It's always a great feeling when you find THE luthier for you and how you envision the perfect custom guitar. I was looking for a natural wood-topped guitar with a lot of figure that wasn't just another Soloist or Blackmachine knockoff, had quality specs, but also wasn't bank-breaking. Not sure how, but I stumbled on Mario Lacello of Lacello Custom Guitars on Facebook, and he quoted me an unbelievable price for a full custom build.
THIS is what came of it:
So, yeah....ALL the woods. The top is a single bookmatched piece of mun ebony that I picked from his collection. I've never seen anything like it. It looks like a mosaic of black limba, spalted maple, and ebony in perfect alternating vertical stripes. Body is black limba, neck is wenge/maple, and the fretboard is roasted flame maple with mun ebony oval fret markers and Luminlay side dots.
Ridiculous! And because I'm old, I just had him eschew the typical Hipshot bridge for a Gotoh 510 with a brass block upgrade. Combined with the open gear locking tuners and TUSQ nut, it's ridiculously stable. Pickups were custom-wound by AuroraTone (also in Canada like Lacello) and topped with mun ebony.
It's a bit of a cliche, but this really is Mayones/Skervesen/Suhr levels of quality, fit and finish.....but at Balaguer semi-custom price levels. It's insane that this guy isn't bigger. The capper is that he completed my project from conception to shipping in 60-ish days, even though he was in the midst of finishing three other customs at the time. He's awesome to work with, so highly encourage y'all to look him up next time you're thinking of having a guitar made.
This one looks and plays like a dream, and I can't see ever parting with it.
THIS is what came of it:
So, yeah....ALL the woods. The top is a single bookmatched piece of mun ebony that I picked from his collection. I've never seen anything like it. It looks like a mosaic of black limba, spalted maple, and ebony in perfect alternating vertical stripes. Body is black limba, neck is wenge/maple, and the fretboard is roasted flame maple with mun ebony oval fret markers and Luminlay side dots.
Ridiculous! And because I'm old, I just had him eschew the typical Hipshot bridge for a Gotoh 510 with a brass block upgrade. Combined with the open gear locking tuners and TUSQ nut, it's ridiculously stable. Pickups were custom-wound by AuroraTone (also in Canada like Lacello) and topped with mun ebony.
It's a bit of a cliche, but this really is Mayones/Skervesen/Suhr levels of quality, fit and finish.....but at Balaguer semi-custom price levels. It's insane that this guy isn't bigger. The capper is that he completed my project from conception to shipping in 60-ish days, even though he was in the midst of finishing three other customs at the time. He's awesome to work with, so highly encourage y'all to look him up next time you're thinking of having a guitar made.
This one looks and plays like a dream, and I can't see ever parting with it.
