Our Approach

FAS Lumber is sourced for the best 2-piece body

Figured Maple, Mahogany, Pine, Korina, Reclaimed.. the list goes on

Every guitar body is visually inspected to make an eye-catching guitar body

All mill work is done with hand tools

Wood is thickness planed to correct custom and vintage specs

Hand selected wood, is glue joined into a guitar body billet

Wood billet bodies awaiting one of our various templates to take on the recognizable shape of a guitar or bass

Template is selected and precisely located on the wood billet

BP-3 Bass Is laid out onto FAS Alder

Band saw is used to get the rough body shape. The goal is to leave no more than 1/16” for the table top router

A table top 3-1/4HP router is used with a helical bit to get the bodies final shape

I have 2 drill presses, one for precision: bridge, tail-piece and neck locating, and a slower RPM machine for hogging out cavities

Multiple routers are in the shop for cavity finishing, round-overs, binding, neck pockets and just about everything

Further templates are used through out the process on neck pockets, and multiple pickup/electronic configurations

A DS-12 body beginning the process of pore-filling, and scraping the binding and top before it gets base clear coats

PT-1 Maple necks that are awaiting another coat

Highly figured ready for wet sand and final polish

OS-1 roasted maple neck flush trimmed to profile and width

Awaiting fretboard glue-up

Rosewood fret board in contrast to the “son to be” figured roasted maple neck

Fret board flush trimmed after glue-up

We happened to use the Gold MOP, but will use clay, MOP, and any other traditional inlay as well

Binding option, with fret trimmed inside

Classic colors pulled and matched from original paint chips from the “Golden Era”

Along with color matching we only ever use Nitrocellulose lacquer on our guitars and bases

A BP-3 awaiting multiple coats of clear lacquer to build the depth in the finish

Figured Maple awaiting a nitro sealer coat

DS-2 ready for clear coats after a multi-day yellow to black vintage burst

Black and bound PT-1 with its matching headstock both getting a relic’d yellow lacquer over top

Because we use automotive lacquer that was used on the very guitars from the ‘50’s and ‘60’s they need to be wet sanded and buffed and polished

Even if the guitar or bass doesn’t get a shot of compressed Nitro, I still apply the highest end brush-on nitrocellulose lacquer

Our bel.Sonique guitars and basses are made as though they came out of the ‘50’s and ‘60’s and rocked into the ‘70’s🤘 with light to heavily worn finishes

This was a customer’s request, prep goes into the whole build, from the wood selection to the various colors that come through, and to the hardware

bel.Sonique water-jetted and sourced hardware comes from stainless and cold rolled steels. Our sourced hardware is even from some of the vendors from the very “Golden Age”

Sometimes a project needs that special touch. These pieces were water jetted from .080” Copper, and additional hardware was plated in-house

We source the industries highest grade components and strictest tolerances. CTS Pots and SOZO Caps

We strive for those old-school techniques in our builds, however there’s times that modern electronics and schematics meet a players existing preference and style.

Someone’s lucky when these are available

Many others in the industry bringing bringing their techniques, so we’re able to source those long lost components from the “Golden Age”

Everything from the CTS caps, Switchcraft 3-way, Lollar; Lollar-trons and OG Gretsch Arrows!

When we get orders for specific platings with our proprietary parts, we can now do small batch plating in house, even 24K gold!