Custom made to your specifications, by metal sculptor and luthier, Steve Forrai Custom Guitars of Fountain Valley, CA. The "Rick Delong" model I first played was a 24.75" scale length. It has a Vintage bone nut, Brazilian Rosewood fret board, pearl inlays. 6550 fret wire, Honduras mahogany neck through construction with 3/32" walnut stringers, semi hollow, heavy figured flame maple top, Dimarzio pickups- Evo (neck) Evo2 (bridge), Gotoh Tune-O-Matic bridge and matching stop tail piece, Gotoh tuners. These are variable, according to what you will want. Steve is also now using an old-school mix of nitro lacquer that is awesome. (See photos at his MySpace linked on our GEAR LINKS page) These guitars start at $4,000.
The Good;
Recently, my old friend and bandmate, Music Producer Rick Delong let me play his custom-made Forrai guitar at a performance
for some of the congregation, and I did not want to put it down. So, I didn't... I played it through a house Marshall JCM-800 50 watt,
2-12" amp, from the 70's. Using minimal effects, I left it switched mostly on the overdrive channel using the guitars volume to get
different levels of clean to distorted tones. Great!
This guitar has a high-quality fit and finish. It is a joy to play. The controls were placed very comfortably within reach,
volume, tone and pickup switch. Steve Forrai designs are according to your preferences.
Rick had this one setup with 9's. I have received mine now, and put 10's on her. Get more meat that way.
The guitars are well balanced, light, and effortless to play, Mine has the 50's thicker neck with an ebony board, which gives it even more Mojo!
The bigger neck adds to the tone, and sustain of the Duncan 59/neck and the JB/bridge pickups. This one has the whole pickup arrangement on one knob, Volume on top, and tone on the lower ring,
and the usual selector switch for front, both, and rear pickups.
I usually avoid playing higher end guitars, higher than my Gibson Historic and Custom Shop, American Deluxe and Artist Signature Fenders, G&L USA,
a vintage Martin, other than that, Takamine, Eastwood, Gitane round out what I own. Not into collecting per se, I just want good reliable working man's guitar or two, but this gets gets me higher.
Like I needed another guitar, getting this one was serendipitous in my case, because Steve happened to have Rick's prototype with an Ebony fingerboard on a fat neck (which I found desirable).
It was a prototype with the same body style as Rick's, but the stain didn't cure as Steve had expected, so it was put aside for another day.
I have loved both my Les Paul with the fat 50's neck, and my G&L Bluesboy with the Ebony fretboard, and a cross-between those two is what this feels like, except not as heavy. And it is gorgeous, the color is unique.
I like to call it "Sea Weed" as it has a deep flame which makes it look deep underwater-ish, and I had never owned or wanted a GREEN guitar in my life.
The Bad:
Nothing bad, this baby is getting used a lot.
The Verdict;
I am a happy customer of Steve Forrai's Custom guitars. He is meticulous about every detail,
as he is in the process of building your guitar, from the ground up. He aims to please, YOU!
Skip Hahn