Nearly every custom guitar I have ordered has missed the promised delivery date. A few times by only weeks. Twice by more than a year. The guys that missed dates by a few weeks all had legitimate reasons. On one a neck needed to be rebuilt because of wood issues. On another a shop flood delayed work for a month or so. Those were not major delays and both guitars are incredible pieces.

The first guitar delayed by over a year was a Blackmachine B2. I ordered a Mahogany body/rosewood neck guitar and the builder never started it for a year. He would tell me it was almost done when it had never been started. He would wait weeks to reply to my emails. Keep in mind he had a $2000 deposit and that was only 50%. When the guitar was finally done he sent me pictures and the guitar that he had built had a swamp ash body. He didn't seem to think this major spec deviation was a big deal and said I "would probably like the swamp ash more anyway." When I protested he said he could build a new guitar but the wait would be another year. I accepted a free case and the cost of shipping as a discount. When the guitar showed up it was dirty and there was a ton of white filler around the body binding. He had probably taken it to a trade show for everyone to play before shipping out. The routing was sloppy and the top had numerous sanding marks visible in the finish. In the end I would have rather had one of the nice Ibanez RGA models available at the time than the $4000 Blackmachine.

My Oni was delayed equally long because Dan had some health and workshop issues. We had to change materials because of CITES fears. At the very end of the build process I had to choose totally new electronics because the body was mistakenly drilled for 4 pots and a switch when I only wanted a single volume and 3-way switch. Ultimately Im happy that I have the extra controls because they make the guitar much more versatile but at the time it was frustrating. Dan's work is some of the best I have seen though and the guitar is fantastic. He ended up giving me a significant discount as well because of the wait and the build frustrations. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him now that his workshop and build process is more streamlined.