Table of Contents
😴 Lead time
What is the current lead times?
As of October 2023, the current lead time is 12-14 weeks.
🛠 Guitar Building
Can you make me something completely custom?
Yes, absolutely. Whether we are starting from a detailed technical drawing or a scribble on the back of a napkin, the area where our expertise in design, CAD and CNC combines most effectively is in our Custom Shop. The process is simple – use our contact page to attach a file (if applicable) and describe your project in as much or as little detail as you have, and we will get back to you with questions, considerations and proposals regarding all aspects of the build, including (where possible) a quote. When you are ready to order, we will link you to the Custom Shop order form page, and this will allow you to add the Custom Shop order to your basket.
Prices for custom-shaped bodies start from $500.
Can I pick the exact piece of wood that will be used for my guitar?
We would love to be able to offer this service to everyone, but unfortunately our ability to do so is currently limited to orders made through the Custom Shop. We hope the images on our Wood page and photos from the Customer Gallery can assist you in making your selection and picturing the final piece.
Can you paint / finish my body?
We don’t currently have the facilities to finish / spray / lacquer your body, though we are happy to ship your order on to a finisher of your choice. Our customers have worked with many finishers and achieved excellent results.
Can you make me a neck?
We are currently unable to produce necks at a price that would represent value for money since there are so many excellent and competitively priced options on the market. Trust us, it’s a good problem for you to have! Our customers have had excellent results using necks made by (but not limited to):
- Musikraft
- BestGuitarParts
- SoundGuitarWorks
- Warmoth
- USACG
- AllParts
- Necks from factory-made guitars
Can you make me a pickguard without a body to go with it?
We’re not able to do that, partly because almost all the pickguards we make are designed to be specific to the GuitarForm model they come with, and partly because different years or production runs even of the same guitar often have slight differences in screw hole location. In short, we can’t guarantee it will fit your guitar, and we don’t want to disappoint you.
Our Joyrider and Jugular models (including Thinline variants) are compatible with AVRI pattern pickguards when they are configured with standard vintage pickups, neck pockets and bridges. But that’s not to say that a GuitarForm Joyrider or Jugular pickguard will line up perfectly with your AVRI body, in which screw holes have already been drilled. The point being, that it’s easier to make a body compatible with a pickguard than to make a pickguard compatible with a specific body.
The challenge of being able to replicate pickguard patterns for dozens of guitar models, over decades of production, and with different countries of manufacture, is one that pickguard-specific companies specialise in.
Are your designs completely vintage-accurate?
We have a lot to say! Click to read more...
Wherever possible, we try our best to design in the spirit of the original models. In the areas where we are forced to compromise in the name of configurability, we consider those compromises very carefully indeed.
For instance, unlike several of our competitors, we do not compromise the position of the bridge pickup on our modular Joyrider bodies. Any movement towards or away from the bridge in such a sensitive location makes a profound difference to the precise harmonics that pickup will sense on the string location adjacent to it.
In other areas where a “vintage standard” doesn’t exist in such a specific way, we sometimes take the opportunity to set our product apart, not only from our competitors, but sometimes from vintage-standards as well. An example of this is how we approach our contours – they are larger in area than is typical on vintage examples – a little deeper in the arm and a little shallower in the belly. We feel this evens things up with a more pleasing symmetry front-to-back and allows us to produce a contour which is more consistent and aesthetically pleasing (to us) in transition with the main surfaces and perimeter. Vintage examples are quite diverse in size and shape, so we took a little artistic license to do something special – in general, the replacement bodies you’re likely to find today are cut with shallower and smaller-area contours than vintage, so our design ethos might be described as “more vintage than vintage”! Ok that’s being a bit cheeky – we just know they look and feel great, and have worked hard through many iterations to make them that way.
You should not make the mistake, though, of assuming that our competitors’ bodies are vintage-accurate. Some mess around with the pickup positions, and almost all leave a radius on the back corners of the vibrato cavity which might need to be chiselled out or else risk a vibrato-knock. Some sell pickguards that deviate significantly from vintage shape. Some have contours that are cut at a completely different angle more like an S style – some leave a very prominent crease where the arm contour meets the face of the body, and some contours are barely 1/2″ deep or are less than half the area of our contours. These small changes all add up, and it’s easy to overlook them until everything comes together, and you find it’s just missing that something.
Finding that “something” in everything we design is our highest priority.
When custom pickups are selected, a different pickguard hole pattern is used on several of our models to guarantee compatibility between the body and the many pickup and bridge options we are able to offer. Most notably, on our Joyrider and Jugular models, we will replace the single pickguard screw that sits to the treble-side of the neck pocket with two screws – one closer in to the pocket, and one a little further around the perimeter. This is because our pickup and control routing for modular bodies would otherwise leave a cavity beneath this screw. We also move the screw that sits to the bass-side of the bridge a little further around, so that the pattern is compatible with an AVRI dynamic vibrato and bridge plate.
📐 Compatibility & Customisation
Will my (neck, bridge, pickup) fit?
A: Our bodies are designed to adhere to vintage dimensions, and where sensible we even introduce a little extra wiggle room (in pickup routes under the pickguard for instance) to best ensure compatibility. However, we cannot always guarantee the compatibility claims of third-party companies for the parts they produce, so please measure your parts carefully and take care to study the dimensions of our routes {here} to be confident of a good fit.
We don’t introduce as much tolerance in routes for pickups that mount directly to the body, as the gaps would be visible on the finished guitar – P90s and Filtertrons are most sensitive and variable in our experience, so take extra care measuring and studying those routes in particular.
Our routes for Offset Bridge Thimbles, String Thru Ferrules and the Electrosocket Jack Plate are a snug fit by design. Please take care to test the fit of these parts before finishing, and to mask these areas off if you deem it necessary, depending on the thickness of the finish you intend to use. There is a bit more leeway in ribbed thimbles like you find on a Stop Tailpiece or modern Nashville-style Tune-O-Matic – we cut these with a diameter of 11.5mm.
Wow, you offer a lot of pickup options! Are you sure they’ll all fit together!?
Before making your order, it’s imperative that you refer to our pickup compatibility table to check that your desired configuration is possible.
As a rule of thumb, if your body is full-scale (cut for T- or S-style neck pocket), all possible combinations are compatible so long as you’re not opting for “WRHB – Ring Mount” in the neck or bridge pickup position (in which case only a more limited menu of middle-pickup options is available).
For short-scale bodies (Jugular neck pocket), the situation is more complex due to there being less distance between the neck pocket and bridge (meaning the pickups are more crowded together) and limiting your options accordingly. Therefore, referring to the pickup compatibility table is particularly important when ordering a short-scale body.
If your preferred specification is flagged up by the pickup compatibility table as being incompatible, it might be worth reaching out to us using our Contact form. We can’t make any promises, but it might be that your specification is possible, but may require bespoke tool-pathing to make it happen, so it’s feasible we might be able to process it through the Custom Shop for a small additional fee.
📦 Shipping & Handling
Where are you located?
We are located in Lewes, an historic county town near Brighton on the south coast of England, which happens to be home to an inordinately high number of luthiers and guitar builders! We are proud to provide our customers in the UK with a source for custom guitar parts that is closer to home; and, owing to our specialism in offset parts and designs, we also have a great deal of experience with international customers who are looking for certain offset-specific features and options they can’t find anywhere else in the world.
When can I expect my order to be finished?
We aim to deliver your parcel within six to eight weeks of your order being placed. We are a small business and each guitar body is made individually to the customer’s specification, so delivery time is dependent on the volume of orders. If delivery time is expected to be more than 10 weeks, we will post this on the website so the customer is aware of this before placing an order. By placing the order the customer is accepting the given delivery time. Current lead time is noted at the top of the Checkout page, and is updated regularly.
If we are aware that there is an issue with your particular order that may affect delivery time, we will contact you by email to check if this revised delivery schedule is acceptable to you. If not, we will be happy to cancel the order with our apologies, and promptly return all payments made under the contract.
How much will it cost to ship to my country?
Shipping costs will be calculated based on your shipping address, and will appear at checkout before you pay. We offer flat rate shipping of $50 to the USA (lower 48), £25 to the UK, and €40 to Europe.
If I order two or more products from you, can I save money on shipping them together?
Yes, if you pay for two or more products in the same checkout, they will be shipped together with the same flat rate of shipping as a single product.
How long will the order take to arrive once it’s ready?
It depends on your country. Shipping to the UK and Europe usually takes around 3-5 working days, and to the USA usually takes 4-6 working days. We share your email address with the courier, so they should be in touch shortly with a tracking number.
Can I save some money by choosing a shipping option that isn’t insured?
No, all shipping is fully insured to the precise value of your order.
What if my body arrives damaged?
Please contact us as soon as possible and we will be happy to replace your body free of charge. It will go straight to the top of the list and be dispatched as soon as possible with our apologies. We will of course pay the postage cost both of your return, and of the replacement body.
Can you mark the parcel as a gift so I can save on import duties?
Sorry, we can’t.
🏷 Cancellation & Refund
What are my options if I am dissatisfied with my order?
We strive to make sure every customer is delighted with their order, however sometimes on rare occasions mistakes might be made. If your body arrives damaged or has an incorrect specification, please contact us as soon as possible and we will be happy to replace your body free of charge. It will go straight to the top of the list and be dispatched as soon as possible with our apologies. We will of course pay the postage cost both of your return, and of the replacement body.
We will honour this commitment even if your body has been sent to a third party for finishing or assembly, but please note that we will not be able to refund you for the work carried out by the third party, so it is very important that you and the third party work together to identify any potential issues before the work commences.
If the issue is not due to a mistake we have made, the matter would have to handled on a case-by-case basis, due to the custom nature of our product. A small company like ours doesn’t thrive by frugally managing petty losses, but by satisfying every customer and building a reputation to be proud of – and we are confident that in these rare hypothetical cases a resolution can be reached which leaves everyone satisfied.
Once I submit my order, can I make any changes?
We aim to get your order cut on the CNC as soon as possible after we receive it, so be very careful to review your order and make sure it is correct in the checkout. If you do identify a mistake after placing the order, please get in touch as soon as possible and we’ll do what we can.