Our mission is
to build quality custom guitars and basses for fair and reasonable
prices--so that you can have a unique guitar or bass at a price
you can afford--an instrument that is properly set up so that
you don't have to go out and pay someone a big chunk of money
before you can play it.
Steve started
building electric guitars for his own use when he was in High
School because he couldn't afford to go out and buy them. The
first one he built had a solid mahogany body of his own design
and a very thick unreinforced neck made of cherry wood with HO-scale
brass rail for frets (he was into model railroading back then
too). He bought the pickups at a Lafayette Radio store in Framingham
MA--they were cheaply made and not very good--but they worked!
When he was in college he made a bass neck for that guitar, and
then put a Fender telecaster neck and Gibson SG pickups on it
years later. Finally sold it at a yard sale in 1989.
In '85 he bought
a cheap Jazz-Bass copy with an ash body and all-maple neck, then
proceeded to upgrade it piece-by-piece until all that remains
of the original bass is the body itself. Take a look at the Basses
& Stuff
page for more details on the evolution of this bass.
About 6 years
ago Steve wanted to get a Les Paul style guitar, and while he
was scouting around Ebay looking for a guitar to buy, he came
to the realization that there were a lot of parts available on
Ebay for Stratocaster-style guitars and Fender Jazz and Precision-style
basses. First he built another Jazz Bass (with a Fender body,
neck, bridge, and tuners, it could actually be called a Fender,
but it had Bartolini pickups), and decided to build a Strat style
guitar instead of the Les Paul that he had started out looking
for. It was during the time he was building these two instruments
(and acquiring the parts for them) that he got the idea for Cyr
Custom Guitars.
The basic idea:
to buy these project parts on Ebay--many of them acquired by
people who want to build themselves a custom guitar or bass,
but find they lack the time, skill, or financial resources to
complete the job--and build those custom guitars, then offer
them for sale at reasonable prices. That way, people who can't
afford to go to a high-priced Luthier and pay an arm, a leg,
and several other body parts for a fine custom guitar can still
get an unusual, unique, or maybe even weird guitar that plays
and sounds good too.
While building
these guitars and basses, Steve came to the realization that
the profit margin on these built-from-parts instruments was pretty
small, since most of the money that was coming in was going out
again to buy more parts. The conclusion to be drawn was that
the ready-made bodies and necks were just too expensive--that
we could reduce the cost of materials by making these things
in the shop instead of paying someone else to make them. This
way we would also have control over the quality of the parts,
and would be able to customize the designs, and even develop
new designs. The result was the Oakhurst series of guitars and
basses. In 2002 and 2003 we completed prototypes for this series--a
5-string bass and 6-string and 12-string guitars, shown on the
Oakhurst Series page.
In January 2005
we began developing prototypes for two lines of acoustic instruments:
guitars and acoustic bass guitars. Since Steve's passion is for
basses, he has built two acoustic bass guitars, one with 4 strings
and one with 5 strings. Steve has also built a dreadnaught acoustic
guitar similar in design and features to the Martin D28, and
another one that has inlay simlar to what you'd find on a D45.
In addition, Steve has built a claro walnut and bearclaw spruce
jumbo 12-string, and there is a second 12-string with quilted
mahogany back & sides under construction. In December 2008
he started work on two additional Dreadnaughts - one is patterned
after the Martin D28, while the second uses hybrid walnut given
to us by Brian Blain of Blain Farms for the back & sides.
The most recent
addition to the Cyr Guitars bag of tricks is an electric upright
bass, built to capture the look and feel of the traditional "dog
house" bass fiddle, but in a more portable package. We've
built ans sold one so far, and another one is under construction.
If you would
like more information on Cyr Custom Guitars and Basses, you can
contact us by phone at (916) 772-8036, or by email at stephen <dot> cyr <at> smctek
<dot> com
Disclaimer: Fender,
Stratocaster, Strat, Jazz Bass, J Bass, Precision Bass, and P
Bass are licensed trademarks of Fender. None of the guitars and
basses offered for sale by Cyr Custom Guitars are manufactured
by Fender, and I only use the Fender-trademarked terms to indicate
that the guitars built by Cyr Custom Guitars are similar in design
to those built by Fender. In some cases, the Cyr Custom Guitars
instruments have Fender-manufactured or Fender-licensed parts,
such as bodies, necks, or pickups.
