The Fundamentals

1I usually prefer to build simple, light guitars. I love wood and the look and feel of wood, so I do my best to preserve that look and feel with most of my finishes. My guitars do not look like the plasticky, smooth, mirror finish guitars you buy at Guitar Center. A lot of those are perfectly good guitars, but they are not my guitars.
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I prefer to discuss a build with a customer, to understand the general feel and function you're looking for from a guitar. But if you see one you like here and want to just say "please build me one like that!" then I'm happy to do that. I have a lot of favorite brands and designs for hardware and pickups and such, so I have plenty of recommendations to make there.

The Model 1, 2, and 3 variants are my original designs. The 1 is a kind of Jet Age offset, with some heavy Japanese influence. The 2 and 3 are riffs on some of the design moves used by big, defunct American makers of the 50s and 60s.

I'm a top-loading bridge evangelist. There are no advantages to stringing through the body. None. It's all con, no pros.

I use a lot of woods that the boys at Guitar Center don't. Keep an open mind and I'll walk you through some options. I don't like to use highly endangered woods. It's not always easy to know the relative sustainability of a wood, so I don't claim to have this down perfectly. But one thing's for sure, for woods that are somewhat endangered, I'm not going to be up for using a lot of the stuff unnecessarily. Rosewood fretboard is fine. Full rosewood neck is a bit much. Let's leave a little for the next guy.