custom made guitars1

The neck is the most important part of a guitar! If there is too much upbow or back bow, you'll have string rattle or fret buzz at the middle of the neck. A higher string height will be needed for the strings to clear all the frets, intonation will suffer, and playing will be very uncomfortable.

Neck Wood

The species of wood that is used for the neck plays a part in shaping a guitars' tone. Softer woods such as Mahogany, will give a warmer sound with less high frequencies. The harder woods like Maple or Padauk (pronounced pa-duke), will produce more highs, and provide a stiffer and more stable neck. My necks are reinforced with 2 steel bars running on opposite sides of the truss rod. They add a little extra weight, and make for a super stiff neck that resists twisting and warping. This means that a thin Mahogany neck will be able to resist the string tension, and not warp. Gibson's necks are very thick and short, with a very bulky heal that makes playing the upper frets very uncomfortable.

Mahogany 800-860

Black Cherry 950

Black Walnut 1010

Hard Maple 1450

Instead of using the conventional wood screws,

I use a much thicker screw. This gives a better stable connection of the neck and body. My neck pockets have absolutely no gaps between the neck and body. A Stratocaster neck pocket has hardly any neck to body contact. In fact, you can even fit a medium gauge guitar pick between the neck and body in this gap! A tight connection of the neck and body will result in longer sustain, fuller sound and a really stable neck. I do not like glued-in necks, because the glue can kill the high frequencies, and is next to impossible to remove.

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Fret Board

A hard and dense wood is necessary for a good, stiff fret board. The traditional woods used are Ebony, Maple and Rosewood. I make mine from African Padauk & Maple.

Padauk is an open grained wood with a beautiful reddish color. It is much more attractive than the traditional, bland Rosewood. My
fret boards are 1/4" thick and have a 10" compound radius, which gets flatter as you go up the neck. This

makes bending the strings easier, and allows for a lower string height.

The arch of the fret board is what is known as the radius. A 9 inch radius has a tighter curve than a 12 inch radius. The reason a fret board is arched is because it makes playing chords much easier. A flat fret board would make 6 string bar chords very difficult to play, causing you to apply more pressure on the D and G strings with your fretting hand. Back to Table of Contents

You can choose either a 6-in line or 3 per side head stock They have a 14 degree angle, for good downward pressure of the strings on the nut. I make the head stock from the same board used for the neck. I use a scarf joint, which reduces wood waste and makes for a very strong head stock. The glue that I use is stronger than wood itself! I plane both gluing surfaces to be absolutely smooth and level. I check this using straight edges, to ensure that

there is solid wood-to-wood contact, with no gaps. The end result is a laminated neck that is just as strong as a 1 piece neck.

I can make a guitar neck to suit your playing comfort. Scale length is the string distance from the front edge of the nut, to the contact point at the bridge. Shorter scale lengths have closer fret spacing, which is ideal for people with small hands. This also reduces the string tension and makes string bending much easier. A
set of 9 gauge strings will feel looser on a Gibson guitar than a Fender, because of the shorter scale length (24 9/16" NOT 24 3/4"). I offer the choice of either a
24 1/2" or 25 1/2" neck.

Popular scale lengths:

                         *       Gibson Byrdland    23 1/2"
                         *                  Gibson SG           24 9/16"
               *          Paul Reed Smith           25"
                                 *        Fender Telecaster           25 1/2"

I can custom build your neck size to suit your liking. The big factories in Nashville and Corona make all of their necks the same size, because they are all
made by CNC machinery, not human beings! My necks run the same thickness all the way to the body and do not have a bulky heel. Playing the upper frets is
very comfortable because my necks do not become thicker as you move up the neck. Back to Table of Contents

    I use a standardized bone nut for every guitar I make. It is stronger than plastic, and is tonally superior.   Most nut slots are not deep enough and cause your
notes to sound sharp at the first few frets.   The wound strings should clear the 1st fret by half of their diameter. The unwound strings should have a clearance of between 0.010" and 0.014". I use feeler gauges for an accurate measurement. As a standard feature, I make a compensated nut, for near perfect intonation
along the entire fret board (there is no such thing as perfect)!                           Back to Table of Contents

    You can choose the nut width to suit your own comfort. A very small nut width will make chords like an A7, very difficult to play on the first couple of frets. Your fingers will touch the open strings, if you have thick fingers. A larger
nut width will make those chords much more comfortable to play. The widths I offer are 41mm, 43mm or 45mm.                              Back to Table of Contents

I offer either a 22 or 24 fret neck. You can also choose the size of the frets you want. Smaller frets make playing fast runs much easier than larger frets. However, larger frets are ideal for players who bend the strings an awful lot (Like me)! One drawback of large frets is that the notes can sound sharp if you possess a Kung-Fu death grip! Each slot is cut to a precise width and depth, leaving no gaps. The Big Boys (Fender and Gibson), cut the slots too deep and wide, and fill them with an epoxy glue. Back to Table of Contents

Padauk fret boards will have the option of wooden dot inlays. This makes for a nice contrast between the light inlays and the darker fret board. I try to use as much wood on my guitars as possible. This includes the inlays, pickup rings, truss rod covers, and electronics cover plates. I also offer Maple with dark wooden inlays.
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I can make your guitar body either solid, semi hollow or fully hollow. My personal preference is fully hollow because of the smooth, warm tones, and the
lighter weight. The notes sound fatter and seem to make a solid body sound wimpy in comparison (Even with single coil pickups). If a bright and punchy tone
is what you are after, I would choose a solid body.

A neck through guitar is a neck and body core constructed from 1 continuous slab of wood. Body wings are then glued on the sides. This method of construction is very difficult to do and requires more time and skill. The benefit of a neck through is the added sustain. The bulk of your tone comes from the center piece. So, the harder the wood, the brighter the tone. Hard Maple chimes like a bell. A medium density wood like Walnut would be a good choice for the core. Not too

bright, and not too warm.

Hard and dense woods sound bright and are generally very heavy. Soft woods sound warmer and weigh less. Your selection of wood should be geared towards the sound you are going after. Alder is a very soft wood and sounds very warm. This is why single coil pickups are used for Alder bodied guitars. Humbuckers would sound very muddy, and make chords sound terrible and mushy. A White Ash body with single coil pickups would sound harsh and very metallic, because it is very dense and hard. Humbuckers are recommended for woods of high density. Here are the Janka hardness ratings of certain woods that would be ideal for a guitar body.

Golden Age Humbuckers, with the coil cut feature are the pickups I use. They are Alnico 5 magnets, have a DC resistance of 12K

ohms, adjustable polepieces, and sing out a nice, warm, vintage tone. With the coil cut feature, you have alot of tones at your hands. You can go from the sound of a chiming single coil, to a fat and creamy humbucker, and everything in between. A very versatile and practical guitar that can handle any tone. The volume pot acts as the coil cut. The tone pot acts as a Series/Parallel switch, which combines the output of both humbuckers. But, when both the volume and tone pots are pulled up, you get a low output, clean sound. 8 different sounds out of 1 guitar!

I also offer the option of 3 single coil pickups. Single coils have less output and a brighter, thinner tone. I offer the Series/Parallel switching for them
as well.

I now mount all pickups with a block of wood underneath. This allows the pickups to hear the vibrations from the body, giving a fuller tone, and better articulation. Direct Mounting

Pickup location plays a big part in a guitar's sound. If the bridge pickup is to close to the bridge, the tone will sound thin and harsh. If the neck pickup is placed where the 24^th fret should be (on a 22 fret neck), chords will sound very muddy with no articulation. The midrange frequencies cancel out, when the pickup lies directly under this spot. A Les Paul is a prime example of this problem! I position the pickups according to the scale length (24 1/2" or 25 1/2").
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All guitars will have the coil cut feature, & series/parallel switching. 1 master volume and 1 master tone control. This will allow you to shut off one of the coils when the volume pot is pulled up, giving you a single coil sound and a more versatile guitar. The tone pot will turn on both humbuckers together in series, for a
very powerful sound that will scare all of the neighborhood children! Both pots pulled simultaneously gives you a thin clean tone. All dual pickupguitars will have a 3 way toggle switch, and a 5 way switch for 3 single coil guitars. The pots are 500k with .022uf tone capacitors.

All of the internal components are star grounded. This means that the tone pot, jack, toggle switch, and shielding tape each have their ground wires separately soldered to the back of the volume pot, to avoid ground loops. The ground wires don't jump from the jack, to the tone pot, to the switch, and then to the volume pot. Ground loops cause unwanted hum and buzzing, especially in single coil pickups.

I offer a choice of either Gotoh or Grover tuners, for either a 3 per side or 6 in line head stock. I use a fixed Tune-O-Matic bridge and tailpiece for most guitars. I now use a toploading roller bridge for Neck Throughs or Bolt-ons. Tune-O-Matics are too tall to use on a Neck Through guitar.
You have the choice of either chrome or gold hardware. Back to Table of Contents

As of now, all guitars will have a penetrating tung oil finish. These oils penetrate into the wood and allow the guitar to resonate freely. A thick lacquer finish stifles

the resonance of the instrument and kills the tone. There is less warmth in the tone of an instrument. The notes also decay quicker on a lacquered guitar. After numerous comparisons and prototypes, I am convinced of this, and that is why I will no longer make guitars with plastic clear finishes. I want to convey the beauty of natural wood on my insturuments, and not cover it under man-made polymers!

Guitar Tutorial and Options

Table of Contents

The Neck

Body Shape