GUITAR _____ BUILDING FROM SCRATCH ______

BUILDING AN ELECTRIC GUITAR FROM SCRATCH

The guitar being made is from the Schector custom shop. I have been involved with this but building in some cases a really small shop with 2 or 3 guys or on a large scale production. With large scale many small things are simply ignored and repaired if they cause a problem or considered acceptable if the end user is buying at a low price point.

On the section with the CNC machine in the video they do a lot of small extras. When this is done on a production line they use many CNC machines. There can be as many as 10 in a row where unlike the one in the video does not have a door. One guy simply slides 10 body blanks in 10 machines that pull it into the machine. By the time he gets to the 10th one he goes back and pull out the finished body and puts it onto a cart. He repeats this all day long, feed collect, feed collect. They do not do all the small stuff like making sure the holes or cavities are cleaned up. Anything that will be hidden by a pickguard or piece of hardware is ignored. They only deal with the occasional thing like that if it was not hidden on inspection.  

the fine print

The best value for money are usually Chinese or Indonesian companies that are 'Small Batch' makers often never more than 10 guys. They are small enough for everyone to know each other and feel like a team.  Each guy that works at a 'station' becomes the quality control guy for the last guy and dumb sh*t does not sneak past. often one guy can see and fix small stuff without even handing back the guitar. 

I have one of 2 guitars made by one that were designed by Grover Jackson for Lace Pickups. It is a Lace Cybercaster single PU.

Production in this case was 2 guitars. They were then sent back to  the States as samples to get an OK  to build more the same or to fix anything not approved of.  Lace decided not to make the one PU model but only the 2 PU model.  I was able to buy the 'sample' for  $360.00 USD .  Lace did a consignment deal with Chicago Music Exchange who do this for mostly used gear owned by famous guitarist . So the stuff is in a locked room and wheeling and dealing is normal. Stuff can sell on day one or hang around until the owner  intervenes which sometimes takes years, lol.

The 2 samples  had a  price tag of $1300.00 . One sold but the other sat for 5 years unsold. I got hold of  the owners at the time and did a private deal. It took years to sell the first production 2 PU guitars so they were glad to dump it. 

I swapped out the Lace PU for a hand wound Duncan Custom Shop
'Pearly Gates' that was made for Billy Gibbons own private use.
How I got it is a very long story that I have promised not to repeat 😇
I will only say there are a few really nice guys out there.

LACE CYBERCASTER

All maple neck with separate thick fingerboard, 

Two piece ash body perfectly matched to look one piece. 

Custom made heavy duty triple plated hardware & Schaller tuners.

Very bright sounding and killer harmonics & sustain.

It incl. a heavy duty gig bag made in the same shape as the guitar.

I recently found out that it's twin was bought by

some Hollywood Star by the name of George Jetson???