Custom Guitar Delivery, Lead-Time and Analysis

Custom Guitar Delivery: A Common Question

Guitar delivery period is one of the most common questions we have met when clients made an order of custom guitar. Most of them want their order be delivered as fast as possible. So do we, because we understand the concerns very well.

Standard made guitars often have a consistent production timeline. Besides, factories often keep the stock of their standard models. Thus, the lead-time is usually shorter.

However, the lead-time of custom guitar is often related with specific requirement, thus, normally no regular stock. And, sometimes, there are requirements for handcraft production mixed with machine automation. This takes time, too. Therefore, the delivery of custom guitar may not as fast as the standard model.

But consider about the quality and unique marketing value you will get; it is worth waiting.

In this article, we are trying to inspect main custom procedure like body making, neck cutting, etc. to indicate why custom guitar takes longer time. And in the end, we are trying to indicate specific lead-time of our customization for your reference.

Construction of Body & Neck

These are two key parts in guitar building. The first step is to build the body in any customization of acoustic guitar. So, let’s start at guitar body customization.

Because of internal structure of acoustic guitar body, the building is really a time-consuming work. The wood must be carefully selected and prepared. The soundboard has to be well shaped. The bracing system must be finely installed. The optimal resonance and sound projection will be based on how good those works have been accomplished.

The sides of acoustic guitar body have to be heated and bent to the desired shape. Usually, specialized clamps and jigs have to be involved to ensure a tight fit. This is also a time-consuming work.

Don’t forget to craft the neck block, otherwise, how can the necks be joined to the bodies? To slot the neck block, CNC work with hand craft will be involved. The key is to ensure the dimensional precision to ensure the sound and playability.

It normally takes couple of days or even two weeks to finish the construction of the acoustic body.

Let’s move to the neck which the construction also involves a complex works.

The prior step of neck building is shaping the external contours. Meanwhile, the truss rod must be installed within a routed channel in the neck beneath the fretboard. This enable the neck to be adjustable to counteract to the tension of the strings. Therefore, makes neck stable and avoid deforming.

For acoustic neck, there usually is a precisely craft heel which will join to the body. This is unlike electric guitar necks.

Normally, all above work will take several days if to craft the neck starts from the very beginning. We have plentiful semi-finished necks and blank in stock, that allows us to shorten the lead-time to be hours the most.

Not finish yet. There is always a fretboard need to be cut. Commonly, the fretboard is made of a different wood beside the neck. The fretboard is often glued onto the neck shaft. But before this, don’t forget to prepare the slots for frets, inlays and so on. CNC machine tools will greatly to help to ensure an extreme precision of the slots. And this work won’t take so much of time. However, to install, level, crown, polish and dress the frets requires workers with high skill, patience and attention. Also, will spend much of time. But this step is indispensable.

Decoration: Inlays & Binding

Inlays refer to rosette and decoration elements made of abalone, plastic, wood and even metal material. The hardest part is the designation. Then cutting. The installation mainly requires skill and patience. So, how long to finish the inlays mainly depends on how long it takes to confirm the designation. It may spend one hour, one day or couple of days.

Binding protects the edges of guitar and improves the appearance. This is a patient work. This work seems simple that can be done in a short time. But actually, it takes days to finish. One lucky thing is that we have enough types of binding material in stock to help to shorten the lead-time.

Finishing: Not as Simple as You Imagine

There are processes for finishing.

Before painting, flat sanding should be done firstly. The flat sanding ensures a flawless base, free of scratches. Because this is a step-by-step work and need to inspect between stages, the flat sanding may take several hours to multiple days to finish.

Once the wood is smooth, wood sealer should be applicated to further smooth the surface. After sealing, here is staining to enhance the appearance of wood grain. Drying takes time of this process. Counted as hours.

Then, coating with fine sanding process. This may take a week or several weeks cause each layer should be well coated and fine sanded.

The last process is comprehensive polishing to achieve desired sheen.

Final Inspection: Achieve the Desired Quality

This process includes multiple adjustment and inspections to ensure the quality of ordered acoustic guitars is as good as desired.

Adjusting the action and setting the intonation to check the playability. Height of nut and saddle is carefully adjusted.

Then, it is time to inspect the tonal performance. This process will make sure there is no buzzes or dead spots. And don’t forget visual inspection of the appearance.

The inspection will be finished in hours or days according to the quantity that need to be inspected.

Our Lead-time & Shipping Ways

As a guitar customization service provider, we focus on batch order needs of custom acoustic guitars. Mostly, our clients require to ship the order as soon as possible. Thus, we focus on to shorten as much as lead-time without sacrificing the quality.

Therefore, storage of semi-finished and blank material is the key. Our lead-time of customization is normally no more than 35 days to finish. Because we insist on sampling before batch production and the shipment, the entire shipping procedure (from production to deliver) will be done within around 45 days the most.

It may take a longer time once the quantity of order is too large or the requirement needs very special production process.  Please feel free to CONTACT for specific consultation.

For shipping ways, detailed info is on Global Shipping.