Got the artistic talent of a toddler? Never mind Photoshop, you’ve never even fired up Microsoft Paint? Not to worry – a virtual guitar builder can help design your dream custom guitar in just a few simple clicks!
Using a guitar customizer to test out different color, material, and hardware configurations before parting with cash is a surefire way to ensure that you end up with something aesthetically pleasing.
Having a design or two to send over will also help to ensure that there is no confusion between you and the custom guitar builder. This was exactly what I did with my own custom guitar as English was not the luthier’s first language.
And it’s incredibly simple to design your own guitar, thanks to the various virtual guitar builders that you can find scattered around the interwebs.
In around 20 minutes I managed to put together the 5 crazy designs below using a custom guitar designer. How awesome is the pink binding on that 2nd one, right?!
You’ll find these tools on various websites, for example, Fender and Ruokangas both have custom guitar builders that let you design a guitar and then buy your creation.
However, the Fender website is restricted to only a few models and limited configurations. The Ruokangas tool is only useful if you want to, you know, buy a Ruokangas.
What if you want more guitar styles, more color options, and more hardware choices? Thankfully, it’s super easy to customize a guitar using the custom guitar maker below!
Virtual Guitar Builder
Out of all of the virtual guitar builders, perhaps the most in-depth is the app from Kisekae – this is what I used to design the examples above.
Check out the end of this article for links to some alternative guitar customizer apps if you would prefer.
Kisekae VIM Virtual Guitar Builder
The Kisekae Guitar Customizer will allow you to choose from a good number of popular guitar and bass model styles, and then let your imagination run rampant.
Here, you can customize well-known instruments such as Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, SGs, 335s, Flying Vs, Jazzmasters, and many, many more. Check out their popular Strat customizer to envisage the Stratocaster of your dreams!
Design a guitar in almost any color under the sun, choose the tonewoods, hardware color, pickup types, binding color, and inlay material. If you can think it up, the custom guitar builder from Kisekae can probably manifest it for you.
Above is a screenshot showing the options for the body finish. As you can see, there are six parameters for colors alone within this online guitar builder.
How To Customize A Guitar
To design a guitar is super simple. Head to the link below and choose the guitar you would like to design.
Hit the large ‘Start Kisekae Guitar‘ button, and, after a short period, the custom guitar designer will load with the base guitar specs.
The main feature you’ll be using is the ‘Switch Part‘ button that I’ve highlighted below in red. Hit that and a small pop-up window will appear that allows you to select which part of the guitar you’d like to work on.
Use the arrows on the right to navigate through the colors and materials available to choose from. Almost all parts of the guitar can be customized. Guitar design made easy!
Things do get a little more complex when you decide to create a burst finish. There are six potential burst rings, all of which can be individually colored, and with separate opacities to boot!
Play around with the settings and you’ll soon get to grips with it, however.
The image below is an extreme example of going crazy with the burst options in the online guitar configurator. Here, I’ve used all six of the available parameters to create this retina-scorching axe. You’d certainly stand out on stage wielding this bad-boy!
A top tip is to head into the ‘Others‘ menu after you click on ‘Switch Part’. Here, you can change the background color to help your design stand out if its color is too close to the current background. This is useful as the default background grey color makes it difficult to see white binding, for example.
Once you’re happy with your creation, simply hit the “generate image” button and the guitar designer will render out a picture that you can save to your computer or mobile device.
Thought you’d need to spend hours in Photoshop to design your own guitar? Not at all! Design a guitar online in minutes and share with friends, or take it to your luthier to make sure your idea comes to life.
Try The Guitar Customizer
Kisekae Virtual Guitar Designer
More Online Guitar Designer Apps
Still hungry for more guitar design options? These custom guitar maker apps will let you try some additional styles.
- 666 Strings – click here
- Balaguer Guitars – click here
- Emerald Guitars – click here
- ESP Guitars – click here
The Emerald app was the only custom acoustic guitar builder online I was able to find. If you are aware of any other please get in touch.
- Fender Mod Shop – click here
- Halo Guitar Design – click here
- Kiesel Custom Guitar Maker – click here
- Mayones Guitars & Basses – click here
Unlike the Kisekae website above, many of these websites will actually allow you to order your custom creation once you’ve completed it!
- Ormsby Guitars – click here
- Ruokangas Custom Guitar Builder – click here
- Sandberg (Bass Only) – click here
- Suhr Guitars – click here
If I’ve missed any excellent online guitar builder sites, please drop me an email. You’ll find a link to the contact form in the footer below.
