Our quality control man and playability expert, Justin, is moving on from Central Pennsylvania to attend Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. He will remain on in a consulting role, but won’t be involved in day to day operations. Justin will be pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Recording Arts in order to pursue his long time dream of recording and producing music.

Justin, of course, was the original inspiration for STORM Custom Guitars and a key founding member of the organization. It’s safe to say that we would have never built a single guitar without his love of music and drive. After all, Planky is where it all started.

Best wishes to Justin and all of his band mates from Pink Yard Flamingos as they embark on new chapters in their lives!

The slab has evolved into the rough form of a Cyclone. The body on the right is solid maple and will be hollowed out alomost completely. We’ll leave a spot to mount the Bibsby tail piece, but the electronics, bridge and pickups will be on the top.

The top is shown at the left and is AA Sitka Spruce. It will be shaped in a concave form to match the unique shape of the Cyclone body. Of course, with a semi-hollow body, the top isn’t a crucial as with an archtop or flat-top acuostic. Extreme care must be exercised so that proper tonality is expressed when the instrument is being played.

It’s always exciting to see a new guitar taking shape at this stage of construction. It’s a bit difficult to envision this instrument with gold hardware and shiny black laquer finish right now.

This particular guitar doesn’t look all that exciting right now. And, truthfully, it’s not too exciting; it’s just a slab of wood. That’s the humble beginning for them all. That’s where the excitement starts. We never get tired of selecting wood and envisioning the guitar that’s going to emerge.

This hefty chunk of maple will become a semi-hollow body Cyclone. Yes, maple is a heavy, dense wood and isn’t necessarily the first choice for guitar bodies. In this case we’re building a semi-hollow body, so much of the weight will be eliminated. The maple will retain a strong frame.

Someone asked me via email if we are using a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine at STORM Custom Guitars to cut guitar bodies and necks. Well, as these photographs show, we’ve got the numerical and the control parts down. We just don’t have a computer to control the numbers. For us, its not about how fast we can crank out parts and finished products, its about how much we can put into the product. True, it takes us days to complete what a machine can do in hours. We love hand building guitars and that includes using our hands to do the work.

There’s nothing wrong with applying technology to solve problems. In fact, if it weren’t for technologies like CNC, guitars would not be as generally affordable as they are. You wouldn’t be able to walk into Guitar Center and pick up a very playable axe for $200 to $300. 

That’s the difference between a small custom builder like STORM and mass production factories. They can produce more guitars in a day than we do in a decade. We know you; you know us. We work together to build the perfect guitar for YOU.

 

 

So for now, we’re happy to measure, cut, sand and finish your guitar entirely by hand. You’ll be happy we did. 

In this photo, Bill is applying a layer of clear coat to the bass guitar in STORM’s specially built paint room. On this particular guitar, we used Sherwin-Williams Ultra 7000 automotive paint and a matching clear coat. We selected this specific paint to achieve the look that the customer wanted. It’s a pearl white metalic paint with a nice depth to it. This paint is applied in an primmer, base coat, mid coat and clear coat format. Yes, it’s a complicated finish and that’s how we like to work. 

This finish material is not like your off-the-shelf spay can paint. It’s rather difficult to mix and handle. It also requires the use a NIOSH approved respirator. It’s nasty stuff to sniff, but its worth the effort.

For a while we’ve been promising to bring you some STORM Gear and it’s finally available. Since we are a guitar building company and not a retailer, we do not sell this merchandise directly. We are using Zazzle.com as a store front. We’ve found that they offer the greatest range of merchandise along with secure processing and prompt shipping.

Choose the “STUFF” button on our menu bar to see the goodies. 

Happy Shopping!

 


 

We proposed four possible styles of stripes for this custom bass. The customer chose the single thick stripe, single thin stripe design. It creates a good, balanced look for the guitar. Here’s the final product hanging in the paint room drying.

The next step will be to apply a tough, durable clear coat finish to protect the pearl paint. We’re anxious to see this instrument assembled with all of it’s gold hardware on. The pearl, maroon, gold combination should make this a very classy bass guitar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a prime example of the way we work with customers on key decisions for their instruments. Jeremy told us that he wants a maroon stripe to compliment the pearl finish on his custom bass. The question is just what should the stripe look like? We’ve come up with a couple of options to start the discussion. None of these are likely to be the final design, but it’s easier to see what you don’t want than visualize exactly what you want. 

Post a comment an let us know which direction you think would work best. Of course, the customer will have the final say and we’ll post a photo showing his decision.

I’ve been talking about truss rods with my good friend Jim for a while. We keep going back and forth on the merits of double barrel truss rods versus the more traditional single rod style. Certainly, single rods have been time tested. I think, however, that there’s still plenty if room for innovation in guitar building. Double barrel truss rods are an innovation that we use at STORM.

Now, my buddy Jim knows a thing or two about guitar design and construction. I’ve learned a lot from talking with him over the years. So when he tells me that he worries about the pressure that a double barrel rod puts on the fret board, it makes me think.

This disussion led me to do some testing. I’ve learned that both styles of truss rods put pressure on the neck and the fret board, just in diffent places. Single barrels put more strain on the heel and the nut end because that’s where the are anchored in to the neck. Double barrels spread the strain out over a greater distance. This can mean that there is more stress on the middle at the finger board, but since the stress is spread out over a greater area the neck will bend more evenly.

Well, it all boils down to this: STORM Custom Guitars will build your neck with either style truss rod. As with everything we do, we build everything to your specs. Who else cares about this level of detail in YOUR guitar?

    

We have Jeremey’s bass all primed and ready to paint. It’s not quite as simple as it sounds, though. This body has about 12 coats of white primer on it. It was then wet sanded with 400 grit sandpaper until the finish is like porcelain. Paint never hides anything on guitars, but it will show even the smallest imperfection. Notice that we have a “working neck” on the body for this part of the process. It lets us handle the piece with ease and clamp it into our painting vice.

The next step will be to spray the pearl base and mid coats on. It’s getting exciting now!