As if it's not enough fun celebrating your 50th birthday at a great party with all your family and friends and a cracking good rock band on stage, but then you get asked to get up and jam with the band. Alas being left handed you cant just play any old guitar - so you get presented with a one of a kind Feline Southpaw Tiger built with you in mind.

There was a huge amount of behind the scenes planning this present - knowing Chris' music tastes and what his dream guitar was , his family contacted me and asked if we could adapt our "payment by installment" scheme to be like a wedding list so that all members of Chris' family and friendship groups could all chip in and get him something he wouldn't forget.

A mahogany back with a beautiful maple flame top, mahogany neck and rich rosewood fingerboard makes the backbone iof this guitars tone. Tasty MOP and abalone inlays matching the abalone inlaid Q- Parts Knobs.
Sperzel tuners and a Hipshot tremolo handle the tuning duties whilst a pair of Bare Knuckle Araxas humbuckers give great rock tones

This baby was for a regular customer who usually favours superstrat guitars like Charvel's, Jacksons and the Washburn Nuno N4 guitar.

He rather fancied something a bit more traditional but still wanted to be within his comfort zone.

So we went for a flat version of our usually carved top Lion guitar and added comfort contours.

To the Korina body we added a Quilted maple veneer and ivoroid binding on the body and neck

As an added feature it has aGraph Tech Ghost Piezo loaded Tone Pros bridge by Graph Tech for acoustic guitar sounds, as well as full MIDI and synthesizer access

This guitar was for a customer who is somewhat of a Flying V fanatic .
He wanted a guitar that as accurately as possible recreated every important detail or feature of the original prototypes.
So certain neck heel angles are very different from production models, but it was fun to get this one going and nailing the look and feel of a great guitar.

Another of our superstrat type guitars - with an all access neck.

This one features a slim neck with a nut of only 41mm (which is about 1 5/8" like an old strat)
The neck is a nicely figured piece of maple with a compound radius rosewood fingerboard.
The body is a piece of American Red Alder- lightweight and resonant.

Tuning duties will be by Sperzel Tuners and a fab Hipshot tremolo. 

An Earvana nut assists with the intonation.

We went with the classic Seymour Duncan pairing of a JB at the bridge and a Jazz at the neck.

Another version of the RG flavoured superstrat

It features a lightweight American Alder body , a 3 piece maple neck with a rosewood board

Featuring chrome hardware this time we will probably finish this axe in a dark colour.
Maybe using that metallic gunmetal again as it went down so well last time we used it.

It features a pair of humbucker pickups which will be controlled by the same switching that John Petrucci had on both his Ibanez and Musicman axes (a 3 position toggle switch that auto-coil taps both pickups in the middle position)

Here is another nice project for a left handed player
As ever for lefties it's a hard job finding much of a selection of guitars to chose from "off the shelf" so custom built is a good option and way of getting what you want

ANOTHER EXPLORER BASS PROJECT

This bass was built for the bassist in a German Who tribute band called Who Are You

The bass is based on a slightly more angular Explorer bass and features some exquisite timbers
- some pieces of which were difficult to obtain in the sizes needed.

It features LED markers , custom wound pickups and a Status active circuit

The brass spider web applique gives the distinctive look that John Entwhistle favoured.

We've had a test report back from the owner of the bass:

Hi Jonathan, I had the first rehearsal with the Spyder yesterday.
It was really jawdropping, both for the guys but also for me.
The sound is simply awesome:
It has a definite Spyder sound, with maybe a bit more bottom, very thunderous if you want.
But due to the Buzzard electronics it is much more versatile than the Alembics.
A wooden Alembic sound but with all the variety and possibilites of the Buzzard electronics.
And it is much more sensitive to my different fingerstyles and positions.

Thanks so much again for this.
We have to think about the next project......

Here is a fab 5 string version of a Thunderbird bass
A through neck build with mahogany and walnut , with a 35" scale length neck which will keep the strings nice and tight
A 5 String Badass bridge with through body stringing and some Hipshot Ultralight tuners keep the strings in place
Pickups are handwound Kent Armstrong ones and the Seymour Duncan Basslines active circuit adds some versatility

We made a couple of scratchplates as the pictures above show- the black one looks pretty mean, whilst the white adds a classic look

Here is one of Lion model with a couple of differences to suit the customer
Firstly the neck was a bit slimmer to suit his hands
He wanted an oil finish on the back of the neck and chose to have it all over the rear of the body too whilst enjoying a painted finish on the front and headstock

For pickups he chose to try Seymour Duncan's P-Rails design - giving both the option of a P90 style pickup and a single bade from a Hotrails design
The mini toggle switch allows rthe player to chose from 3 modes - Humbucking, P90 single coils , and RAils single coils
this works really well giving sounds that cover a wide spectrum from Fenderish clean, through a Gretsch like tone and also a conventional Les Paul type sound
With the standard 3 position pickup selector that gives 9 sounds

Bridge and tailpiece are TonePros and the tuners are Sperzel.
We fitted an Earvana compensated Tuning nut as well

Another left handed guitar, and a 7 stringer as well.
This time it is also a semi acoustic thin-line loosely based on the classic double-cut design.
Reverse headstock too!

The guitar was for a player exploring extended range for jazz playing rather than the brutal riffage so often favoured by 7 string players

Body was alder with a sycamore cap - the colour is like a stonewash demin
The rear of the guitar was finished in a faded indigo denim colour
Maple neck with a dark ebony board - 22 Dunlop 6155 frets and the last 8 frets were scalloped
Notice the art-deco style f-hole based on the ones found on an old Dobro resonator design

Pickups are 7 string Mules by Bare Knuckle Pickups and we used a blend control rather than a switch as the player wanted to experiment with tonal colours. With this in mind we fitted two series parallel switches and a phase reversal switch

The guitar features a maple cap on a mahogany body - bound in black (as is the headstock)
The guitar also features an original Floyd Rose Tremolo and a pair of Bare Knuckle Warpig pickups

Huge frets on a dark ebony board with pearl block inlays, and a tighter more angular head stock that has a touch more aggression that the older style V head stocks

Features mahogany construction with a beautiful 5A flame top maple cap -looks spectacular
First of all the neck profile is based on his trusty 1980s Charvel model, also featuring stainless steel frets - the same as we modified his Charvel with.
Sperzels, Tone pros and Earvana nut handle tuning stability, and intonation.
However this axe features Piezo saddles for acoustic sounds at the flick of a switch and also full Midi-access via Graph-tech's Ghost system.

A pair of Bare Knuckle Rebel Yell pickups power this beast of an electric guitar.

This bass guitar is for a player in a high octane sleaze/glam rock and roll band
The shape of the body is a little sharper than the traditional explorer shape
Custom Maltese Cross inlays spice up the neck.
A pair of hand wound pickups power this beast and with lightweight Hipshot tuners and a Badass bridge (I think the customer wanted that for the name alone) keep the strings in place

This Lion model features a lovely flamed top and a macassar ebony fingerboard
We had this finished in a classic amber much like our first review guitar.
As we often do we double stained the top to bring out the flame as well.
Some Bare Knuckle Mules will provide the tone and using Vitamin Q capacitors it will be pure vintage
Plays like a dream - quite a heavy guitar - just over 9 pounds but with a tone to die for

Another fine axe to be shown at a very early stage here(it has moved on a bit since).
This is based on a late 1970s style single cut guitar and feature a silver burst finish which has discoloured and gained a bit of a greenish tint to it.

The neck however features a 3 piece mahogany construction rather than the 3 piece maple often seen at the time for sonic reasons.
We also did a stripped neck on this guitar as the player favours an unfinished neck and has played many older guitars that have had the finish removed and liked them.
We managed to get a nice played in feel on the guitar as ever

About as close to relicing a guitar as we ever get - i prefer guitars to get beaten up the natural way - through lots of playing and I'm sure this one is going to get that

Iain has gone for a guitar best known for it's 1960s surf music origins or 1990s grunge , but I doubt either will feature much in his playing once he gets this completed Southpaw

It features Bare Knuckle pickups- a Rebel Yell at the bridge and a Mississippi Queen P90in a Humbucker shell at the neck

Sometimes when you are left handed - custom built is the only way to go

But you end up with a killer axe so it has it's advantages

This mahogany bodied beauty is an interesting project

It features a lightweight mahogany body , a 3 piece maple neck with a rosewood board

The fingerboard is scalloped from the 17th fret up for extra control and high-end technique

It features a pair of humbucker pickups which will be controlled by the same switching that John Petrucci had on both his Ibanez and Musicman axes (a 3 position toggle switch that auto-coil taps both pickups in the middle position)

Another of our popular Lion series made for stock and ready to sell

This one is a flat fronted all mahogany version - still featuring our all access neck joint, Earvana compensated Tuning Nut & Schaller hardware.
The mahogany is from the same plank of 30 year old Brazilian stock mentioned below.

The unusual knobs shown in the picture are special Gotoh made units in ivoroid and feature a rubber strip for better grip , but may not be to everyone's taste- don't worry - they can be changed in a minute for whatever you may fancy

Quite a weighty guitar but a great tone, with Bare Knuckle Mule pickups supplying the firepower.

Sometimes some really nice wood turns up just when you need it , but hardly surprisingly the stunning bits do carry a hefty price premium, sometimes to the tune of several hundred pounds extra for such a spectacular piece.

This is another Lion project where the customer was wanting us to go the extra mile to get spectacular wood and I don't think he'll be disappointed.

As well as the super stunning quilted maple the mahogany is a 30year old piece of Brazilian stock that we came across from a retired cabinet maker - sounds fantastic

Sometimes you think you know exactly what colour you want your guitar to be, that's until you see the wood itself and then seeing the grain and patterns in the wood can cause a change of heart.

The customer went with a faded burst that looks pure class

This Metal Machine is for a customer in Belgium

It features a thicker than normal spec for this kind of guitar since we were trying to get more of a Les paul vibe from it.
It features a neck based on the profile of an old Charvel and similar in feel to his Wayne Rock Monster guitar
It will feature Tone Pros hardware , Sperzel machine heads and an Earvana nut.

The finish will be a natural oil finish to try to keep it as organic as possible

Here is a very special guitar for a customer who had some specific requirements.

This customer has large hands and has become very comfortable paying his classical guitar which features a wider neck that allows him to play without feeling cramped on the fingerboard.

So he wanted one of our Lion guitars with a similar spec neck so he could enjoy playing blues and rock guitar as well. The fingerboard is 50mm at the nut going up to about 60mm at the last fret.

This guitar is like a sister guitar to the one shown below (titled Purple reign) apart from the wider neck .

Here we have the completed photos of a fabulous guitar - and a left handed one at that

This was be for someone's 50th birthday, and as such will be a bit special.

It features a high grade flamed maple cap, beautifully carved.

We finished it in an amber colour with the edges of the maple cap left untinted to give a beautiful natural "faux-binding" effect.

Quilted maple cap on mahogany body & 3 piece mahogany neck with Ebony fingerboard
All access neck joint - easy access to higher frets
Split Mother of pearl/Black pearl inlays on ebony board with Dunlop 6100 frets
BKP Rebel Yell pickups with coil tap switch & Hovland Musicap capacitors

Ok - once in a while I build something with myself in mind
This Korina bodied beauty was built in exactly the same way as we build our other guitars of this design.   A one piece back and a two piece top, elegantly carved.
It also features our wonderful all access neck joint which makes getting up to the top frets a breeze.  We used extremely dense ebony fingerboard loaded with huge Dunlop 6000 fret wire.
Tonepros hardware and Sperzel tuners give great tuning stability and tone.

An Earvana Compensated tuning nut makes the guitar's intonation more in tune than would otherwise be possible.
Still experimenting with pickups but currently loaded with Bare knuckle VH2s - sounds great!

Here is a project we made for a player who knew just what they wanted but couldn't find it until they hooked up with our custom shop.

He said "I need a 7 string tunomatic, thru body stringing and twin EMG 81-7s, reverse head stock, lightweight American alder body with a carved top and a silky satin black finish"

We said "No Problem" and here it is in all it's glory. ..

A classic double cutaway hard tail design with a couple of twists.
The customer went the "Updated Classic" route with this one and chose to have an all access heel on his swamp ash body as well as an unusual pickup selection. He chose Bare Knuckle pickups but went for a mix that suited his needs: A P90 in the bridge , an Apache in the middle and a Mother's Milk at the neck (as well as a push pull switch to allow bridge and neck & all 3 options too)

Here we have another "Updated Classic" but this time a classic singlecut design.
A swamp ash body, with a birdseye maple neck and fingerboard and looks that hark back to the 1950s.   We have used the Wilkinson designed bridge that allows for the old school tone but with more accurate intonation.  The all access heel makes for easy top end playing and a slightly flatter radius fingerboard and larger frets add to the creature comforts.

Electrically the pickups are Bare Knuckle Brown Sugar wired to a 4 position switch.

This beauty in British racing green was built for a customer who enjoys working on old Bentley racers  of years gone by with his father.
Based on our Jaguar design and built from a one piece lightweight swamp ash body.

We worked very closely with the customer getting all the small details right- very important when working at a distance and relying upon emails and phone calls to communicate such stuff.

We used a hipshot tremolo her along with the LSR roller nut and Sperzel tuners and were really impressed by the bridge. Power comes from a BKP VH2 pickup and two Kinman single coils.

You can read the customers own review of this guitar here on Harmony Central

This project was a custom rebuild of a nice Jackson guitar whose neck got damaged.

So we built a new neck for this short scale (24.75") guitar and gave the whole thing a new lick of paint - the paint finish is part of a new range of metallic colours we are producing>
We were trying to get a modern look whilst retaining strong masculine appeal in the colour.
It is a kind of Gun metal/pewter hybrid that looks very sophisticated indeed.

Here is another Black rock classic - this time influenced by James Hetfield's(Metallica) black album era Explorer guitar.
Classic mahogany construction throughout with a dark ebony fingerboard.
Huge Dunlop 6000 frets make rock playing a breeze, and string bending a dream.

EMG81 and EMG60 pickups each with it's own separate volume control supply the power for both aggression and subtlety.  Tonepros hardware and Sperzel tuners keep things stable tuning wise and the inclusion of an Earvana Compensated Tuning Nut means this guitar will have way better intonation than a normal axe - even when playing with a ton of distortion.

See the customer's own review for the last one we built like this HERE
This guitar is available to buy now!

Another guitar with a bit o a Metallica Flavour in some ways but there is so much more to this beast.

We used a Brazilian Parana Pine body with black binding and gave it an oil finish to avoid heavy paint coats.
Warm to the touch and with a silky oil finish on the neck also, a dream to play.
The neck is a 3 piece maple neck with a rosewood board with an ebony overlay on the headstock.

Bridge is a tonepros one and pickups are some older Bare Knuckle Holy Divers for classic rock and metal tones.

Here is a great example of our Custom Rebuild in action
I was excited about Bare Knuckle releasing the Painkiller pickup set - named after a classic Judas priest album, and I wanted a perfect guitar to try some in. Judas priest are one of my favourite classic metal bands and once I saw Gibson do the extremely limited edition Glen Tipton model I knew what i wanted to do:

We took a Gibson SG studio and stripped it down with the intention of making this beast.
(you could say this guitar was a "Victim of Changes") .
Here's what we did:
The neck was slimmed down and white binding added to the fingerboard.
The neck was refretted with huge Dunlop 6100 wire, and an earvana nut added
We changed the tuners to chrome tulip design ones, made mirror scratchplates and truss rod covers and finally gave the guitar a satin black finish.

Oh - and we fitted Bare Knuckle painkiller pickups too!

We couldn't do a Glenn Tipton inspired guitar and not do something KK Downing style- could we?

So we build a super sexy Flying V from scratch with a few nice updated features
The headstock was slimmed and made more angular and fitted with Sperzel machineheads.
All mahogany construction with an ebony board
As ever we used an Earvana nut for improved intonation, as well as Tonepros bridge and tailpiece.
The Jack input socket is on the inside of the upper horn so there is no cable flopping around to trip over .  We used a smoke bronze mirror scratchplate to offset the gloss black finish.

And of course we used Bare Knuckle painkiller pickups too - pure British Steel!

This was a fun guitar to make, and it is a lot of fun to play.

Consisting of an alder body with a maple neck/rosewood fingerboard combination with big Dunlop 6100 fret wire, we also fitted an Earvana Compensated tuning nut to make it sound sweet as can be. The all access neck makes the top end no effort to play.

Tuning duties are from the higher spec Wilkinson tremolo and Sperzel machineheads.
We also used an EMG Zakk Wylde set but chose to install them with the EMG85 at the Bridge and the EMG81 at the neck. This results in a bigger bridge sound - a bit more Gary Moore/Steve Lukather  in some ways whilst having a nice tight /fluid neck pickup for soloing 9the ceramic magnet keeping it tight and not bloated)