Your Signature Model....

SNAKEBITE

Not sure if this has been done before, if so feel free to tell me to jog on.....

The phone rings and the guitar company on the other end is so filled with admiration for your guitar playing they want to issue a signature model with your name on the headstock!

What company would you want to be on the other end and what would you have made?

Stevepage

I'd love Jackson to phone up. My signature wouldn't be drastically different from the HT6 Juggernaut model. 

I'd probably change it up slightly and have a single coil in the neck position instead of a humbucker. Slightly thicker body and neck. Maybe with Alien crop circle inlays too.

dindude

Unfortunately this is the way of the modern signature model:

Dear Mr Quayle, we at Ibanez have an exciting new range called the AZ and want you to be an ambassador which means we’d like you to have your very own signature model!

Mr Quayle: fantastic, I’m so excited I’ve been chewing this moment over for years in my head, so know exactly what I want; can I have a big rounded neck back but with a 16” board, an ebony fretboard on a mahogany neck, locking floyd rose and some own designed bareknuckle pickups?

Ibanez: erm, no, you see you need to have the AZ neck profile. In roasted maple, which is an AZ thing. With the AZ pickups. And the AZ trem.            You can pick the colour though......

Mr Quayle: oh, ok. Can I have a brown one please?

Ibanez: Brown? Remember colour is the only option you have.

Mr Quayle: Yes Brown please.

etc.

stickyfiddle

Gibson CS-336.  Black, maybe an ebony fretboard, optional bigsby. 

Or just my actual MJT Jazzmaster, recreated to the millimetre by whoever pays the best  

Boromedic

I have trems on some guitars and really love Strat and 335 style ones. However.....

It would basically be my R8 or Standard probably and would have to have Gibson on the headstock, so it would have QC issues and the headstock is at risk of breaking if I dare look at it. 

richardhomer

I’d like a call from PRS, offering me a DGT - but without the neck binding which appears on the most recent ones - and ‘RMH’ on the trussrod cover....

Grumpyrocker

Hopefully the call would be from Gibson, though I expect ESP are more experienced with what my signature model involves.

It would be a Les Paul style single-cut. But the body would be thinner like an EC1000 rather than a full fat Les Paul. The body would be routed within an inch of its life to make the guitar very light (though avoiding neck diving). There'd be a belly scoop at the back. Perhaps neck-through construction to enable a deep all-access joint for high fret access.

LP scale length, 22 jumbo stainless steel frets. 3+3 locking tuners. Zero fret. Traditional Les Paul bridge, but the neck angle would be much shallower than a LP, more like an ESP EC. 

Mahogany body, super AAAA flamey maple cap. Body and neck binding. Available in several colours though my own preference would be either a Gibson style modern blueberry burst or a PRS charcoal burst.

Electronics would include a system enabling the replacement of pickups without having to open the rear control cavity at all. So some kind of hifi style pinch sockets in the pickup cavity would do. 

Pickups themselves would be a hot passive (but not too metal) humbucker in the bridge position. Neck position would be a traditional PAF. 

Four pots, with true coil splits, out of phase and other options (a la LP High Performance models). I'd also put the pickup switch down here too. There'd be a tuner in one of the pickup rings. 

My idea is essentially what I'd create if I ran Gibson. I'd perhaps give it a different name to Les Paul so there'd be no fuss over tradition bullshit. Gibson should be using that iconic silhouette in other ways than just big thick Les Pauls. It shouldn't be left to ESP, Schecter et al. 

dindude

Mine would be a Schecter PT Tele - goldtop chambered mahogany body, thick C maple neck with ebony board, humbucker bridge/neck P90. One day I’ll do a Warmoth build to this spec....

Sassafras

As long as it's got Sassafras Special on the headstock, single coils and looks like a Telecaster I'm not too bothered

english_bob

I'd go for something so specific and ridiculous that it would only get made as a signature instrument.

I'm thinking a lap steel with a sustainer pickup, Duesenberg Multibender bridge and Keith tuners.

I don't know which guitar company would call me up about my lap steel playing, but I'm guessing it would be out of pity, not admiration.

Musicman20

I'd want a Musicman Bass or Guitar. Probably in a pretty out there colour. 

revsorg

The four original founders get together over drinks after a chance meeting - "why don't we just have one last shot at making great Hamer guitars with our original vision".

They buy back the name from Fender for $1 in a rare moment of generosity. 

They build a small team of craftsmen, some great people from the various custom shops and PRS. Seymour Duncan comes onboard with a special humbucker.

The top of the range model is the Standard explorer with an exquisite flamed maple top. The best examples will be the Williams signature. 

chris78

Got mine on order from Peach.
Fender 52 tele. Roasted ash body, roasted maple neck, natural finish.Broadcaster bridge, twisted tele neck, 4 way switching. Perfection 

zepp76

It's a boring answer I know but it would have to be the closest thing to an original '59 Burst for me (whichever model that is these days!)

or 

I'd like Fender to remake the Fender Aerodyne Telecaster, I've been after one for years but it's alluded me so far.

Danny1969

I actually had a signature guitar made to my spec by Sims in Kent, not because I'm some great player I'm not but my band had a sponsor and we all got guitars made for us.

I chose a Strat shaped guitar but made in a Les Paul Mahogany body \ maple cap way with a Strat looking neck that is gibson scale length and profiled from my fave 1986 Les Paul I was playing at the time. Pickups are EMG's, just one volume and a kill switch

The paint job isn't to everyone's taste but I like it



That was made for me in 2008 I think ........... to be honest if I was asked now I would probably just pick an off the shelf Telecaster 

thebreeze

Danny1969 said:

I actually had a signature guitar made to my spec by Sims in Kent, not because I'm some great player I'm not but my band had a sponsor and we all got guitars made for us.

I chose a Strat shaped guitar but made in a Les Paul Mahogany body \ maple cap way with a Strat looking neck that is gibson scale length and profiled from my fave 1986 Les Paul I was playing at the time. Pickups are EMG's, just one volume and a kill switch

The paint job isn't to everyone's taste but I like it



That was made for me in 2008 I think ........... to be honest if I was asked now I would probably just pick an off the shelf Telecaster 

I suppose it would be reassuringly expensive too?

thebreeze

Mine would be a Fender CS, r/w neck, small head, 8.0" radius, Strat body, grey bottom '65 pickups (I think I'd make them source originals and butcher lots of vintage guitars) and available in any colour.  The important thing would be that we would say only a limited run of 81 were being made available and when they're gone they're gone.  And then just release further batches when they've sold out like GuitarGuitar do. 

Dave_Vader

It would, sadly, be my accidental Gilmour strat.

I never meant it to be the same, but it ended up black and maple, white pickups, with a switch for neck-on next to the pickup selector.

Or an Ibanez SB-70 with P90s and a kahler, but that's never getting made.

Lewy

english_bob said:

I'd go for something so specific and ridiculous that it would only get made as a signature instrument.

I'm thinking a lap steel with a sustainer pickup, Duesenberg Multibender bridge and Keith tuners.

I don't know which guitar company would call me up about my lap steel playing, but I'm guessing it would be out of pity, not admiration.

I'd have a Multibender on my sig as well (in fact I'll actually have one on my strat by the end of the week )

Ash-bodied tele in white blonde.

Nocaster profile neck, but with a rosewood board and EVO frets

Gold foil pickup in neck position. Something broadcasterish in the bridge.

Multibender set up to bend B & G

Fender vintage locking tuners

That'll do it I reckon.

rossi

Mine would be a strat ,lightish body .neck,fret board frets  and headstock exacly like the Squier Joe Trohman tele in other words 22 fret 12 inch radius  medium jumbos .Pickups are the Maida Vales  which suit what i play (blues jazz finger style )and and how I play .high quality hardware ,Gotoh locking vintage tuners.

   It would be a waste of time as I have already built it except for a high quality trem but as the cheap Squier one seems OK and it would be a waste of money.My strat has a red Squier SE body but I would prefer a two tone burst.

Whitecat

Knaggs Severn with a P90 in the neck position and a Filtertron in the bridge. It would have a slightly bigger neck carve than they usually do, and 9.5" radius. Birdseye maple neck, satin finished. Swamp ash body with spalted maple top. Ebony fretboard.