How to place a Custom Order

[shankyboy]

I had some money in pocket last year and was ready to pull the trigger on a custom order. I reached out to my friend that is a G&L dealer and gave him the specs so he could get pricing for me. I checked back with him numerous times only to be told that his rep was dragging his tail getting back to him. This guy is a good friend of mine so I know he's not BSing me. I finally told him to forget about it and I bought something else. I would still like to have my dream G&L made but I expect an immediate response from them when I have money in hand. Is there any way to communicate with them directly and then have them shoot the price to my friend?

[WitSok]

Custom order as in Custom Shop? Or Custom order as in Option Order? There is a difference.

Any G&L dealer should be able to place an "Option Order." Custom Shop orders can only go through authorized Custom Shop dealers. A list of current custom shop dealers is available on the G&L website. Essentially two of my guitars are Option Order guitars (this is before they started their custom shop). Option Order means you pick from the available standard options, also available on the G&L website (body woods, neck profiles, fingerboard materials, nut materials, tuner standard vs locking, colors, etc...). Option Order doesn't include special wiring schemes, non option pickups, anything that causes non standard routing changes, etc... The cost upgrades on option order to my knowledge are set, and there should be no issues in getting a cost. For example, body match headstock has a known cost in the price book that gets added to the base price when the option is selected. Occasionally they used to grant off menu options for option order, but now that there is a custom shop I don't know if that is true. For example, when I purchased my ASAT Classic S, they had announced that they were changing the output jack once old stock ran out. I purposely request the new version jack which wasn't an option and they granted it for a slight charge. Custom Shop, again has to go through a select subgroup of dealers and the order must be accepted by G&L (so that must mean there are certain specs they may not want to commit too...). Custom shop you can get routing changes (for example, I saw a three pickup Doheny), more exotic woods, custom wound pickups... G&L does not offer factory direct ordering of guitars for the consumer, orders must go through dealers.

Cheers, Dan

[shankyboy]

Thanks. You're not telling me anything I did not know. The question is, what do you do if G&L is not getting back to your dealer with the requested pricing?

[Craig]

Thanks. You're not telling me anything I did not know. The question is, what do you do if G&L is not getting back to your dealer with the requested pricing?

Is your G&L dealer friend one of the G&L Custom Shop Dealers? If not, you will need to work with an authorized Custom Shop Dealer.

You might try reaching out to G&L via their Contact Us webpage on the main G&L website.
Let us know if that works for you.

Hope this helps.

[WitSok]

Thanks. You're not telling me anything I did not know. The question is, what do you do if G&L is not getting back to your dealer with the requested pricing?

Your welcome. Your question was not clear. Also the thread title made it seem like you didn't know how to order a custom guitar.

So your friend must work for a authorized custom shop dealer and you are requesting a custom shop guitar. Otherwise, if it was Option Order, your friend would already know the price. And since you knew that you have to use an authorized custom shop dealer for Custom Shop order, you wouldn't have gone to just any G&L dealer to make that order.

Looks like Craig gave you the info you need. Hope it works out for you.

[Tooslowhand]

Perhaps the confusion is regarding the description of your dealer's "Rep". In the U.S. does G&L have a non-factory affiliated sales group between the factory and the dealer, or does each dealer work directly with the factory? If your friend's "Rep" is someone at the G&L factory, I don't know why they wouldn't get back to him. Maybe he doesn't purchase enough G&L instruments to get their attention?

[shankyboy]

Thanks. You're not telling me anything I did not know. The question is, what do you do if G&L is not getting back to your dealer with the requested pricing?

Is your G&L dealer friend one of the G&L Custom Shop Dealers? If not, you will need to work with an authorized Custom Shop Dealer.

You might try reaching out to G&L via their Contact Us webpage on the main G&L website.
Let us know if that works for you.

Hope this helps.

Thanks. I will let you know.

[shankyboy]

Perhaps the confusion is regarding the description of your dealer's "Rep". In the U.S. does G&L have a non-factory affiliated sales group between the factory and the dealer, or does each dealer work directly with the factory? If your friend's "Rep" is someone at the G&L factory, I don't know why they wouldn't get back to him. Maybe he doesn't purchase enough G&L instruments to get their attention?

According to my friend, who owns BCR Music, he is a premier dealer.

[shankyboy]

Thanks. You're not telling me anything I did not know. The question is, what do you do if G&L is not getting back to your dealer with the requested pricing?

Your welcome. Your question was not clear. Also the thread title made it seem like you didn't know how to order a custom guitar.

So your friend must work for a authorized custom shop dealer and you are requesting a custom shop guitar. Otherwise, if it was Option Order, your friend would already know the price. And since you knew that you have to use an authorized custom shop dealer for Custom Shop order, you wouldn't have gone to just any G&L dealer to make that order.

Looks like Craig gave you the info you need. Hope it works out for you.

Yeah, I probably could have titled it better. Thanks.

[Craig]

Perhaps the confusion is regarding the description of your dealer's "Rep". In the U.S. does G&L have a non-factory affiliated sales group between the factory and the dealer, or does each dealer work directly with the factory? If your friend's "Rep" is someone at the G&L factory, I don't know why they wouldn't get back to him. Maybe he doesn't purchase enough G&L instruments to get their attention?

According to my friend, who owns BCR Music, he is a premier dealer.

I checked G&L's Custom Shop webpage and don't see BCR Music listed as a Custom Shop dealer.

[Guitars5000]

I had trouble with a CS Premier Dealer on G&L's list. The dealer blaimed the G&L rep for not responding. I tried a different CS dealer and he had an answer for me in roughly 2-3 hours. I'd reccomend trying another dealer.

[shankyboy]

Update: I sent an email directly to G&L and was contacted the next day. We are very close to arriving at a design and price. I found out what was delaying everything when I originally tried to initiate this process. I want a semi-hollow Comanche and, apparently, they stopped making semi-hollows in that body style due to some issues that came up with that model. Looks like they are going to make it work for me.

[Elwood]

I want a semi-hollow Comanche and, apparently, they stopped making semi-hollows in that body style due to some issues that came up with that model. Looks like they are going to make it work for me.

Sweet!!