Top 5 Indie Builders

With the beautiful invention of the Internet, some things came quickly (music fan sites, Wal-Mart online, eBay and of course, pornography) and some took a while to make it to the party (companies like Netflix, independent luthiers making custom guitars) and some haven’t made it at all yet (accurate free tablature).

But when independent luthiers started offering up their goods on the Internet, they were offering up their goods to the WORLD and now they had a strong foothold in the guitar biz as they are just as accessible as any other guitar company. We the consumers stand to benefit from this because we can now find the guitar we want – REALLY want, not just settle for while constantly thinking of modifications we’ll have to make later – and of course the luthier stands to benefit as well.

So over the past few years I’ve done some poking around on the Internet and came up with my Top 5 list of independent luthiers who are making some of the coolest looking, coolest spec’d guitars and who are also there to talk to directly if you have any questions or want to talk about small tweaks you think would be cool that they can possibly do before they send the guitar to you (things from using different pickups to using different woods, changing the neck, or even altering headstock shape and company logo). These builders have an aim to get you a guitar that you’ll never want to get rid of and that’s a great goal to have.

So, in no particular order we begin with number one.

1) Benford Guitars

I’ve been talking to Benford Guitars for almost the entire time that the Fifth Fret has been around. I’ve asked about tonal properties of woods, what kind of tones can be expected from woods that aren’t all that common like walnut. I’ve asked for quote after quote of guitars ranging from standard T-style guitars with only neck modifications and replacing the neck pickup with something like a TV Jones Powertron to asking how much it would cost to build me a one-off, completely custom jazzmaster-ish guitar. I’ve asked about nuts and bolts like what kind of locking tuners he prefers and why, which kind of tune-o-matic bridges he likes, etc.

Every time I’ve asked a question, he’s always come back quickly by email and laid out the answer in an easy to follow way and often times they’re more lengthy than what you would expect from a busy guitar maker. This means a lot to me as a potential customer.

The one thing Steve Benford doesn’t do is ghost-build. He doesn’t offer guitars that look exactly like other guitars, won’t put another company’s logo or headstock shape on one of his guitars (though he has an awesome looking headstock that to me resembles the bone fish hooks Polynesian cultures used to use and if I ever got a Benford, I would specifically request that one) and lays all of that out on his site. He’s even talked about it here on the Fret in the past.

And his guitars are very inexpensive with three tiers of pricing from LOW cost S and T style guitars that you can customize in many ways and still save a ton of cash, to half-custom where you get a custom made body with a standard neck to full-blown custom where the sky is the limit but still very affordable. He made a BEAUTIFUL T style guitar that featured two humbuckers and was affectionately known as the Lestercaster. Perhaps I can convince the owner to let me publish a picture.

2) Kauer Guitars

I love the Jazzmaster. I think it’s the coolest solid body shape in the world. I think there’s a lot of potential in it from good fret access and if you use different woods and pickups, the possibilities are endless. It doesn’t HAVE to be a surf or Sonic Youth type of guitar if you don’t want it to be.

Not a lot of custom builders offer Jazzmasters for various reasons (my guess is that it wasn’t included in the legal decision that some guitar shapes are for public consumption and are able to be copied by other builders/companies) but some are offering them and some are taking them above and beyond (two on this list offer their own modified JM and Benford has been known to build one or two in the past) what a Jazzmaster was ever meant to be.

One of the coolest builders with a Jazzmaster shape is Kauer guitars who call their flagship guitar the Daylighter. The Daylighter is the broad name with different sub-models being available from the Express (slightly stripped down but aimed at a more raucous rock and roll crowd) to the Standard, to the Semi-hollow to the full hollowbody which has minimal wood inside.

Builder Doug Kauer wanted a Les Paul sound but in a more comfortable package and through trials wound up using Spanish Cedar (sometimes he uses other woods. Right now he’s making a hollowbody with redwood) to help with clarity and between this and his hollow options, they are extremely versatile guitars as evidenced by the videos on his website.

Did I mention he had a great looking website? Every model of the Daylighter features video demonstrations and there’s even a forum that you can ask questions on that he’ll get back to you on (though I think the forum is more meant to be a hangout for Kauer players since you can also contact Doug via email, telephone or Facebook).

The idea of an almost completely hollow Daylighter is incredibly awesome. He even offers the buyer the option to put their favorite pickups in it (I would definitely go with TVJ Powertrons in something like this) and other options are there and you’re more than welcome to contact and talk about any ideas you had. He also finishes the guitars in an acrylic lacquer so they breathe but are difficult to check, yellow and age. One of these finishes is a visually stunning Goldtop that’s just plain drool-worthy.

3) Fano Guitars

Fano Guitars also offers a JM style guitar but his are more traditional looking with upgrades that include Fralin (or Lollar) pickups, a compound radius, aged nickel hardware and a distressed finish in nitrocellulose lacquer.

My experience with Fano is incredibly limited, but I love his idea of making guitars that would have been made in another dimension. Where most guitar builders would build something with an odd shape that MAY be appealing to the eye, they’re almost always cumbersome and difficult to play and seem to be mainly made to just look at, his guitars are the standard shapes we all know and love but with hardware associated with different guitars. Tele-style bridge and bridge pickup on a Les Paul shaped body? Not only a possibility, but one of the guitars featured as a background on one of his pages.

Unfortunately, you can’t buy directly from Fano guitars but that doesn’t mean you can’t custom order a guitar. Every Fano dealer can submit your custom order and get you your guitar.

4) Kirn Guitars

The folks at the Telecaster Forum (TDPRI) know their Teles and Ron Kirn is both among them as a forum contributor AND as a builder that is known and respected. You can’t really say more than that to vouch for his credibility but it’s more than the fact that he can make a killer-looking Tele-style guitar that gets him on this list. He’s also easy to contact, friendly in communication, completely willing to modify a guitar to meet a player’s needs and offers one of the coolest guitars in the world: the Barnbuster.

These guitars are made from reclaimed wood that usually comes from the joists in old barns that were erected long ago. The ones for sale right now on his website are from a barn that was put up in 1898. That is one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard. Can you imagine? How much more vintage can you get? If you had one of these guitars you would be playing a piece of American history. In 1898 the first telephone message from a submerged submarine went through, the first automobile was sold and the first insurance policy was made, Brown defeated Harvard 6-0 in hockey (take THAT, Harvard!), the Spanish-American war began, the Post Office authorized postcards, and the first automobile speed record was set (63 KPH or 39 MPH).

You would be playing that. You would be playing THIS:

I’ve written about that in the past but this idea STILL gets me excited! And his guitars are made of pine which was the first wood used by Leo when he was making his first Teles.

And, his Barn Busters are $100.00 LESS than his standard guitars and come in at $1,650.00 plus $40.00 for US shipping. Do you know how much a brand new Fender Custom Shop 1952 N.O.S. Tele costs from Musician’s Friend? $2,499.00 and it includes zero awesomeness from history.

For all those who really want a custom model, his website also offers a custom order form to get a quote.

5) Hahn Guitars

Everything I know about Hahn Guitars I’ve heard through the grapevine. I’ve never actually talked to him but he’s posted on the TDPRI a time or two, has some videos on YouTube, has been interviewed by magazines like Premier Guitar and there were a couple of things that stood out to me and put him on this list.

For one thing, he makes everything that goes into his guitars (even the knobs). He also makes the neck and neck pocket fit so snugly that he doesn’t NEED bolts. He uses them of course, but he says that he gets it so tight that he can literally walk around the shop carrying his guitar by the neck and the body won’t fall. He also says it’s a pain in the neck (HA!) but it’s worth it.

He also says he uses the lightest coating of nitro to get the color but allow for the most amount of breathing (ask anyone, lacquer is not always a good thing and even lacquer snobs will tell you that lacquer that’s been caked on is just as “bad” as poly – and I use quotes because I don’t think there’s a super huge difference in tone between poly and lacquer especially with all the other variables that come into play. Lacquer just LOOKS better when it ages).

And honestly, when I saw the first video I had seen of a Hahn guitar he was talking about it before an extremely talented young player showed what it could do, I wasn’t overly impressed. I mean, I love Teles so I was INTERESTED but it sounded similar to what a lot of Tele builders say but then that kid started playing and I believed every word Chihoe Hahn had said. The tone was unbelievable even coming from a low-quality YouTube video taken at a loud NAMM coming out tiny computer speakers. It was the kind of tone that made my head snap up and boy, was I paying attention then!

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So there you have it! My Top 5 independent builders. Shame on them for all making such awesome guitars and causing so much GAS.

And these are just MY top five builders! There are TONS out there who offer quality guitars that can be customized to be exactly what you want, even if what you want is a more accurate, more carefully made replication of a guitar that was made 58 years ago.

With all these quality builders putting out these amazing guitars, why would anyone go for the big guys’ guitars?

-Pappy