Another year and no Custom 1 off orders! Ibanez should allow HUSA customers to chose between 3 builder's. Tak, Mike Lipe or the new associate, Ron Thorn, to do custom 1 off USA Custom orders! What you guys think??

I think I understand why Ibanez does not do custom orders.

I think that's a little draconian.

Thorn has his own business, if you want one of his guitars:

http://www.thornguitars.com

I've been passingly familiar with his work for years now - obscenely good inlay work, and most of the guys I've talked to who have owned or played one say they're VERY good. Just don't expect an RG with an Ibanez headstock.

Well, sure. I'd absolutely love it if Ibanez offered a custom option. Hell, I'd be thrilled with even a semi-custom option. I'm sure most of us would. I've spent many hours fantasizing about building the perfect Ibanez exactly to my specs.

It's just not in the cards. Ibanez eliminated that option long ago, and has decided it's not financially viable for them. I respect that, as much as I still selfishly wish they'd build me whatever I wanted.

I actually think they could do it and make money too. Here is why:

1. Ibanez has the LACS building custom made guitars for endorsed artists all year round.

2. If people are willing to pay $6000 for the M8M, $7000 for the new UV's or $8000 for the BWM1BS than there are enough potential customers with enough money to make a Custom Shop a profitable venture.

The only thing Ibanez would have to decide is how many custom orders they would be willing to take from the public and and how much they want to charge. These would not be affordable guitars.

Totally! I've been saying this for years!

(unfortunately, I've obviously resigned myself to the reality)

I can tell you that if Ibanez opened a custom or semi-custom shop, I would probably single-handedly put one of their employee's kid through college with the amount of $$ I'd spend with them.

Lipe has his own business now, and Ron Thorn does too. Thorn does inlays and swirls for ibby, but nothing beyond that I believe. He also does inlay work for Jackson, Fender, etc...

One of the guys running one of my companies that set up a run of guitars with Thorn told me Ron is very happy with the size of his business now and likes the level of involvement he has in terms of handling the day-to-day/building, so I'm not sure he would really even be open to building for LACS.

Ron does do a 24 fret super-strat now by the way, it's called the Rune and it's quite affordable. You can get almost anything you can think of in terms of options. I think most end up around the $3000 dollar mark, which is very affordable given what you're getting.

Stealth kind of obliquely hit this one on the head - capacity isthe major issue here. Ibanez has a LACS now, true, but it's just for artists (and I guess occasional small batch runs). They're staffed for current capacity, and if they started taking customer orders on top of that, they'd need to expand, potentially by quite a lot.

Additionally, I think it's a pretty safe bet that a public LACS option would probably cut into their high end production sales somewhat, so not only are there the extra costs associated with estimating and ramping up production and the risks they get that wrong, there's also the costs of lost business to account for.

Ibanez seems to be doing just fine these days, and it's simpler for them to keep doing what they're doing. If you need a high end superstrat custom-ordered, there are plenty of other quality shops willing to do that for you - Jackson, Suhr, Anderson, Thorn, etc.

Certainly nothing worth firing their CEO over.

True, but for me... only an Ibanez will do

I realize I'm simplifying the matter but Ibanez is the only guitar company that has a Custom Shop but keeps it closed to the public. I can buy a guitar from the Gibson/Fender/PRS Custom Shop but not the Ibanez Custom Shop. Why not? They won't let me.

I do not see how Ibanez would lose money by letting people pay extremely high prices for guitars they build every day for endorsed artists. I understand endorsed artists indirectly generate revenue for Ibanez, but some direct revenue generation from unendorsed artists isn't a bad thing either.

I'd love a one off order, but guys, you have to realise and respect the fact that Ibanez and Hoshino have a business model that is working for them. If it wasn't, they'd change it and probably the company officers along with it.

I do not see how Ibanez would lose money by letting people pay extremely high prices for guitars they build every day for endorsed artists. I understand endorsed artists indirectly generate revenue for Ibanez, but some direct revenue generation from unendorsed artists isn't a bad thing either.
exactly how I feel.
At the end of the day after playing my Ibanez guitars, it is still not my custom guitar. if ESP can do it, why can't Ibanez? I know Lipe and Thorn have their own line of guitars, but with their past and future relationship with Ibanez,I thought it would be a good time to offer USA custom and choose your builder between Tak, Lipe or Thorn, like Fender does with choose your master builder.
Thanks Jemsters for all your comments.

Fair enough. Its hard to argue with a successful company on how they should run their business. At this point I can play Devils Advocate for opening the LACS and keeping it closed. Regardless, Ibanez has a specific reason for keeping it closed and, even though its none of business, I'm somewhat curious what that reason might be.

Well, again, I think a big part of it is staffing levels, and right now they don't employ enough luthiers to run a public custom shop.

Demand would far outweigh supply and, like I said, these would not be affordable guitars. Hiring another luthier would not be a problem. I'm not sure if the customer should be allowed to choose the luthier who builds their guitar because that could cause problems. Ibanez could make custom guitar available to the high paying public, but they have decided not to for one reason or another. I'm just curious what that reason might be....I doubt the reason is "we can not afford one more luthier."