Preparing For The Custom Electric Guitar Builder

Preparation before ordering a custom built electric guitar.

1.) The first thing you'll need to do is draw the guitar to scale. This doesn't have to be an entire 3D drawing, but a large enough flat picture on paper drawn to scale, preferably of the head and body of the guitar can help speed up the design process.

Electric Feel

What the luthier (fancy name for guitar builder) has to do first is create templates of both the neck and body of the guitar. These are made out of plywood or sometimes perspex, kind of like a flat version of the guitar that's going to be created.

2.) You need to know beforehand exactly what parts you want on the guitar, as those measurements are crucial to the design of the guitar. An electric guitar builder can't even think about starting on a guitar before all the parts are right there with him or her.
Acoustic guitar builders have less of a problem with that, seeing as there are less parts to worry about.

3.) Find a guitar neck that you like the feel of and try find out the measurements, like fretboard radius, neck thickness and scale length.

The best electric guitar construction method

There are three basic electric guitar building methods to consider. Mostly a good luthier will have this pretty much figured out, but surprisingly enough, there are some differing opinions.

The three methods that are most commonly referred to are bolt on neck, glued in or set neck, and neck through body construction.

In my opinion there is only one choice, and that's neck through body construction.
This means that the neck runs all the way through the body, and the sides are glued on.
Second choice is a set neck.

Some luthiers will do something called a deep set neck tenon, which is half way between a set neck and a neck through. Not a bad compromise at all.

Good wood equals good tone

There are many good woods to use on a guitar, my favorite is African Mahogany.
A good idea is to do some proper research, the best kind being to listen to some of your favorite guitars and see what wood they used on them.

Guitar tone is a very personal thing, so no-one can tell you what to do there.
An experienced luthier will have a good grasp of the tonal character of various woods, so tell them what you want and they should know what to do.

The value of a personalized custom electric guitar is something that's difficult to quantify. I've always said that any good guitar is worth more than the money you pay for it.

Preparing For The Custom Electric Guitar Builder

Electric Feel