SGL
Custom Built Instruments and Customising Service
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More pics will be added shortly... when I get to borrow the guitars back to take photos of them that is!!

 

Custom Gallery 1
Red Special
Burns Red Special Trem Conversion
  

 

Jem A custom guitar based on an Ibanez Jem but with a carved top and lots of tasty woods including a very pricey Snakewood fretboard!
Jem More of the above guitar from the front
Jem More of the above guitar from the back
Jem More of the above guitar showing the fret board scalloping, quilted maple binding and neck joint
Jem More of the above guitar showing the longbow inlay as requested by the customer made from Mother of Pearl, Maple, Stainless Steel and Abalone
Jem More of the above guitar showing the Abalone truss rod cover and snakewood headstock veneer
Jem More of the above guitar showing the trem routing
Jem More of the above guitar showing the fret board scalloping, quilted maple binding and neck joint
Jem More of the above guitar showing the "Monkey Grip"
Jem More of the above guitar showing the rear of the headstock scarf joint
   
This sort of guitar forms the basis of a guitar makers abilities. A custom built version of a popular factory produced instrument. It is NOT a cheaper option to the real thing, as many people seem to think, but a handcrafted alternative built to standards that cannot be achieved on a mass produced instrument. Something like the example shown would cost around £1,500 and would include such details as: Handcrafted neck and body to customers exact specifcations, top quality hardware, fully screened and sheilded electrics, nitro-cellulose or polyester finish, the highest quality tonewoods available... hand chosen for each guitar, choice of either traditional vintage style truss rod or dual action type, Graphtech stringsaver saddles, custom pickups handwound to order by The Pickup Wizard. or pickups of your choice... and much more!
Custom built to customers specification: Mahogany body, carved quilted maple top, glued in 1.5 degree solid birdseye maple neck/fingerboard with walnut truss rod stripe on rear, Gibson Classic Pro pickups, gold hardware, cherry sunburst hardwearing polyester laquer
This picture shows off the carved top and depth of the laquer finish

These two guitars were made from mahogany with glued necks and rosewood fingerboards using only high quality hardware and materials. Even though they are 3/4 sized, the scale length is relatively long so they play almost as if they were full sized guitars. This design could easily be used on an electric mandolin or similar.
They were built simultaneously for two customers in different countries... one here in UK...... and one in Portugal who collects all sorts of strange things.

Very special order this one! A prototype for a designer looking to go into production with this exclusive model.
The body is mostly hollow aluminium with an anodidsed finish and all the woodwork is a mixture of the most beautiful grade of quilted and birdseye maple I`ve ever managed to get my hands on.
A closer look shows the quality of the birdseye maple used in the fretboard
The headstock is plated with matching aluminium facing
This custom guitar was built using a combination of stock and handmade parts. The pickups were "special" ones handwound by Andy Blake... The Pickup Wizard.
This old and badly modified Fender Telecaster was given a new lease of life with a new body, pickguard, pickups from Andy Blake and a major set-up.
Of these three guitars, the Flying V is Marc Bolans original guitar owned by the Marc Bolan fan club. The other two are replicas of his Les Paul and his Strat, the originals of which, as far as I know no longer exist. They were built to complete the collection for display purposes but both play beautifully. I even airbrushed the grain in the wood to mimic the original from photographs and it was made with neck and body styles from different periods (as the original was) in order to look authentic. The importance of such replicas is total replication of even the smallest details such as the 1 degree neck angle which as far as I know is not available on re-issue Les Pauls today.
A closer look at one of the above guitars. It was also "aged" mildly to look like a vintage `62 guitar.
This mid-priced bass was customised with top quality parts which transformed it into a superb quality instrument.
It was fitted with a set of Bartolini pickups, a mirror scratchplate and a new Wilkinson bridge.
I made a custom neck to the clients specifications with no fret markers and a rosewood fretboard. The neck was made from an attractive piece of quilted maple...
which was blessed with anew set of top quality machineheads... and the headstock recieved an inlay consisting of an abalone circle flanked by a mother-of-pearl moon which represented the logo used by the clients band.

It was finally fully setup and adjusted to the clients satisfaction with a free readjustment after the "settling-in" period of about a month.

The only remaining original part was the body! The end result was a custom bass to the clients specification using top quality parts and materials of his choice. The overall cost was probably less than some quality off-the-peg instruments available in the shops.

This is another replica, this time of one of the Maccaferi guitars played by Django Reinhardt. I built this guitar some years ago now for a local who is a very highly regarded guitarist in Gypsy Jazz circles. It was somewhat of an experiment during the time that I was first venturing into acoustic instruments, and at the time, I nearly bit off more than I could chew.
The body back and sides are rosewood and the top is cedar. Both the front and back are arched and the mahogany neck is set at a 2 degree angle to the body. The finish is in natural satin danish oil and the guitar still gets a regular "Django" style pounding today.
 

 

SGL Anegree Top Guitar
This a guitar a I made years and years ago for myself. But was sold to a customer a year later. The body was made from Alder with an "Anegree" top. My supplier only had two pieces of the Anegree and the other piece was used by Patrick Eggle on his debut guitar as reviewed in Guitarist Magazine in the early nineties.
The body and headstock are bound with herringbone inlay and maple binding, The original pickups were EMG's but were later changed for Seymour Duncans.
The headstock was overlaid with Anegree and the logo was inlaid using a secret mixture of materials only known by me!
The fingerboard is made from the most incredible piece of birdseye maple you will ever see.
The pickups are fitted using birdseye maple surrounds fitted flush with the carved top

The neck was made from bookmatched flamed AND quilted maple. The bookmatch was to ensure stability.

The Schaller locking machinheads were fitted at a later date.
 

 

SGL Twin Neck Guitar

This twin neck guitar was built for the customer who also bought the above guitar.
Due to an unfortunate back injury he asked that the guitar should fit four criteria:
1. It should balance evenly (most twin necks are head-heavy).
2. It should be light (Oh yer!).
3. It should be playable while seated.
4. It should fit in a standard square case.

The result was a guitar that weighs about the same as a Les Paul Standard and sounds fantastic.

It matched and exceeded ALL these criteria. The whole guitar was made from a light-weight mahogany and carved to reduce weight further. The 6-string bridge is a Schaller unit and the 12-string bridge is a VERY expensive ABM piece.
The necks, bridges and scale lengths were carefully calculated to achieve equal overall lengths on the necks. I don't know why Gibson couldnt do that!

It was finished in original Gibson Cherry stain and many coats of nitro-cellulose laquer.
The body was carved and shaped to a very distinctive design which reduced the weight further and the necks were glued-in to achieve rigidity.
The headstocks were made very stubby to match the body to reduce headstock weight and length.
The 12 string headstock was designed to match the 6 string. And the schaller machineheads were fitted with pearl buttons to compliment the cherry finish.

The fingerboards are made from the same stunning birdseye maple as the the last guitar and finished in high gloss nitro-cellulose.
 

 

1966 Strat Replica Neck

This was a mail order job for a customer for whom I had done several other jobs before including a re-fingerboarded 60's Strat neck.

This time he wanted a maple fretboard neck to match his existing 1966 rosewood fretboard Strat neck PRECISELY. Not as simple as it seems... the fretboard was to be of the vintage "curved bottom" type rather than the usual "slab" type.
The neck blank, planed and prepared.
The truss rod channel is routed in the traditional way.
Then the shape cut out on the bandsaw.
The truss rod channel is finished with the adjuster nut at the body end.
Then the fillet that holds the rod in palce is curved and glued in place.
After the fretboard is pre-curved and fitted to the cambered neck, the neck is carved to match the original exactly.
Taking great care to get the contours around the head and body ends just right.
As you can see... a perfect match.

Here you can see the curved fit of the fretboard next to the original version. Well, only 38 years between them!

The laquer finish was left for the customer to apply at his request.

Custom Strat type guitar using all the best quality components available. Bill Lawrence custom made piclups, PRS trem and ligthly "reliced".

   
   
   

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