​ What makes our guitars stand out from the crowd ?

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• ​-We use approximately 50 of the very finest quality tone-wood species

• -We use our special combinations of oil-finishes to ensure maximum protection, maintaining 100% of the Guitar's

•  resonance​​

• - We offer extremely thin poly or nitro-finishes if you wish to choose a hard finish but maintain maximum resonance 

• -We have our own range of Zivory pickups hand-wound by New York's finest pickup connoisseur Bryan Jeppson 

• - We have our U.K pickup range customised to our specification by pickup guru Hayden Minett of Bulldog Pickups

• -We only use Sperzel Tuning Keys considered to be the very best

• -We only use Gotoh and Wilkinson by Gotoh tremolo and hard tail bridges also consistently ranked at the top of the  

•  industry

• -The bodies are designed to meet the extreme demands of any gigging guitarist

• -Extremely tight neck pocket fit to ensure maximum transition of resonance 

• -We offer the option on all​ of our guitar necks to be fret-dressed on a PLEK machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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​What we do

​There are over 50,000 wood species on our planet. We decided that we can do a bit better than just offer a choice of 3 or 4 wood types for our bodies and necks.



We offer a choice of  50 tone-woods. We use North American woods, ‘exotic’ tone-woods from various parts of Africa, South America, Australia and Tasmania. 



All of the woods we have chosen have proven themselves to be superior tonewoods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Zivory Custom Guitars body and neck parts are CNC machined to get accurate shaping to within 1/100th of a millimetre.



The true meaning of a customised guitar is to enable you to have the choice of materials that will impact the tone and feel of your guitar.



You will not be sold materials because we have them in stock, we will envisage your guitar first, and then source the materials and parts.



Customising your own instrument is all about making the guitar sound and feel your way and according to your taste and playing style, not according to ours.



This is the only true justification of the term ‘Custom Made’ and it is offered 100% at Zivory Custom Guitars.



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How we do it

The choice of woods for bodies and necks are decided upon to match your taste and tone. The sanding and the oil-finish of the guitars are all done by hand.



We do not recommend the use of synthetic materials to finish the instrument. A polyester finish is always thicker than an oil finish.

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Synthetic finishes do dampen the high end response, frequencies and pure resonance that our guitars achieve.

However, should you demand this type of hard finish when customising your guitar, we are offering a range of different hard finishes with the thinnest possible layer in order to maintain the resonance as much as possible (for a hard finish).







 

 

 



Sanding and oil-finish

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have ten sanding steps for the bodies using ten different sandpaper grades; 240, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 1800, 2000 and 2500.

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This ensures the wood is as smooth as silk before we even starting the oil-finish process. We spend between four and seven hours on the sanding process of each guitar.



Some woods need protection from humidity and therefore we use special hardening oil-finishes. 25 – 40 layers of hardening oil are required, so the oil-finish builds up and rises slightly above the wood and gives it a superb protective layer and a glorious shine.

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This "is" the Goldilocks theory – not too thick and not too thin, but just right!! It protects the wood and does not hinder the resonance of the instrument.



The oil-finishing process lasts between 2 and 4 weeks depending on the wood and the oil.



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