Buying a Gibson "custom" Custom shop guitar

[markustg]

All,

 

In this day and age of a few left "Large" (Guitar Center, Sam Ash ) and boutique (Gruhn Guitars, humbuckermusic. etc. ) brick and mortar guitar stores, and of course the on-line army of (Sweetwater.com, Wildwood.com, GuitarCenter/Musiciansfriend.com, Sam Ash direct, Amazon etc etc.)

 

How does someone go about buying a "custom" Custom Gibson guitar from the factory?

 

Say you wanted to by a Gibson SJ-200 KOA and you wanted a different pick-guard than standard as well.

 

What is the best way AND best price to you the end user to do this?

 

Any opinions, especially first hand accounts of both good and bad experiences welcome.

 

Thanks!

 

Mark

[Pesh]

All,

 

In this day and age of a few left "Large" (Guitar Center, Sam Ash ) and boutique (Gruhn Guitars, humbuckermusic. etc. ) brick and mortar guitar stores, and of course the on-line army of (Sweetwater.com, Wildwood.com, GuitarCenter/Musiciansfriend.com, Sam Ash direct, Amazon etc etc.)

 

How does someone go about buying a "custom" Custom Gibson guitar from the factory?

 

Say you wanted to by a Gibson SJ-200 KOA and you wanted a different pick-guard than standard as well.

 

What is the best way AND best price to you the end user to do this?

 

Any opinions, especially first hand accounts of both good and bad experiences welcome.

 

Thanks!

 

Mark

 

Hi Mark. Don't know if the SJ-200 was an example or what you're actually after; if the latter is true then it might get tricky.

 

I only know of the Made to Measure scheme; you can get a Gibson custom built through a Custom Shop dealer. They do at least all the 'reissue' LP's, an LP Custom, or an SG.

 

Might be worth a look, if that's what you're after.

[L5Larry]

It's my understanding that Gibson no longer makes custom order one-of's for the general public, and contrary to legend and speculation, seldom did.

 

In most cases, it is always better to buy a production model that is as close to your "custom" as possible, and then have the rest of the mods done by a local craftsman. This is always cheaper than a ground up build, let's you "supervise" and "advise" the local tech and keep an eye on the progress and work, and will get you up and running in a much more timely fashion.

 

If you want something so crazy or exotic that it can't be created by modifying an existing Gibson model, then you didn't really want a Gibson in the first place.

[CR9]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Yes they do take custom orders. For any custom order, you must contact an authorized Gibson Custom dealer and that included acoustics. The one-offs or custom orders will only be done when upper management approves it. They never announce when they will or will not approve an order. Even when they do approve an order, it must not be too different than a production model. In your example it may be cheaper to have a pickguard removed and another put on or if you can get a custom quote approved, you may just want to order it without any pickguard and then have one installed. Year ago, my first quote was for an R8 in natural. No color. It would have been an upcharge to not paint the burst. I thought it strange to charge more for one that has less steps until I understood that the custom orders do not travel through the shop as normal guitars do. Each person has to take the time to read a build sheet and understand what they have to do that is different. This time relates to cost. I would recommend that you contact one of the custom dealers and have them get you a quote. I have never had any luck getting the on-line warehouse stores to even take the time to talk to me about one. Try (in no particular order) Dave's, Wildwood, Music Zoo, Rainbow, as these places have done many custom quotes and should be able to help you out. I have done it with the help of these dealers. Other than the store at the Memphis factory, there is no way to purchase direct from Gibson. Hold onto your seat when you get the price as it will be around full list price.