Guides
Plain-language guides for custom guitar buyers, built from what builders publish on their own sites.
10 questions to ask before joining a custom guitar builder's waitlist
A checklist of questions for a custom guitar builder before you send a deposit: queue, refunds, price lock, payments, shipping and warranty.
Posted wait vs. build time: why custom guitar wait times don't compare directly
Some builders post the queue, some post the build time, some post both, and some count from a different starting point. How to read a posted wait.
How custom guitar deposits work: amounts, timing and refunds
Flat deposits, percentages, staged payments and refund rules, copied from custom guitar builders' own order pages and compared in one table.
Custom vs. Custom Shop vs. boutique builder: what you're actually ordering
Made-to-order production models, factory custom shops and independent builders have very different waits. Real examples from builders' own pages.
Looking for current waits? See the wait-time table.