No. 209, for a wedding band guitarist
Mahogany, maple with rosewood board, humbuckers, see-through smoke
$4,400Gigged at The Signal Box, 11 July
Every guitar plays a gig before it ships.
Two builders in a Dockside workshop making loud electrics and basses for people who play three nights a week. Before yours leaves, it plays a full set at The Signal Box down the road, and we fix whatever the night finds.
- From
- $3,200
- Build time
- 10 to 14 wks
- Deposit
- $800
- Gigs before it ships
- One each
Spec it. See the price move.
These are the same options and the same prices we quote on the phone. Pick a body, a neck, pickups and a colour, and the total and the wait change as you go. Send it and Rae will call you about the parts a form cannot cover, like neck carve and weight.
Numbers 209 to 212, out the door this summer
No. 210, a four string bass for a touring bassist
Alder, roasted maple, split coil and single, stage black
$3,850Gigged at The Signal Box, 18 July
No. 212, for a pedal steel convert
Roasted pine, maple with ebony board, single coils, three tone burst
$4,550Gigged at The Signal Box, 8 August
No. 211 went to a player who asked us not to post it. Builds and prices are sample content.
Thursday night is our last quality check
A guitar that is perfect on the bench can still squeal at stage volume or drift out of tune under hot lights. So every Voltwood plays a real set, in a real room, with a real band, before it goes in the case. We have done it 212 times.
Soundcheck at six
Tobi strings it with the gauge you asked for and sets it up by ear through the house rig: a 50 watt valve head, a 2x12 and whatever pedals you told us you use.
A full 45 minute set
Played at stage volume with a working band, under hot lights, with the room filling up. Bends, drop tunings, feedback at the amp, a long sweaty last song.
Everything goes in the log
Microphonic squeal, a fret that chokes on a bend, tuning drift after the heat, a strap button that works loose. If it happened, it is written down with the time.
Friday we fix it
Anything in the log gets fixed and checked again. You get the log and a phone video from the gig with your delivery note. Most guitars come back clean.
Rae cuts the wood. Tobi makes it loud.
Rae Kostka
Eleven years in a cabinet shop before the first guitar. Picks every blank, carves every neck by hand to a tracing of your current one, and runs the spray booth.
Tobi Mensah
Toured as a guitar tech for nine years. Winds the pickups, wires every harness, does the fretwork and setup, and plays the Thursday gig himself.
No outsourced parts but the tuners and the frets. Two people, one bench, eight guitars on the curing line at a time.
$800 down, a guitar in 10 to 14 weeks
The balance is due when your guitar has played its gig and passed. If it does not pass, it does not ship, and you do not pay until it does.
Week 0Spec and deposit
We talk through your spec on the phone, usually 20 minutes. An $800 deposit holds your slot and buys your wood.
Weeks 1 to 3Wood and shaping
Rae picks your blanks from the rack, weighs them, and cuts the body and neck. You get photos of the actual pieces before they are shaped.
Weeks 4 to 8Spray and cure
Nitro in the spray booth, then the body hangs on the curing line for three weeks before anyone touches it with a buffer.
Weeks 9 to 12Frets, wiring, setup
Level, crown and polish, hand wound pickups, a cloth wired harness, and a setup to the action you play today.
Last weekThe gig, then the case
Thursday it plays The Signal Box. Friday it gets fixed if it needs to. Then it ships in a hard case with its gig log, and you pay the balance.
Twelve years, one rule, three returns
- Guitars and basses shipped since 2014
- 212
- Gigs played before delivery
- 212
- Sent back, all three fixed in a week
- 3
Sample figures for this concept.
Played hard, three nights a week
Ninety shows on it last year, two of them in the rain. I have changed the strings and nothing else. Tobi sent me a video of it at The Signal Box before I had even seen it.
I play four hour wedding sets. My old guitar gave me a sore shoulder by the third hour. Rae built me a roasted pine body at 6.4 lb and it sounds bigger than the heavy one did.
The gig log said the high E went sharp under hot lights, so they re-cut the nut before shipping. I would never have known. That is the whole reason I ordered here.
Send it to the bench
Rae or Tobi reads every spec and replies within two working days, usually with a question about the guitar you play now. No deposit is taken until you have talked to one of us.
(555) 014-0333Workshop visits by appointment, Tuesday to Saturday. Unit 4, 19 Pressing Row, Dockside.