How To Order A Custom Shop Guitar From Andertons
We’ve all fantasised about our perfect guitar. Whether it’s a classic Tele, contemporary super Strat or something completely outrageous, you can bring it to fruition.
There’s only one way to go about bringing your dream guitar to life. Get in touch with us about a custom shop guitar!
Why Buy A Custom Shop Guitar?
You’ve probably had a few guitars over the years. No doubt you’ve loved them since day one. But you’re always striving for something more complete – the perfect instrument made to measure.
Custom shop guitars are built to a buyer’s exact specification – whether it’s you or us who picked the options. You might want exotic woods, particular pickups or crazy colours. You get to decide exactly how the guitar turns out.
Maybe you love the look of a production model, but the specs just don’t sit right with the way you play or want to sound. Or you’ve been salivating over a vintage guitar, but don’t have a spare quarter of a million lying around.
You might want something that’s one-of-a-kind. The very best. Something to set you apart from the crowd of bog-standard Strats, Teles and Les Pauls.
Have a read of our blog on why you should consider a custom-made instrument – especially if you’re looking to buy a guitar over £2500.
How Andertons Can Help You Buy Custom
This is where we step in. With Andertons Music Co. you can tell us exactly what you want from a guitar and we’ll help bring it to life. We work with Fender, Gibson, Warwick and Gray custom shops – some of the best and biggest names in the luthier business.
Have a chat with our friendly and knowledgeable staff via email or phone and tell them what you want in as much descriptive detail as you like. We’ll organise the build with the manufacturers. This is the ultimate guitar shopping experience. Everything about the process is tailored to you.
If you’re not fussed about going through the custom shop process, we have a huge range of one-off masterbuilt guitars to choose from. We’ve even picked the specs for some of them ourselves, so there's a diverse range of builds in stock.
Almost all are created in likeness to a vintage model with the odd twist here and there. There's a real mix of neck shapes, headstocks, finishes and pickups you wouldn't usually find on regular guitars.
What Can You Customise?
Different brands take on various amounts of customisation. There are some luthiers who are willing to design a whole new guitar from the ground up. Companies like Fender, Gibson and Warwick, however, already have iconic shapes to choose from. But you get to decide almost everything else!
Body & Neck
A guitar can be built with a huge variety of woods. Some of the most common species are Alder, Rosewood and Mahogany. But the likes of Fender and Gibson offer more exclusive picks, such as Okume or Roasted Ash.
Top wood makes your build stand out among the rest. Quilted, Flamed, Spalted Maple, Burl and Korina are real showstoppers. This is just a dip into the ocean of options. Fender offer a comprehensive guide on the specs you can select from their custom shop. Take a look here.
One of the most important aspects of a custom guitar is how it feels. Pick a neck shape, neck finish and fretboard radius that’s comfortable to grip and a fingerboard wood you like to look at. You might want a body contour to better suit you ergonomically. Beyond that, select cosmetics like inlays and headstock shape.
Pickups
You want your perfect guitar to sound as good as it looks. Fenders, Gibsons and Warwick basses are some of the most popular instruments in the world and feature on hundreds and thousands of songs. These brands make some of the best pickups – hand-wound by master engineers.
Fender and Gibson date their pickups. For example, a 1955 Gibson Les Paul has P90 pickups that sound raw snappy, while a 1959 model has fatter sounding PAF humbuckers. Other custom shops tend to outsource their pickups from brands like Bareknuckle, Fishman and Seymour Duncan.
Finish
Yes, of course you can choose what colour you’d like your guitar to be. Go as spectacular as you like. Sparkles, sunbursts or metallics in any colours you can think of. Most custom shops will let you submit a home design colour as well as their standard options.
Even better, you get to choose the type of finish. A solid finish is simply a bold colour, while a trans finish showcases the wood grain through the paint. Take your pick between satin or gloss, or you could add age with relic’ing.
Hardware
Many brands use their in-house hardware because they know it works well in the design of the guitar. If you’re after a specific piece of hardware from the like of Hipshot, Evertune, Grover, Gotoh or Floyd Rose, some custom shops will use these too.
As with everything else custom shop, you can pick the colours of the hardware. There’s usually a choice between black, chrome or gold.
