ABOUT BIG RIVER GUITARS
We are a family owned, instrument company located in beautiful St. Louis, Missouri. We specialize in building custom guitars using only the best possible components we can find. If we can't find the components to meet our standards for quality, we make them ourselves.
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Big River Guitars is a builder of hand-made (we don't really like the description 'boutique') instruments that are meant to inspire. Our guitars are made to be played.
Core Model Offerings
Currently, we offer four different 'Core Models'; The Izabella (our S-Style), The Moses (our T-Style) and The Grace (our offset style), and the Liam (our very own custom combination T-style and F-Style). We build and sell a rolling variety of these Core Models each month. Check out our store to see what Core Models are in stock and available for purchase.
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Custom Builds
In addition to or Core Models, we also have two types of custom-builds on offer: one-off 'Shop Customs' and 'Made-to-Order Customs'.
Our 'Shop Customs' are one-off builds of pure guitar joy. The designs come straight from the mind of our master builder and each one is unique. In a given month, he decides on which selection of Shop Customs to build based on a combination of inspiration, exploration, and customer feedback.
Made-to-Order Customs are precisely what they sound like: custom guitars, built to customer specs and preferences, and made-to-order. Since these guitars are handmade for a single individual, you won't see them for sale in our shop. However, if you want to check out previous made-to-order custom-builds, check out our Custom Builds page.
Made-to-Order Customs makeup about 50% of our business, with countless customers on their second and third Big River Custom builds. Made-to-Order Customs take time, care, and open communication. That is not how all builders handle it, but that's our method. We won't ship anything that we wouldn't be happy with ourselves.
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To get a quote on your very own Made-to-Order, Big River Guitar, jump over to our CUSTOM QUOTES page and answer a few questions about your build. We'll do the rest!
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Process & Components
All of our guitars are built by hand. Our specialty is aged, vintage inspired guitars. All of our guitars are painted using nitrocellulose lacquer, and all of our colors are custom mixed in our shop. We also have our custom process for open grained finishes (the 'raw wood' feel).
We absolutely love what we do and believe it shows in the finished product. Our goal is to create the best possible custom guitar with the best possible components that feels, plays and sounds killer but doesn’t carry the price tag of a “boutique” instrument.
We are experts at helping you bring the perfect guitar you have in your head, and getting it into your hands, ready to play and within your budget.
