Custom Guitars

This is the story of “Maggie”… One of my most favorite guitars in my collection hand built by Willy (Willy’s Custom Guitars) and I. This is a story I have been wanting to tell for quite some time but for some reason never got a ‘round tuit’ (now that I have started this blog there are no more excuses… LOL) Over the past year or two as folks have watched my poor little “low quality webcam videos” either on GoogleVideo, YouTube or my website, many people have asked me “What kind of Guitar is... Read Full Story

Rick keeps threatening to do some blogging but as long as he is making guitars, I’m not gonna whine too much.  Thought I’d post a few pictures I took a while back.  There are always surprises to be had when I visit Shaw Guitars, and on this particular day I saw a guitar body wrapped up and stacked on a shelf with a bunch of other wood. Of course, this piqued my interest so I dug it out of the stack of stuff in his shop.  I have no idea what kind of wood this is, Rick told me at the time but... Read Full Story

Anyone who is experienced in playing the guitar will eventually just have to take that leap and learn how to build their very own guitar. If you choose to do so, you should try giving yourself the great challenge of building your own electric guitar, yes, it can be done and it does not really have to be too very difficult for you. Some people may choose to build an acoustic guitar, that is awesome too, but just know that these two types of guitars are built completely differently from one... Read Full Story

Since Rick has been too busy making sawdust lately to find time to post, I thought I’d put up a quick post about the completion of one of his latest projects.   I’m sure I can get some more early pics of this fine guitar from Rick and I’ll post them when I do.  “Show Hope” is a beauty of a Thinline Telecaster reconception, crafted for a well known Christian artist.              After Rick got the rest of this guitar together and set up yesterday, he called me to come try it out.   The... Read Full Story

Here’s a Bass project that is in the works, well, actually it’s been on the shelf for some time but it’s so pretty that I’ve been pushing Rick to pick it up again and finish it.  It’s a neck-thru design:  a 5-string fretless bass.  Here’s a closeup of the body: I’ll have to get with Rick for the details on the woods he used but I think the neck is Maple and Rosewood. Here’s another shot of the entire guitar: I just love the look of this but I am ever so slightly biased toward neck-thru... Read Full Story