CRESTON ELECTRIC INSTRUMENTS

Current wait-time is 3-4 months.

Want one? Use the contact form on the right side of the page.

Creston Electric Instruments produces custom guitars, built one at a time by one person near the old barge canal in beautiful Burlington, Vermont. The guitars are finished to look like real instruments made by a real person, not poured out of a mold on the other side of the globe. All custom guitars and cabinets are designed in collaboration with the players who use them - professionals and beginners and in between. The results are sometimes traditional and sometimes outlandish

Creston Lea performs and records with a number of bands ... click here to keep track.

Check back from time to time. New guitars are always cropping up.

Thanks for visiting.

FAQ

How much do your guitars cost?

Usually no less than $1500, seldom more than $2000.

What does sugar pine sound like?

Oh, sugar pine probably sounds closer to alder than ash – pretty neutral, but makes for nice, full low end and plenty of twang without making you wince. It’s very, very light – not uncommon for a finished guitar to weigh less than six pounds.

Sugar pine? Can’t I use Eastern White Pine? Loblolly pine? Longleaf pine? Southern yellow pine? Red pine? Pineola? Pinesol? Pinwheel?

Do what you like. I think all woods are worth trying. Me, I’ll stick to big, beautiful California sugar pine (except when I use 1850s white pine barn beams to make blue-ribbon guitars). I have to drive three hours to get it, but it’s my favorite.

Can I pay by credit card?

Not directly, but there are internet intermediaries who will help you with that (PayPal, etc). I ask that you cover PayPal fees if using that service.

How about personal check? Money Order?

Sure.

Do I need to give you a deposit?

Yup – 50% to get started.

Wait, how does this work anyway?

You tell me what you want – in as much or as little detail as feels right to you. I’ll try to convince you that you don’t really need a Bigsby. You’ll insist. Once I have a pretty clear idea of your DREAM GUITAR, I’ll send you a quote and a spec sheet for your approval. The quote is good for 30 days. Maybe on the 31st day I’ll jack up my prices like crazy.

Do you have any sound clips of your guitars?

No. But YouTube has VIDEO! Hunt around a little bit. I can direct you if you need help.

Will you make me an exact replica of my favorite guitarist’s guitar?

That guitar already exists. Let’s make something new, why not?

Will you make me an electric mandolin?

Uh…

Come on! You made one for Jimmy Ryan!

Okay. I’ll make you an electric mandolin, so long as it’s lefty.

Should I send you a long e-mail detailing how I get my TONE?

I always appreciate it when guitar players remember that the people in the audience respond to music, not capacitance, dc-resistance, or henries.

Isn’t curly maple finished in miles-deep purple gloss the greatest?

Maybe I’m not your man after all.

Do they come with a case?

Generally speaking, all guitars come with a quality Levys gig bag embroidered with a fancy Creston Electric logo. If a hard case is required, I can provide an SKB for most shapes.

Who are some of the wonderful players who use your guitars?

YOU’RE wonderful! But so are Eric Heywood, Tony Gilkyson, Mark Spencer, Anders Parker, Chuck Prophet, MC Taylor, Tom Heyman, Tim Bluhm, Ian MacKaye, Brian Henneman, Keith Voegele, Zack Hickman, Jim Roll, Jaleel Bunton, Jimmy Ryan, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, James Walbourne,…

What are you bragging about? I’ve never heard of like half those guys.

…

How’s the weather up there? Do you play basketball?

I’m no good at basketball, but I did have one halcyon summer of being able to slam-dunk. It all came to a horrible end when I stumbled upon landing and put my hand through a garage-door window. 36 stitches and no more ball. I don’t miss it.

Will you install a Kaoss Pad / Sustainer Pickup / Fog Machine in my guitar?

While I’m aware that I’ve developed a reputation for “He’ll do ANYTHING!” there are some things that just make me want to put my head in the sand. I’ll try to be honest about it without crushing your dream.

Can I come to Vermont and work for you?

I wouldn’t know how to have an employee.

Harvest Moon or Broken Arrow?

Broken Arrow

(I’m) Stranded or Eternally Yours?

(I’m) Stranded

Did you go to guitar-making school?

No. I went to writing school.

Do you make your own necks using a spokeshave and a Bailey #5 plane?

No – I have them CNC’d to my spec and do the final shaping.

Can I have really, really tall frets?

Your funeral, dude.

I can’t understand why you like toploader bridges. They suck!

Be honest and just admit you’ve never played one. (more below)

Will you make me an exact replica of Tim Bluhm’s guitar?

That guitar already exists. Let’s make something new, why not?

Do you have any completed guitars lying around that I could buy?

Maybe! Every now and then I do. I’ve always had much happier results building stuff to order, but I’m gonna try to start sneaking a few extras into the mix.

I wrote you like four e-mails and you never responded.

I never willfully ignore e-mail! I get a hundred billion junk e-mails a day. I try real hard, but every now and then I accidentally throw the baby out with the toilet water. Update (4/08): with the new contact form at the top of the page, I hope that this problem will go away.

How much for one of those amazing Sarah Ryan hand-painted guitars?

Just add $500 to the bottom line.

Do you make ‘relic’ guitars?

Stop. You’re embarrassing both of us. I have some methods for making a guitar look and feel like an old pal, but they don’t involve cheesegraters, keychains, etching solution, or dog urine.

JOHNNY CASH!

Please stop shouting that.

Is less really more?

Most of the time.

Where can I play one of your incredible guitars?

Every now and then you’ll find one at Killer Vintage in St Louis or Fat Tone Guitars in Chicago.

Why do you express hesitation when I say I want to use my favorite brand of pickups?

Because I think every pickup Lollar makes is the best of its kind. I also enjoy taking advantage of his ability to make custom pickups to suit the needs of my beloved clients. I have nothing to gain by saying this. I just want the guitars I make to sound good. I like TV Jones's product, too, if something Filter'trony is in order.

Do you still make amp and speaker cabinets?

No.

In spite of all your gentle admonishment, I REALLY need a Bigsby.

Okay, fine, Lucky for you, I’ve devised a clever way for many of my Bigsby-equipped guitars to convert to non-tremolo (and back again). You can add and subtract the tailpiece at will. Oh clever me! Oh lucky you!

Can I buy just a body?

I have a policy against doing so, but sometimes I have a flawed body that I’m willing to sell off. You can always ask.

Do you make basses?

Yes! I love making basses.

Great! Can you make me a five-string?

No.

and now, a few words to answer the question: why top-loader?
Many people insist that in order for certain guitars to acheive proper snap, crackle, and pop, the strings MUST pass through the bridge plate and anchor in ferrules on the back of the guitar's body. Those people will argue this to the point of violence. I suppose everybody has to believe in something. Those same people are apt to work behind the counter at music stores. Here's what they won't tell you:

4 of 5 string-through-body guitars you'll find on the rack are STIFF and UNFRIENDLY. Those offending guitars are also likely to be UNSTABLE when it comes to tuning. Some stiffness is attributable to poor set-up, but some - unquestionably - has to do with the tension on the string behind the saddle. My initial solution was to move the bridge plate back, so that the saddles would come forward for proper intonation and create a more gentle angle between the saddle and the spot where the string dissappears into the body. It helped, but not enough.

More often than not, I'm asked to build Bigsby-equipped guitars. I began boring top-loader holes in my bridge plate flanges so that, some unwarbly day in the future, players could remove their Bigsbys and still have playable guitars without having to drill and install ferrules. I was encouraged by a friend's particularly nice, twangy toploader guitar, manufactured in California during the great spare-parts year of 1959.

As soon as I tried one of those modified bridge plates on a non-Bigsby guitar, I was sold. I have been to the toploader mount and I have no seen the toploader light. Because no part of the string is under especially heavy tension: the guitars bend well, even at the country-friendly frets near the nut. They stay in tune. Strings go unbroken. They sound every bit as good. Players often report that they can use much heavier-than-usual strings without losing playability.

When the same toploader-hating music store guy is A) rhaposodizing about anybody who ever played with John Mayall or B) trying to sell you a $5000 guitar with inlay all over it, remind him that only string-through-body guitars sound good.

I don't want to fight about it, but I'm standing up for toploaders.

-Creston

Hoots of Spanish Pleasure

The guitar is here!!!!!!!!!!!

I can´t describe with words what i have felt when i have opened the case.. I was floating. This guitar seems so real, so so real! You know i work selling guitars....But this guitar is from another world! the look, the touch, the sound.. I tuned in a minute and begin playing unplugged.. Marvelous.. But i had to stop playing to look at it again and again, then play again,  and stop for looking again.. Like this the first half hour.. Flowers were floating arround me, colors, melodies..

Then plug it.. What a sound.. oh my god. Like jumping throug a precipice
to the nowhere..

Masters of Reality

"This truly is the guitar that I’ve been waiting for since I started playing electric in 1984.  24 years later, I finally have a real guitar.  Always, I’ve thought, that my guitars seemed like toys...My Creston is real. It’s a guitar that is meant to be played and played and grow old with you."

This Flight Tonight!
'Hey Creston,
I was in the heavy security search line at the airport in LA yesterday. You know, the one where they look through everything. I had my pedals and the Custom as my carry-on luggage. They started with the pedals. There were two agents. The lady was dusting each one for bomb material I guess? while the guy was waving the wand over me and patting me down. I was trying to remain neutral, although the thought of them going through all that trouble over me was pretty funny, not to mention a complete waste of time AND a possible diversion for some REAL criminals. Anyway, I was actually pretty excited for them to open the guitar case, and when they did, the guy's mouth dropped open. He said, ''Damn! That is a nice looking guitar.'' I said, ''I know. My friend made it.'' He just stared at it and said, again, ''That is a nice looking guitar.'' I asked if we were done here. He said, ''Oh yeah, you can go.'' -JB'


satisfied customer

''Creston,
I'm so in love with this guitar. I have nobody to share this excitement
with, other than you, its creator.
Nobody can understand how I feel.
It's amazing.
It feels like sex. That's what this guitar feels like.
The neck feels like a woman's arm.
The [unorthodox guitar wood] beneath my arm feels fantastic. It feels like a tool.
A womanly tool.
A hammer handle dildo.
It sounds perfect.
The volume control, is a personality dial.
The tone control changes the demeanor of the personality.
It's infinite. It can sound like everything from a [jangly hollowbody] on a Byrds
record, to a backwoods cajun fiddler, to a rock wrecking ball.''

another satisfied customer

''I just had to let you know, you hit this one out of the park.
It's the coolest guitar I've ever seen, and I've seen a LOT of guitars.
Thank you Creston.
Thank you Lord, for guiding Creston's hands, mind, and soldering iron.
This guitar comes from somewhere higher than the mortal realm.
It's perfect.
WHAT, on earth, is perfect?
I am in love with it.
Amen.''


NOTICE

CEI does not sell or imply to sell Fender® guitars and is in no way affiliated with FMIC/Fender®

No Fender warranty applies to any CEI instrument. CEI is in the business of modifying and customizing instruments.

Fender®, Strat®, Stratocaster®, Relic®, Tele®, and Telecaster® are registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corp. CEI is in no way affiliated with FMIC and no Fender® warranty applies. Some headstock designs are trademarked by Fender Musical Instruments Corp. All necks furnished by CEI using these headstock designs are licensed by Fender®.

FENDER, F in Thick Script, F in Thin Script, Fender in Script Form, Fender in Thin Script Form, Telecaster narrow headstock design, Stratocaster and bass headstock design, STRAT, STRATOCASTER, STRAT-O-TONE, STRATACOUSTIC, TELE, TELECASTER, TELE-SONIC, TELECOUSTIC, GUILD, Guild Chesterfield design, Guild headstock design, ACOUSTASONIC, AMP CAN, SQUIER, BASSMAN, BULLET, CHAMP, BASS BREAKER, BI-FLEX, BIG APPLE, DEARMOND, DECO, DELTA COMP, DELTA TONE, DELUXE REVERB, DUAL SHOWMAN, DYNA-TOUCH, FENDER-LACE, FENDER TWO TONE, FRONTMAN AMP, GOLD-TONE, JAG-STANG, JAGUAR, J BASS, JAZZ BASS, JAZZMASTER, JET STAR, KXR, BXR, LONE STAR, MR.GEARHEAD, MICRO-TILT, NASHVILLE B-BENDER, NOISELESS, MUSTANG, P BASS, PRECISION BASS, PILOT, PRINCETON, RELIC, ROADHOUSE, RUMBLE-BASS, SFX, SFX SATELLITE, SHOWMAN, SHOWMASTER, SIDEKICK, SPL SERIES, STAGE, STAGEMASTER, STRING DYNAMICS, SUB-SONIC, SUNN, SUPER BULLETS, SUPER REVERB, TEX-MEX, TEXAS SPECIAL, TIME MACHINE SERIES, TONEMASTER, TORONADO, TWIN AMP, TWIN REVERB, VIBRO CHAMP, VIBRO-KING, VIBROLUX, VINTAGE-NOISELESS, VISTA TONE, SOLIDBODY GEAR, PRO TONE SERIES, PASSPORT, ULTIMATE STEREO CHORUS, BLUES JUNIOR, PRO JUNIOR, PROSONIC, TWIN AMP, DUAL PROFESSIONAL, BRONCO, CHAMPION, ROC PRO, VENUS, SUPERSONIC, VIBROSONIC, VISTA SERIES, AFFINITY SERIES, MUSICMASTER, JAGMASTER, POWERSTAGE, ROCKABILLY, SAVOY, STARFIRE, BLUESBIRD, MANHATTAN, STUART, ARTIST AWARD, VALENCIA, PALOMA, PALADIN and POLARA. are all registered trademarks of Fender Musical Instruments Corp. CEI is in no way affiliated with FMIC and no Fender® warranty applies.

Parts used by CEI are occasionally bought from Fender® dealers or Fender® license holders, and Fender® logos or stamps may occasionally appear on those parts though they have been modified by CEI. These are not new Fender® parts, and no Fender® warranty is expressed or implied.