Custom Guitar Project

[jkokura]

I'm so excited! And I just can't hide it!

So, I'm having a Custom Tele body made up for me, and I thought I'd share the process and not just the finished guitar. I'm pretty stoked about this. I've done some guitar assemblies, but this is the first really custom piece I'm getting made just to my specs.

Anyway, the guitar maker I'm working with is a guy named Jason Banning, and you can find out info about his company here: http://www.banningguitars.com. He's willing to do pretty much anything, and his price was within my budget, so that really helped. He usually does Relic type jobs, which I asked him not to do on my guitar - I'd rather put the wear on the guitar myself, if you know what I mean!

The body is a 2 piece Mahogany with a boat route for the thinline style. I had him leave the bottom area unrolled, so it's just the sides that are routed. On top is a Maple cap that's nicely figured, but not extreme. Perhaps on a future guitar I'll get a 10 top, but for now it's just a nice maple top. That will get an F-Hole, and I'm not sure the hole will be standard, but we'll see. It'll be finished in a Blue Burst, which will likely really be awesome. I'm impressed with what Jason's finishes have looked like online, so I'm sure I'll love it.

The body will get a good set of custom stuff on it. I have a Marc Rutters bridge and custom Tele control plate. The control plate has the switch in between the volume and tone controls, and on a slant, which is a little more to my liking. On will go a Bigsby bridge, which I really like, and should balance this guitar out considering it's a thinline. The Rutters bridge has cutouts for the Bigsby already built in.

Pickups will be a set of Tom Andersons, who makes awesome hum cancelling pickups (I have TA's in another guitar now, and a set of hum buckers destined for another project). The bridge is a stacked single for a Tele bridge, and the neck will be a Mini-Bucker, which will be mounted to the body, not to a pick guard. I'm planning to go with no guard for this guitar, as I want the top to be as visible as possible.

The neck I'll use is a Warmoth Maple neck with Ebony fretboard. It'll have Gotoh Schaller style locking tuners on it. Currently I have both a Graphtec and a Bone nut on order to mount on the neck, so I'm not sure which I'll go with.

The only other mod I'm thinking of at this point is perhaps drilling out the Bigsby's Roller so I can quick mount the strings. We'll see.

Anyway, the next post will be all pics, and as I get more pictures to share, I'll add them.

Jacob

[jkokura]

Jacob

[billstein]

Nice. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

[jkokura]

Nice. Looking forward to seeing the pics.

Ask and thou shalt receive!

Jacob

[gtr2]

Awesome, I fell in love at first site with the guitar on his home page 

Can't wait to see your finished guitar!

Josh

[jimilee]

Wow, I am very envious

[Tremster]

Yes! Hollow Bigsby Tele FTW!!!

Edit: what neck profile does the Warmoth have? My main guitar, by far, is a Warmoth Tele I made in 2003. It has the big Boatneck on it and I find it hard to go back to thinner necks, that one is absolutely perfect for me, with huge frets.....

[jkokura]

Awesome, I fell in love at first site with the guitar on his home page 

Can't wait to see your finished guitar!

Josh

Which one - the Tele or the Hollow body?

Jacob

[gtr2]

The tele with the P90's and bigsby.  But, I like the relic look.

After browsing his site, I saw he'll do a LP Jr. style.  That's a guitar I've always wanted, but I didn't like the recent Gibson versions.  I'll have to keep him in mind.

Josh

[atreidesheir]

beautiful woods.  nice routing.  I am really impressed.

[jubal81]

Wow, that's really exciting. Lookin' great!

[thesameage]

Here's another take on the f-hole from a custom build that I had done from a great and very reasonable builder:

[lincolnic]

You guys are making this lefty jealous.

[pickdropper]

That looks beautiful, Jacob.  I bet you'll be really happy with it.

[LaceSensor]

Feels bad to add blasphemy, but goddamn... That's hot.