Ordering guitar from builder that isn’t well known

[Oldguy64]

I know a guy...
He was a Martin repair man for two decades.
He now does repairs out of his garage.
I took him my old Alvarez for a simple job.
While he was working on it, he handed me a 00 that he had built based on a Martin the had rebuilt from splinters.
That was two years ago. I still think about that 00.
He was busily pointing out the flaws, and I was falling in love with that little guitar.
Keep in mind, I don’t love little guitars, six of my nine are dreads.
I’m also not a big Martin fan.

He is working on three guitars right now, and I’m planning to buy a Takamine that he has restored and modified.
When I get to the point that I want a custom. I will go to him.
Of course, he is local. So, I’ll be able to follow its build process and progress.

[Truckjohn]

There’s a huge difference between “Locally unknown” and “Nationally unknown”... An even bigger difference between Guitar Magazine famous and well known to enthusiasts....

Here’s the thing..... A guitar maker that has retired from a 1st career and moved into guitar making may never make more than 100 instruments. That’s less than 1/2 days worth guitars coming out of the Martin plant... And as a result - that fellow will probably never earn large national attention... There are simply not enough examples out there.

If you really want to know something about a luthier - contact the local music store in his area... Is he known to them? Do they have any for sale? Do they use him for repair work? What is their honest impression of the ones that have come through?

If the owner of the local music shop has no idea who you are talking about or hesitates to say anything good about the quality of the instruments or work the fellow does - watch out...

On the other hand - if the fellow is locally known and his instruments are well liked by the local players community... That’s a much safer bet....

[stringjunky]

Not knowing them, I would base my decision on how long they've doing it and how many. Ideally, I'd like them to have made at least 50 to have confidence they've encountered a good few problems and reasonable tweaking time to get their sound. The price should be commensurate with experience. I wouldn't go overboard with fancy timbers that increases the cost of the risk. Chatting to them gives you a good idea as to their knowledge and commitment to producing their best effort.

[Rosewood99]

I took a chance on two unknown builders, Canadian Steve Denvir and Texan Elijah Jewel and struck gold. Hadn't played either before hand. Two awesome guitars at half the price of comparable builders.

As they say, no guts no glory.

Elijah Jewel Guitars:
http://www.elijahjewelguitars.com/






And Steve Denvir
https://www.denvirguitars.com/

[Njames]

Originally Posted by paulzoom

I took a chance on two unknown builders, Canadian Steve Denvir and Texan Elijah Jewel and struck gold. Hadn't played either before hand. Two awesome guitars at half the price of comparable builders.

As they say, no guts no glory.

Elijah Jewel Guitars:
http://www.elijahjewelguitars.com/






And Steve Denvir
https://www.denvirguitars.com/

Holy crap those are gorgeous! The prices are ridiculously low too.. WOWZA!

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

And while I hate to admit it (I would like to think I am above such considerations) because this shop has no reputation to speak of, the worry lurking in my mind is how big of a bath will I end up taking should I have to or want to part ways with the instrument.

It's funny... when I buy a piece of audio gear (microphone, preamp, compressor, etc) for my home studio, the potential resale value plays a big part in my decision-making. When I order a custom instrument, it's not even a minor consideration.

[vindibona1]

Originally Posted by dave42

Have any of you ever found a relatively unknown builder that seems to do great work.... work that you really like. But it’s hard to find information about them and thus making it tough to perhaps order an instrument?

Have any of you went through with an order and how do it turn out?

I would never buy a guitar that hasn't yet been built. Far too many horror stories. I'll share one or two (musical instrument, but not guitar related).

I have a friend who plays professional picccolo and flute for a living. 20 years ago he had a piccolo that he was going to sell me for $2000 for my daughter when his new $6500 custom piccolo arrived. Finally it came... and he hated it and liked his old piccolo better. I'm not sure what the outcome was with the builder but I know he kept his old pic. Mercifullly he helped us find a pic that we liked as well and helped us steal it for $700.

Back many years ago or so my sister, also a flute player wanted to buy a custom flute with a newly designed action from a private maker. She sent him a deposit of $1000 (think the equivalent of $3000 in today's money). No flute. No refund. The guy closed his "company" before producing the flute.

Lessons learned.

[Pitar]

Bucket List item: Commissioning a build. It gave me the opportunity to check off another bucket list item which was to give away a guitar to a needy kid.

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by vindibona1

I would never buy a guitar that hasn't yet been built. Far too many horror stories.

By what evidence do you say "far too many horror stories?" You gave two examples with only one involving a guitar.

I would say that anecdotal evidence would be that positive stories far outnumber the small percentage of "horror stories". All it takes is a bit of research on the builder and also talking to some satisfied customers. That's what I did and it worked out great for me. I never thought I could afford a custom build of the quality that I ended up getting.

Everybody has their own risk tolerance and I respect that. But with great risk can come great rewards.

[Tony Burns]

Now i didnt order this guitar -but i found an unusual guitar that looked very interesting in our for sale section a few years back( made by Colby Horton ), that i bought and love ( old style 12 fret Dread )

[Fast Jimmy]

A couple of years ago I decided I wanted a custom guitar and so haunted this forum trying to learn as much as I could about custom builders. At that point they were all unknowns to me. I checked out an awful lot of websites and the one that struck me the most was Edwinson Guitars, so I called them and spoke with the owner, Steve Sheriff. I liked Steve's philosophy about guitars, life and people and so wound up taking a chance on having him build a guitar for me. It's the best musical decision I've made so far and can tell you, I and everyone else who has seen or played my Edwinson is impressed by the sound and looks and workmanship detail. So I said best decision so far, well, I recently ordered another build from Steve and I'm looking forward to my turn in the queue and hopefully this will be my new best decision, so far.
So I say, go for it. Find a builder that you're compatible with, converse with him..or her, check them out on this forum if possible, and again, go for it.
And may it turn out as good for you as it did for me.

FastJimmy

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by Fast Jimmy

A couple of years ago I decided I wanted a custom guitar and so haunted this forum trying to learn as much as I could about custom builders. At that point they were all unknowns to me. I checked out an awful lot of websites and the one that struck me the most was Edwinson Guitars, so I called them and spoke with the owner, Steve Sheriff. I liked Steve's philosophy about guitars, life and people and so wound up taking a chance on having him build a guitar for me. It's the best musical decision I've made so far and can tell you, I and everyone else who has seen or played my Edwinson is impressed by the sound and looks and workmanship detail. So I said best decision so far, well, I recently ordered another build from Steve and I'm looking forward to my turn in the queue and hopefully this will be my new best decision, so far.
So I say, go for it. Find a builder that you're compatible with, converse with him..or her, check them out on this forum if possible, and again, go for it.
And may it turn out as good for you as it did for me.

FastJimmy

You picked one of the best. I have always admired his work but it was a little out of my price range.

[dneal]

There are lots of good, but ‘unknown’ builders. I played a couple of Jeff Robertson guitars and was pleasantly surprised. A Stevens (built in Munich) blew me away. The price was great as well. rmyAddison makes a great point about considering the return on investment, if you ever want to get rid of it.

I’ve also played some well known builders’ guitars, and was sorely disappointed, particularly at the price point the name recognition commanded (around $6k, but one was $15k).

You have to make yourself familiar with the tone they produce. It doesn’t matter what the price is, or how well known they are (or aren’t). If you don’t love it, it’s not worth anything. If you do, it’s priceless.