Cyr Custom Guitars (TM) is dedicated to building really good electric guitars and basses for reasonable prices--guitars that are properly set up and that play and sound great. If you are looking for a good quality instrument that doesn't cost a fortune, you are in the right place. Call is at (916) 772-8036 or send an email to us at stephen.cyr@smctek.com for a quote.
Cyr Custom Guitars will build guitars and basses to your specifications. Our goal is to build exactly what you want! We had one customer who bought parts to build his own bass, then decided that he would rather have us do it for him. So he shipped the parts to us, along with the money to buy the additional parts (and for our labor), and we finished the project for him. The instruments we build are designed for each customer to his specifications - everything from body style to pickups are the result of a set of specifications worked out between us and the customer. In almost six years we have never built two instruments exactly alike.
You can contact us at stephen.cyr@smctek.com. You can call us at (916) 772-8036. Or you can view our guitar auctions on Ebay. The seller name we use is smctekguitars. Follow this link to take a look at the auctions we have going right now: Cyr Guitars Current Auctions
Some of the instruments we have up for auction from time to time are also pictured in the pages of this web site. Please have a look at the guitars and basses we have pictured here, and contact us if you like what you see! You can see pictures of instruments we have built by clicking on the Gallery button in the menu.
Our mission is to build quality custom guitars and basses for fair and reasonable prices--so that you can have a unique guitar at a price you can afford--a guitar 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 the guitar you just bought.
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 finally 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. 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.
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.cyr@smctek.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 Custome Guitars instruments have Fender-manufactured or Fender-licensed parts, such as bodies, necks, and pickups.
The latest on the Workshop Relocation (June 18, 2008):
We're back in Roseville after a year in Lincoln!
It's a long story, so please bear with me.
In February the house in Roseville experienced a flood - the toilet supply line in the Master bath ruptured, and by the time our neighbor noticed that water was coming out of the house, the entire house was flooded to a depth of 1 to 2 inches of water. We had just decided to move back into that house, but that would have to be delayed so that the cleanup and repair could be done. The repairs took about 2-1/2 months, and included ceramic tile for the bathrooms and engineered hardwood flooring wherever there had been carpet. And the walls in all rooms except two bedrooms had to be painted.
While all of this was going on, the church we belong to was building a new building, and I had signed up to design and install the sound system, and manage the installation of a video system as well. That is now complete, and all of our stuff has been moved back to the Roseville house. Now begins the task of unpacking everything!
So the status is this:The second relocation of the shop (AGAIN!) is essentially complete. All of the equipment has been moved, and the workbenches are set up, and the dust collection system is almost completed except for connections to tools with 2-1/2" dust ports. Here's what's left to be done:
The shop is actually in a state where I've been able to begin working - but there's still a lot of stuff to be unpacked.
 |
(c) Copyright 2007, 2008 by Stephen Cyr Last updated July 17, 2008 |
 Click here to start |
