Why Come To Us

At Zivory Custom Guitars we do not mass produce instruments. Each piece of wood is hand-picked to create your guitar.

Individually selected from the finest woods available, using specially selected lumbers from all around the world and then dried to a minimum of 6% moisture for the perfect tone-wood.



As master luthiers, we refuse to work with inferior materials and only deliver the finest build quality that our customers deserve.



Our instruments are only built from superior tone-wood species. As part of our vision we continue to research exotic and rare wood varieties to find exciting new tones and wood combinations. This is our company standard.



Our global search for the finest tone-woods means that Zivory Custom Guitars can offer the rarest of superior tonewoods that traditionally are difficult to source.



From the rainforests of Tasmania we source our genuine Tasmanian Blackwood and from the heart of the rainforests of the Congo we source our Black Limba. From the forests of the Amazon we source our South American timber and from the heart of England we source our finest English cherry.

We comb the globe.
​

We also offer Hawaiian Koa, which has become extremely rare, Goncalva Alves, Canary, Bocote, Ziricote, Bubinga and many other exquisite exotic with exceptional tonal qualities for necks and bodies. Many of these Tone-woods have been overlooked by other guitar companies due to their rarity and difficulty to source.

 

This is where we step in! We are introducing these superior tone-woods to the modern guitar world and offer the very best materials to our customers so they can experience with what really sounds best.

 

 

Finishing

We use our own special combinations of oil-finishes according to the requirements of eachindividual wood species. By treating the wood in this fashion we get close to achieving the unalloyed tone we strive for with every instrument.


The treatment leaves the guitar with a completely natural sound as though the guitar was still pure wood. However this method of finishing ensures the guitar is left fully protected from humidity and other factors that can damage wood.


Having tested many guitars, using different wood species, before and after oil finishing, we were unable
to detect any difference in the tone and sound quality. We have achieved True Unalloyed Tone.

 

We also offer poly and nitro-finishes if you wish to have a hard-finish on your guitar body.  However, our hard finishes are extremely thin in order to avoid taking too much away from your guitar's resonance.



Tuning Keys

We only use Sperzel Tuning Keys that are considered by many to be the best. A product of the USA, they are referred to as made ‘the American way’.



The keys are extremely sensitive to the touch and easy to use. They intonate perfectly and due to their design standard eliminate the age-old tuning problems and improve the guitar’s tuning capabilities.



Guitar Player magazine, described the keys as “the first significant advance in guitar tuning capabilities.”

Machined from solid billet aluminium to be light weight and hold precise tolerances to produce a precision tuning key that eliminates shaft wobble, end-play and minimum backlash.

​

Tremolo Bridges

​We offer Gotoh as well as Wilkinson/Gotoh VS100 as we believe their tremolos greatly improve guitar performance by automatically returning your full floating tremolo to an exact ‘zero’ neutral position, eliminating flutter and sag, so your guitar remains in tune.



The world famous Gotoh 510 series has been one of the best if not the best tremolo bridge available. They are well thought-out in their details and very comfortable under the hand. The block is always good and solid, and the saddles lock down into place which is good for tone/sustain.

String spacing is a comfortable. A tiny Allen screw controls how stiff the arm is, to suit all tastes.

​

Build Quality/Design

​At Zivory Custom Guitars we make our necks sit very tight in the neck-pockets of our bodies so the resonance flows seamlessly from the body through the neck. Our experience ensures we pair up wood species that are absolutely compatible in order for the instrument to perform at the highest possible standard.



We are happy to advise on the best combinations and to also guide you through the combinations that will not work together and make sure that, as our customer, you are completely satisfied with the finished instrument.



Pickups

Our pickups are completely customised to match the requirement of any combination of wood species and according to what frequencies are missing or present in excess. We DO NOT use ‘off the shelf’ mass produced pickups.



All of our pickups are handmade by pickup gurus Mr Hayden Minett of Bulldog Pickups and Mr Bryan Jeppson our very favourite American Pickup Designer/Builder from New York.



Every pickup is hand wound and assembled by one person, guaranteeing consistent quality and tone.

Our pickups make sure that each guitar achieves its full potential with all the desirable features of the wood amplified and the undesirable features softened out.



We are the only custom guitar company in the world to fully customise every single pickup according to the tone-wood of each guitar.



Our technique is to install three different pickups at each position on the guitar. We then take multiple readings at increasing volumes. We monitor the tones, with and without overdrive, using two different types of amp, and then we adjust the pickups to produce the very finest instrument for you.



After we have ‘Sound Checked’ the pickups, the results are passed on to  Hayden Minett (Bulldog Pickups  Made in the U.K) , Bryan Jeppson (Bryan Jeppson's Hand-Wound Pickups, Made in the USA) or Rob Timmons (Arcane-Inc Pickups Made in the USA).



The pickups are now hand wound to match the guitar’s results and made for your guitar usually within 3-6 weeks.  This makes each guitar achieve its full potential as well as creating a unique instrument unlike any other.





“M​achine wound pickups sound dull and void of any character” – Bryan Jeppson