about the instruments
body materials
I use anything I can find, from traditional tonewoods, to offcuts I rescued from a dumpster (one of the first cello guitars was the sink cutout of a butcher block countertop). I'm increasingly drawn to local American hardwoods, like cherry, for their beauty, sustainability, workability, and tone. Finishes are generally satin with light to medium relic'ing, and include lacquer, shellac, or oil.
neck materials
For necks, I typically use African mahogany, but like body materials, I'm increasingly interested in cherry. I've been enjoying doing black bursts on them lately, leaving just a bit of the natural wood color exposed on the back, as if the color has been worn away by hand from years of playing.
fingerboards
For fingerboards, I use zebrawood & rosewood, depending on whether the design requires a lighter or darker color. For position markers and filled fret slots, I will generally create the most contrast (lighter wood = black fret dots and filled fret slots; darker wood = white fret dots and slots). Will go for abalone position markers when I'm feeling fancy.
That said, I am increasingly trying to move away from rosewood for sustainability reasons.
hardware
I'm a fan of vintage style tuners, with keystone, butterbean or scalloped buttons, usually Wilkinson or Gotoh. I default to chrome or nickel hardware: knobs, clamshell tailpiece, bridge, jack plate, etc. but lightly age the metal to get rid of some of the reflective shine, giving it a more subdued look and worn in feel.
Pickguards are single ply black à la vintage T-syle guitars, or 3 ply white, with an occasional tortoise shell.
electronics
One-trick pony: give me a single mini-humbucker routed straight to a switchcraft jack any day! That said, we can put in other options, and I will throw in the occasional volume/tone circuit, preferring B 500k linear pots preferred for both volume and tone. On my tone circuits, rather than the typical .022 (humbucker standard) or .047 (single coil standard) I opt for .033 capacitors, a nice middle ground that I believe gives better balance when mellowing down the highs.
Common Questions
Availability
Custom builds are available upon request. At the moment, I am only able to build a couple custom instruments per month.
Prioretization will be toward my personal designs, like the cello guitar, rather than recreations of corporate instruments.
Turn around time can be between 2 weeks and 2 months, not including shipping, due to cure time for lacquer.
Any currently available instruments I will list on this website.
Pricing
LUNCHBOX UKULELES
start at $250, goes up if you want bells and whistles, and some of those vintage lunchboxes can get pricey! But if you have a lunchbox, I can make it into an instrument.
CUSTOM ELECTRICS
start at $2250, or $2650 for semi hollow.
A quarter of that goes towards materials and shop supplies and upkeep, and the rest covers one to two weeks of active labor.
As such, custom orders will need a non-refundable 25% deposit up front, which goes directly towards materials.
CUSTOM CASES
Currently Prototyping! I'll keep you posted.
Shipping
If you're in LA, message me, and you can just pick it up.
If possible, I never want to ship without a case...too many horror stories.
If you have a specific case model you like, let me know and we can get it shipped to me, then I can send it filled with an instrument to you. Or I could build you a case. You tell me!
If shipping price is ever concern, let me know and we can explore more shipping options. This website auto-uses USPS, which is usually one of the most inexpensive, but I can look into shipping aggregators which occasionally have discounts.
For international shipping, message me with your country & postal code, and I can look into it.
contact Jakob
Get in Touch
have a custom build in mind, or just wanna say hi? you know what to do!