J. Nunis Custom Guitars Custom

Made over the fall of 2004 in Atlanta, GA, USA. Features are very similar to a Les Paul with changes that I specified. Jim Nunis is VERY accommodating to a player's wishes when it comes to building that person's dream guitar. My guitar is a single cutaway Les Paul like design, 22 frets with the standard Les Paul scale length, book matched 2 piece flamed hard rock eastern maple top, single piece African Limba (Korina) back, single piece African Limba neck (from the same board as the body), old growth Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, flamed maple headstock laminate (from the same billet as the top), custom designed abalone and stainless steel inlay. The finish is nitrocellulose lacquer. It has your typical Les Paul controls - 2 volume/2 tone/3 way selector switch. Big difference is that the tone knobs are push/pull for coil tapping the humbuckers. The pickups are zebra coil Seymour Duncans ? Custom-Custom in the bridge and '59 in the neck. No extra preamps or anything to make the electronics package active, it's all passive. The bridge is tuno-o-matic style Tone Pros in gold finish. No tail piece as the strings go through the body (my request). Tuners are Sperzel Locking finished in gold. Ivory nut. Neck is a very slim profile and is reinforced with a two-way truss rod and two graphite rods. The neck joint is a set neck with an extra long tenon. When I guy builds a guitar exactly like you want it, you better give the guitar a '10' on features, right?

Here is where this instrument is truly mind blowing. I am sold on Limba as a substitute for mahogany in solid body guitars. It seems to have about the same frequency response as mahogany but the sound has a lot more character and fidelity to it. Also, it's lighter which is a plus when you are putting a thick, dense maple top on a guitar. And this top is HARD! It really make the guitar sing and have a great bite. Add that fact that this guitar has a Tone Pros bridge and string through design and can you say "sustain"? In a nutshell, notes explode off my pick then ring with singing, thick sustain until I'm ready to end them. In drop D tuning, I can hit a first position D5 chord and it will ring until I'm sick of it... and that's even with a headphone amp. This guitar needs no help from an amp to sound amazing. If you've ever had a day dream where your guitar was giving back everything you could give it and more, you were playing this guitar in your dream. On a scale from 1-10, with a 10 being the best sounding solid body electric I ever played... I would give this guitar a 20.

The guitar's set up from the factory was EXCELENT! It took me about a half a second to get comfortable on this guitar. The pickups were adjusted perfectly. The strings are right in the magnetic "sweet spot". The color and lacquer finish on this guitar are world class. When ever I open the case on this thing people just drop over dead at the site of the 3D figuring in the top. The custom designed abalone inlay and the figured maple headstock overlay are really nice touches too. There are things about the fit and finish I could complain about if I didn't know any better. But this is a COMPLETELY hand made instrument built as a "one off". J.Nunis guitars are equal parts instrument and sculpture. A picky person will find the "makers marks" but a lover of hand craftsmanship will cherish them because it gives the guitar its unique personality. If you are looking for a perfectly cloned guitar stamped out by computers and robots, go get that soulless Gibson or PRS over at Guitar Center and be like everyone else, or better yet a Carvin with only the custom options THEY say you can have. Then bring it on over and let this J.Nunis Custom beat up on it for a while. I can say this with confidence because I have an arsenal of hand picked Les Pauls AND one of the new Carvin Ca. Carved Tops PLUS the other guitarist in my band has a mid-80's PRS (one of the great ones) and none of them touch this guitar when it comes time to make the doughnuts. But just focusing on this category for review purposes, I'm going to subtract one point here because I know there are a lot of people that nit pick this stuff to death and I want this to be a usable review for people.

Q. Will this guitar withstand live playing?
A. Not only will it withstand it, it will inspire live playing?

Q. Does the hardware seem like it will last?
A. It has the best hardware you can get today.

Q. Is the finish good enough to last, or does it seem thin and easy to wear off with lots of playing?
A. It's nitro so it's naturally thin and will wear off with enough playing. This is part of why the guitar sounds so good. It's not mummified in polyurethane. Pay attention PRS.

Q. Are the strap buttons solid?
A. Schaller strap locks. Need I say more?

Q. Can you depend on it? Would you use it on a gig without a backup?
A. I do depend on it but I don't leave home without a backup. That's just unprofessional in my opinion. I'll go a whole gig without using the backup though with out a problem.

My guitar is warranty is for life. And that's not just if the neck breaks off or something. I can send it back for anything I want and Jim Nunis himself will take care of it. You don't get this level of customer service and product support from ANY OTHER company I can think of. I had a story I wanted to share in the "Reliability/Durability" section but it fits here too. While this guitar was being built, I was visiting the shop one day and Jim had gotten a hold of a guitar that had left his shop years earlier without his inspection and approval. The owner liked the guitar but had a few complaints so Jim took the guitar back for tweaks. When Jim got it back he was appalled that the guitar even had his name on it and told the owner he would build him a new one. The owner of course was ecstatic. Jim took this beautiful flame top guitar and laid it down on a step and stomped on the neck where it joins the body. His foot BOUNCED off the guitar. He couldn't break it!! We just gasped and looked at each other in shock and amazement. The moral of the story is that J.Nunis Guitars backs up their work at pretty much any cost.

I've been playing for over 25 years. As I said earlier, I have a full stable of Gibson Les Pauls and a Carvin California Carved Top. I also own a Heritage Class of '59 H-150 in Limba, and a Carvin DC127. I have owned or sold just about everything else under the sun. I've had my hands on a ton of guitars. For amps I have a Marshall Jubilee 50 watt half stack and a Hughes & Kettner 100 watt Duotone full stack. Of course this guitar sounds great through these superb amps but I've played this guitar through all kinds of equipment and it NEVER sounds bad. Is there something I wish I had asked before buying this guitar? Sure! Does it come with a fury hole in the back? Because that's about the only thing missing here. But with their customer support I'm sure I could send it back for that mod. If this guitar were stolen or lost in a fire or something I would take my insurance money and have another one built without giving it a second thought. With all the custom options though, this being a one-of-a-kind, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to track this thing down. I love everything about this guitar and there's nothing I hate. I'd have to say my favorite feature is split between the string through body and the Limba because I believe these are the biggest contributors to the incredible sustain and tone. I was in the market for a PRS and played every one in town but couldn't find the magic those guitars once had. I chose this one because it has that special quality that only hand made guitars have... soul. With my J.Nunis Custom I've finally found my voice.