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The initial step in the life of a NeufTone is conception. You and I have to work together to concieve what the ideal custom instrument for you will be. We discuss via email or otherwise your tone "objectives", the sounds and versatility you desire out of a guitar. Details such as wiring schemes, pickup selection, body and headstock shape, hardware, woods, cosmetic options, finish options, etc. are worked out at this point and a design is brought up. At this point, I can give you a rough estimate of the price. Obviously, you can either agree to proceed at this point, or make changes to the proposed design, or opt out the project if you'd rather not. There is of course no cost or obligation for working out a design with me, so feel free to contact me if you are even just curious about the idea.
Once we've agreed on a design that we'd like to proceed with, then its time to purchase the parts. One of the benefits to buying a custom NeufTone is that you can pay for it "at your own pace". We can buy the parts a bit at a time if you need; $100 here for hardware, $200 for the body, and so on. You don't have to pay the entire amount upfront, although that will speed the construction of your guitar considerably. The first stage would probably be either the pickups (due to a several week waiting period for the typically back-ordered pickup winders I prefer to use, Lindy Fralin and Bill Lawrence) or the body (in order to have appropriate time to apply the finish). The body and neck of the guitar are bought from specialised wood shops to our custom specifications. Outsourcing for things such as pickups and wood parts actually improves the quality and lowers the cost, as companies who specialise in wood parts have access to a much wider variety of exotic woods and tonewoods as well as precision computer controlled routing machines; pickup winders such as Lindy Fralin and Bill Lawrence are legendary in their field which makes my winding my own pickups an exercise in wastefulness, when I would save very little money compared to buying the pickups of professional pickup makers. After acquiring the wood parts, unless you have special-ordered a polyurethane finish to be applied by the wood shop, I start applying coats of a tung oil finish to the wood. Depending on the level of glossiness desired and the properties of the wood, I can apply anywhere from 6 to 12 coats, or more. One thing to keep in mind while selecting woods is that wood looks much darker and deeper under a finish, generally, and the colour of the wood will change dramatically (for the better) when finished. The dusty light brown of unfinished mahogany turns to a rich, deep, golden brown under a finish, for example, and the off-white tan of swamp ash turns to a gorgeous light amber.
When all parts have been acquired and prepared, construction begins. I take time during this process, to ensure everything is properly fitted and installed. Wiring is done carefully and cleanly using the custom-designed wiring diagram for your guitar. And when it comes time to perform the setup on the guitar, I spend as much time as is needed to get the guitar playing perfectly. When the guitar is ready, I run it through its paces, giving it a test-run with a couple amps to hear its tones and to verify all is working as it should. When I am confident of its quality, you'll have your brand new guitar!
Contact me to get the ball rolling on your new custom NeufTone guitar, or to just toss a few questions at me.