Custom Made Guitars 

     
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In addition to repairing and restoring guitars, I can make guitars to players own specs. Being exclusively handmade, the guitars built at Ridgeway are all "one off specials" and consequently can take some months to complete.  I'm not always in a position to be able to undertake the construction of a custom instrument - but there's never any harm in asking!   

Custom guitars can be built around one of three models shown below: 

1) The in-house designed solid body "Ridgeway Standard".   
 
2) The "Ridgecaster" which takes it's styling from the '69'  Thinline Fender Telecaster,  

3) The Gibson Blueshawk inspired "Ridgehawk"  

Guitars can also be made to players own designs but the concept and design must be feasable - and not too ridiculous!  One thing I will not do is make a guitar with a set neck. In my opinion any slight (if any) advantages in sound are far outweighed by the verstility and ease of maintenance and repair that a bolt-on neck offers. A bolt-on neck can be adjusted and set up far more accurately than a glued in set neck.....Leo Fender got it right! 

The cost of building custom instruments is entirely dependant upon the specification,  but a firm quotation will always be given prior to orders being taken.

 

 

1 The Ridgeway Standard

 

Scale Length  25.5"
Body  Solid.  African Padauk with inlays of  Bocote and Maple
Neck  Bolt-on.  Quarter sawn Rock Maple, with African Padauk veneer on front and rear of headstock. 1/8" Stainless Steel neck plate. Black dot inlays.   Graphite nut, and Single acting truss rod
Bridge  Wilkinson  with Tremolo 
Neck Pick-Up  Seymour Duncan Jazz Humbucker
Bridge Pick-Up   Seymour Duncan JB Trembucker
Machine Tuners  Schaller non-locking type
Wiring  2 x Volume and 2 x Tone pots with  3 way selector switch. Coil tap on neck pick-up 
Frets 21 Jumbo, Dutch Nickel 
Finish   Behlen clear nitro cellulose lacquer - approx 20 coats

 



 

                        
These two shots of a Ridgeway Standard under construction prior to being lacquered, showing the contouring of the front and rear of the guitar 

 


 

 

 

 

2 The Ridgehawk

 

Scale Length  25.5"
Body Hollow acoustic chambers with  2 x 'F' holes,  African Padauk base with Quilted Maple top & Ivory binding. Quilted maple contol cavity cover at rear.
Neck   Bolt-on. 1/4 sawn Rock Maple with rosewood fingerboard, Finished in Tung oil. Pearl diamond shaped inlays.  1/8" Stainless Steel neck plate.  African Padauk veneer at rear of headstock.  Graphite nut,  and single acting truss rod.    
 Bridge   Schaller "Tune-o-Matic" roller type with Bigsby B5 tremolo
 Neck Pick-up   Seymour Duncan '59 Humbucker. 
 
 Bridge Pick-up  Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro Humbucker
 Machine Tuners  Sperzel Locking type
 Wiring  1 x  tone, 1 x vol, 3 way selector switch and a 6 way "Varitone" circuit. Position 1 is the by-pass with 2-5 switching different capacitors  for modified tones. 
 Frets   22 medium Dutch Nickel
 Finish Back: Behlen clear nitro cellulose lacquer.   Front:  translucent black alcohol base stain with Behlen nitro cellulose clear lacquer top coats (approx 20 coats) allowing the quilted maple to show through in certain light conditions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few soundbytes of the Ridgehawk can be heard by clicking the links below. All of the samples are played straight through a Marshall 100 amp with no added effects, and the guitar's varitone switch is set to normal

                                        
Neck clean                                                     Neck dirty

                                        
 Bridge clean                                                 Bridge dirty

 

 

 

 

 

3 The Ridgecaster

The guitar shown below was customer designed

Scale Length

25.5" 

Body 

Hollow acoustic chambers with 1 x 'F' hole in top bout.   Ash base with Ash top.  S

Neck 

Bolt-on.  Rock maple with flame maple fingerboard, finished in natural tung oil. Black marker dots.  Double acting truss rod

Bridge

Fender 3 saddle type with through body stringing

Neck Pick-up 

Single coil Kinman noiseless custom AVn60 'Lipstick'

Bridge Pick-up

Single coil Kinman noisleless custom AV60 

Machine Tuners

Kluson vintage style

Wiring 

1 x volume and 1 x tone pot, 3 way Fender selector switch. Standeard Telecaster circuit
 

Frets 

21 medium Dutch nickel

Finish 

'Antique' alcohol based translucent stain with tung oiled natural satin finish
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

One of my more recent jobs was the completion of another Telecaster Thinline Custom.  For this Guitar a new body was constructed from Swamp Ash with a Quilted Maple top and the original Fender neck was re-fitted.

 


The finished  guitar has an ivory bound edge and more unusual for a Telecaster, a comfort  contour has been carved in the back.

 


Here the guitar is pictured on my workbench before being set up

 


This shot shows the comfort contour, recessed neck plate and battery box cover

 

 


This Stratocaster copy was built here using bits bought off E.Bay by the owner.

The body, originally black, is an item from some Fender copy or other and although a bit thinner than a genuine body it was at least made from one solid piece of Alder. The cavities were all over the place though and had to be re-cut and straightened. The neck came from a Squire Fender which had the large headstock, but this was cut down to the smaller size.  The "Piece de resistance" of this guitar were the chosen pick-ups, they're EMG DGs, to fire them up requires a battery, so a space for it was cut into the rear of the guitar.      This 

 

       

 

 

 

Jake burns ESP copy

 


The owners initials & EMG pick ups


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