Custom built electric guitars, hand made in Sheffield

Here at Finale Guitar we are very proud to be able to offer full electric guitar custom build packages using locally sourced or internationally recognised parts and hardware! We work with a wide range of different suppliers of necks, bodies and hardware to ensure that you can have the electric guitar of your dreams. Whether you want to modify a classic design or have some cool body shape and hardware ideas of your own, we have the tools, parts and personnel to help and would love to make your vision a reality!

We can guide you through every stage of the process, which includes the following steps:

Body and neck selection and re-profiling

Whether you want T style, S style, Les Paul, SG, Explorer or a crazy, offset, spikey creation of your own, we can help you to source or craft a suitable electric guitar body thanks to our wide range of suppliers and links with local electric guitar builders! We also have access to all standard neck styles and can offer custom reshaping services in partnership with Nuova Vita Guitar Works. This can be really great if you would like a vintage styled guitar but would like a slimmer, more modern feeling neck profile.

Pickups, electronics and hardware

As well as being a Seymour Duncan dealer (and guaranteeing to price match any online retailer!) we are also very proud to work with two local pickup makers to offer truly unbeatable tone. There really is no substitute for a lovingly hand wound and potted pickup and The Hand Wound Pickup Company and Alchemy Pickups offer the best of the best when it comes to lovingly made AlNiCo, neodynium and ceramic pickups designed to fit every genre from smooth jazz to blues rock to punk to heavy metal.

Pickup options

As well as offering every Seymour Duncan pickup (see the full range here) we can also offer the following incredible pickups from local builders:

The Hand Wound Pickup Company

These incredible sounding pickups are hand made with love by local electronic wizard Glenn Moss. Here’s a guide to the models we carry in stock:

G90 Vintage P90s – AlNiCo II magnets for a full, smooth vintage tone.

CDFM (Chris Dale Face Melters!) – “Punk” P90s- overwound with 13,000 winds instead of the usual 10,000 for high output, boosted mids and a sharp attack.

PAF style humbucker – the classic fruity humbucker voice of the late 50s with a medium output, articulate and clear top end and full, warm lower mid response without being muddy. Perfect for blues, classic rock etc.

 

Alchemy Pickups

Here’s an overview of the options from Jack, owner of Alchemy Pickups:

Humbuckers

“Evocation I/II: Evocation I is a raunchy PAF style classic rock voiced humbucker based on a late 50s / early 60s Les Paul sound with a really thick neck tone and brighter, more drive-heavy bridge. The Evocation II is more inspired by early semi-hollow Gibsons and has a really lush, clear bridge tone and a transparent and woody neck sound, but both are capable of handling some dirt and also work well in solid-body applications for softer blues and blues/rock playing. Both sets will lose definition when driven too hard, so are really intended for clean playing through to classic or progressive rock, and aren’t really suitable for metal.

Hartshorn: Modern output humbuckers voiced for anything from prog rock to heavy metal. The neck has an awesome lead/solo tone and the bridge is great for tight rhythm paying and heavy stuff. The set can handle tons of gain, but still sounds great clean, without too much compression in either position. Because of the higher output they tend to drive amps too hard or have a little too much low end focus to be used for classic rock – however, they can get closer to achieving this sound with plenty of natural harmonic resonance when split down to a single coil.

Ablanathanalba: All AlNiCo IV set of vintage hot humbuckers that bridge the gap between a PAF and modern output set. They’ve got more of a classic rock voicing, but are capable of handling quite a lot more gain and driving an amp quite a lot harder than a traditional PAF set. These are my most versatile humbuckers and can convincingly handle moderate metal while still delivering really open and raunchy hard rock tones – they won’t quite achieve the beautiful vintage cleans of the Evocation sets or the crushing rhythms and soaring leads of the Hartshorn set, though. These are great for a do it all HH guitar, and have enough output to work well with coil splits, where the PAFs tend to sound too weedy when split down.

P90s

Regia: By far the best selling P90, it’s an AlNiCo II set that’s voiced similarly to old Les Pauls. Really full, thick, warm and punchy in both positions, but with plenty of high end left in the mix owing to their single coil construction and only slightly hotter than vintage output.

Mandala: My favourite of the P90 range which uses magnet blends to allow for higher output P90s that have tons of cut and clarity while maintaining a really nuanced tone capable of playing cleans through to metal and anything in between. Really good for driving effects chains and getting surprisingly heavy sounds out of a P90 routed guitar. Due to these being true single coils with 60-cycle hum they do benefit from using a noise gate when playing with heavy distortion.

Single coils

Nightfall: An AlNiCo II set that gives a warmer vintage feel to any single-coil loaded guitar. Really great for calming overly bright instruments (they sell well in the Tele variant for this reason) and giving a fuller sound without compromising on the traditional single coil qualities of openness and natural harmonics, as the warmth comes from the magnet choice and not compression of the sound by overwinding. Great for clean playing, blues and classic rock. Pairs well with an Evocation I (brighter) or II (warmer) bridge in HSS guitars.

Mercurial: My AlNiCo III vintage voiced set that has just a little more push than a true vintage set to get that classic, jangly single coil tone without it sounding too shrill or giving up the ghost and losing definition when pushed. These are great for getting a really spanky Tele sound or a really classic Strat tone that is just a straight upgrade on the pickups found in modern Strat/Tele type guitars. Pairs well with an Evocation I or Ablanathanalba bridge in HSS guitars.

Hemlock: A high output, Gilmour-esque set of AlNiCo V single coils. Tons of punch and ability to handle effects and gain with a surprisingly fantastic clean tone in all positions. Really just a great set to turn a Strat into a prog machine, calm the treble of a Tele while giving it tons of punch, and tighten the treble response and focus the mids on either type of guitar. Really great for prog and rock, and capable of handling metal outputs, though like the Mandalas a noise gate is beneficial due to this being a true single coil set with the associated hum. Pairs extremely well with a Hartshorn bridge in HSS guitars.”

Electric guitar finishing and re-finishing

You probably all know our friendly retail manager Billy, but you may not know that when he’s not at Finale Guitar he runs Billy Boy’s Booth, which offers custom guitar refinishing services in Sheffield. If you have a guitar which you would like to see resprayed in vintage style nitro cellulose in a huge range of colours then Billy is your man! He also completes all the paint work on our custom builds and will be very happy to create the perfect colour blend for your custom built electric guitar as well as offering a wide range of cool resin pickguards.

As a rough guide, to finish a plain guitar body which has not been previously been painted costs around £150, including pore filling.

To refinish a guitar which has previously been painted in nitrocellulose or polyurethane costs around £150 (sanding time is equivalent to pore filling time, hence the equal pricing)

Bound necks cost around £130 to finish or refinish in nitrocellulose

Heavily lacquered maple fingerboard necks are around £80

Rosewood fingerboard necks without binding are around £60

Currently we can’t offer refinishes on set necks.

Custom electric guitar relics

If you would like your electric guitar to look like it’s been played on 1,000 stages by 100 different sweaty blues men then you need to talk to our friend Nick from Nuova Vita Guitar Works. This warlock of wear and tear can take even the shiniest new axxe and artificially age it to look like a well played workhorse that’s rocked and rolled all over the world. He and Billy can work together to create your dream vintage looking electric guitar with grungey rock’n’roll chic, or to make an exact replica of one of your guitar hero’s instrument.

Pricing

Our electric guitar builds are massively customisable and can vary widely in price depending on how many parts are built from scratch and how many modifications and upgrades you require. The cheapest option is to take a well built entry level second hand electric guitar (EG Squier, Epiphone, Westfield etc), refinish it and add upgraded pickups, electronics (eg CTS pots, Orange Drop capacitors, Oak Grigsby selector switch, SwitchCraft jack output etc) and locking tuners. This option could come out in the region of £300 including all labour, parts and fitting. For a more in-depth build with a custom paint job and relic you might expect to pay around £500 plus pickups. Full high spec custom builds including a new set of hand wound pickups, custom finish and relic and high end electronics mods (EG coil splits, the Gilmour Mod etc) from our in-house guitar tech Steve might be closer to £6-800. We are very happy to help you tailor your build to your budget and can often offer cost effective second hand solutions if you’re struggling to get the spec you want at your target pricepoint.

Let’s get started!

If you’re champing at the bit to get your custom electric guitar build under way then we’re here to help! Just drop us a message or call us on 0114 249 4176