judge on a short test-run.

I've had excellent luck with Suhr and Anderson in those categories. To me, that's the real difference between a $1,000 guitar and a $2,000+ guitar.

[Lucidology]

Split Coil taps, etc.~or something in that catagory
should be standard & not offered as an option on 3 way switch, two bucker axes ...

It's amazing how many cheaper brand guitars include this as part of the package ...
I never understand how they do such and many of the better made guitars don't ...??

Thanks for asking Terry, means a lot to us ...

[WayneM]

Beside all of the above......

Balance.

A neck heavy guitar is very uncomfortable to play.

Also knowledge how the builder dries the wood.....if done correctly, it can add to the stability of the guitar.

Proper shielding.

Lastly, the back-up support of the Luthier if any problems occur.

[Sam Sherry]

Asking "What aside from tone impresses you about a guitar?" is like asking, "What aside from taste impresses you about this meal?" Yeah, it's possible to formulate a coherent, meaningful answer but you are have to avoid the real essence to do it.

That said, what impresses me is that the luthier has used their skill to express a vision. Think of the great custom luthiers of today and of the past: D'Angelico, D'Aquisto and Stromberg . . . Trussart . . . Bourgeois . . . Think about Ken Parker, man. Everything that guy has ever built has a vision. He doesn't care what Guitar Center has in stock. And when you play a guitar Ken Parker built it feels unique and true to itself.

Of course, lots of people will smile if you take the other approach: "I'm going to make a guitar exactly the way YOU want it." Because we ARE talking about "custom-built" here. Somebody's already made a perfectly nice Telecaster.

[MrMunky]

Originally Posted by Terry McInturff

Tone and appearance (shape, inlays etc) aside....

what are some of the details of a custom guitar that strike you as being the hallmarks of a world-class guitar?

Examples could be
- squeeky clean wiring with high-grade components "under the hood"
- extremely stable neck, great set-up
- uber-thin finish expertly sanded flat right up into the corners
- extraodinarily level frets with perfectly rounded crowns, smooth ends
- well cut/shaped/polished nut

You get the idea. What are some of the little details that you feel a truly world-class guitar should feature? What things catch YOUR eye?

This question is an interesting one.

The reason that I would be willing to spend money on a custom guitar, as opposed to a guitar built without input from me, is to obtain one or more idiosyncratic features. The wrinkle to guitars with idiosyncratic features is that they're expensive to produce and they can't be easily replaced if something goes wrong. In that light, the features I look for in a custom guitar relate to the lifetime dependability of the guitar. For example:

-Does the design have any critical weaknesses? If the neck is going to crack if the guitar gets dropped once, or if the neck is finished in a way that makes it likely to warp, I'm going to be skeptical of the guitar.

-Are the parts that move, wear, and touch other parts easily replaceable? A truss rod nut that sits under a wood plug and can't be replaced if someone strips it is perhaps ok for a $600 mass-produced guitar for which everyone makes a replacement neck. But no thanks if its going to turn a $4000 set-neck custom guitar into a piece of wall art. This issue comes up on custom guitars most often with the bridge. A $500 piece of hardware made by a company that doesn't return emails might be vastly superior to the mass-produced usual suspects, but it screams, "Slight inattention during a string change will turn this guitar into irreparable firewood."

A lot of the other things mentioned in this thread are secondary considerations for me. Over the lifetime of a guitar (one with a good, long life, anyway), the setup and frets are going to be completely redone many times. The finish isn't going to stay even and pristine, and the electronics, unless they're unusual, are easy and relatively cheap to replace if there's a problem down the road. The fundamental things that will keep a guitar doing what you bought it to do for the long haul are by far the most important to me.

[msr13]

All the things mentioned so far, and for me, I appreciate the artistry and uniqueness of each instrument. I love that my Patrick James Eggle Linville is like no other Linville, that Patrick, himself made it, that it took months of focus for him to construct something so intricate and beautiful, and that I can talk with him about it. I feel the same way about my Lowden. They are art, as much as they are instruments. I play them daily, but thoroughly appreciate their beauty as much as their utility.

[ABKB]

My 2 cents. For me, I don't think I can answer that question. When I pick up a guitar, the first thing I listen for is tone. The second is looks (sorry, shallow I know but I do). If both of those are good, I'm really looking at how it feels to me overall. I have played guitars where they looked and sounded good, but something was off in the feel dept.

I realize that's not much help, sorry. But it's what I truly think. There's just too many factors that go into "feel" that it's hard to really quantify them.

[Serious Poo]

Hi Terry,

I think I get where you're going with this thread, but to me it's more than any one single thing - it's the overall attention to detail and passion of the builder that separates custom instruments from mass-production instruments.

IMHO, the whole point of ordering a custom instrument is to get something magical, where the whole is greater than merely the sum of its parts. Whether it's special woods picked for looks or tone, unique parts and capacitor values, custom finishes or just special attention paid to gluing the neck joint together, it all speaks to the difference between real craftsmanship and mere assembly line construction. That said, there are a couple of things I personally look for in a custom built instrument, in addition to the excellent examples you posted above.

• A very comfortable neck carve, sanded and finished to feel "like home" from day 1.
• Balanced and versatile electronics that give a range of usable sounds that serve to amplify the acoustic sound of the instrument, not color it.
• Stability of tuning, regardless of whether it has a stoptail or trem.
• The adjustability and quality of bridge / nut / truss rod / tuner parts to allow me to set up the instrument to play comfortably yet still allow me to accurately set the intonation.
• Very high quality tone woods, glues and finish materials.
• A very well designed and perfectly glued neck joint. I know you listed it already, but it's the single reason I won't even consider ordering from several well respected custom builders here on TGP - I simply can't hang with bolt-on necks.
• Completeness of vision / getting it right the first time. I really don't want to have to upgrade the tone pots, readjust the truss rod because it wasn't set-up correctly, or file down the bridge saddles once I've received a custom guitar. It should be ready to gig with right out of the case.

Hope that helps!

[GA20T]

Given that my ideal electric guitar is a slight variation of a classic design (Tele, Duo Jet, Jazzmaster are the guitar styles I play), and I'm willing to go the route of paying a custom builder somewhere between $1500 and $2200 (which I am) instead of relying on a name brand to deliver, the following are the most important features to me:

- volume/sustain/timbre/stability, lending to the perceived "liveliness" and responsiveness of the guitar (wood selection & construction tolerances)
- highly refined ease of playability (yet doesn't come up short when I dig in)
- good weight & exceptional balance & feel, standing or sitting.
- long-wearing durability (SS/titanium frets, quality saddle & nut materials, improved & more precise hardware than previous examples (G&L has beautiful bridges compared to the old style imo))
- an appropriate, if delicate, finish & feel to the guitar that will not make me feel as though I'm playing a plastic handled sledgehammer purchased at Walmart.

[Quinny]

2 big things for me are balance both on and off strap, and how the neck feels. In terms of the neck that's 2 main things too; first is the friction (or hopefully lack of) when running my hand over it, the second is a nicely rolled fretboard edge. With the right feel a neck can feel like it's been yours for a lifetime.... my Heatley (red spruce one) was 100% like that out of the case, and the new Driskill already feels like an old friend too.

Aside from that though (and tone, of course) I have to say I'm increasingly on the whole 'not bothered' about a lot of stuff. For instance, Terry, it hadn't even occurred to me to check under the plate for wiring neatness until a recent thread of yours. I also find myself a lot these days tuning out when listening to people talk about the tiny detail.... bottom line, if it sounds good it sounds good (and if down to the minute detail then great!)... if it doesn't then I don't like it, and I'm not too concerned as to why. I'm reminded once again of a LP DC Faded Special I had once, which I took to gigs whilst a $3k+ boutique version of the same kind of thing stayed at home. The boutique was no doubt better built (in the end I stopped gigging the Gibson due to it falling apart!), but tonally the Gibson was the one.

Give me a good tone and a good neck, I'll forgive a lot of other stuff (if I notice it). Give me outstanding build quality and no tone, I'll say thanks very much, put it back down and move along.

[Glowing Tubes]

Agree with a lot of things said here. Obviously set up is key, including properly cut nut. Great fretwork.
The way all the parts work together. I like to feel the guitar vibrate when I hit a chord. It should stay in tune perfectly (with trem).
It should sound great when plugged in...

I rarely care about the wiring to be honest.

[enharmonic]

The thing that impresses me the most about a custom guitar aside from tone and appearance has everything to do with the collaborative effort between a builder and a musician, and how it can produce a unique/specific outcome.

When an informed guitarist collaborates with a gifted craftsman, the sky can truly be the limit.