A production instrument is designed for the median player — a statistical fiction. Every dimension, from nut width to body depth to neck taper, is averaged from thousands of hands that aren't yours. A custom build starts with your physiology: the span of your fretting hand, the angle your picking arm naturally falls, the acoustic properties of the room where you spend most of your playing hours. The result isn't a guitar that's generically "good" — it's one that's specifically right for you, in a way you'll feel within the first ten minutes of playing it.

Top selection is the most consequential decision in the build, and it happens before a single cut. I tap each blank — a sharp knuckle strike near the center, listening for sustain, clarity, and the harmonic balance between the fundamental and its overtones. I measure stiffness-to-weight ratio with a simple deflection test. Then I look at the grain: ideally 15–20 lines per inch, running perfectly vertical through the thickness. A top that passes all three criteria goes on the shortlist. From there, I match it to your described voicing: warm and compressed for fingerstyle, fast and articulate for flatpicking.

You go on the build schedule — currently booking 14 months out. Three weeks before your slot opens, we have a second video call where I confirm all dimensions and show you the wood I've selected for your build. You'll see photographs of the actual top, back, and sides. During the build I send two or three progress updates — not marketing, just photographs of where things stand. At completion, I record a short video of the first strum before boxing it. Shipping is insured, double-boxed, and humidity-buffered for the climate difference between my shop and your destination.