All
of Iszac guitars are built by hand
and exclusively by me from start to finish. Every tool that touches
an Iszac Guitar is guided by hand, there are no CNC machines here. I
am not attempting to re-invent the guitar nor do I have any sort of
gimmick, I just strive to build the highest quality guitars and to
keep them at a reasonable price.
To introduce you to my guitars I
should first introduce you to myself. I have played an instrument of
some sort since I was five years old starting with the piano. I
picked up my first guitar at the age of 16 and have had a strong
passion for it since. Unfortunately during college, I did not find
the time to play it as much as I would have liked. After graduating
from the University of Oklahoma in 2002 with a degree in Aerospace
Engineering, I received a commission as an Officer in the US Navy and
proceeded to flight school. It was during this time that I seriously
picked the guitar back up and after a while decided that I needed a
new guitar. I spent a lot of time researching exactly what I wanted
in a new guitar and found that there wasn't a main stream guitar out
there that would meet my needs. That is when I was introduced to
custom or boutique guitars. After scouring the Internet looking at
all of the custom guitar shops I could find, I came across a book
about how to build an electric guitar. I figured why not look into
building my own and put that engineering degree to work for me. I
had always enjoyed wood working so I was familiar with everything
involved in building guitars. I continued to research and eventually
built my first guitar. During this process I realized I enjoyed
building them just as much as I did playing them and decided that if
I wanted to continue building them that I would have to sell them. So,
in 2004 Iszac Custom Guitars was born.
I have been studying and experimenting
with techniques and designs ever since. Through this process I have
settled on certain aspects of my guitars that I now call standard. Some
examples are the five piece neck, set neck design, scale length
and the headstock angle which are all used to optimize the strength
and stability of the neck as well as improve sustain and the tone of
the guitar. The great thing about custom guitars though is that you
can have them built any way you want them, so my “standard”
features can always be changed to suit the buyer.
Since I am a small one man operation,
I am able to give my customers a one-on-one personable experience
that is not available from large manufacturers. You will always deal
directly with the person building your guitar, me. I build these
guitars and sell them because I enjoy doing it, not because I am
relying on them for my income. This allows me to continue to build
them by hand and not look to CNC machines and an assembly line to
crank out quantity. There are many benefits of this not being my
full time job, but the one draw back is that it takes me a little
longer to build them than some other companies. If you choose to buy
an Iszac, you can rest assured that every facet of its design and
construction was completely by hand with the utmost care given to the
smallest detail.
As of May 2009 I have finished re-prototyping two of my models, with
one more in the works. I have spent the last 2 years refining these
models with updated construction techniques and standard features.
Below are the standard features that go into every guitar.
Of course, since these are custom guitars all features can be
specified by the buyer.
| Headstock angle,
volute: I use a 5 degree headstock angle, this minimizes the grain run out and along with the volute makes a traditionally weak spot on guitars much stronger. This angle is enough to keep the strings firmly in the nut without string trees, and yet not too much that the grain run out causes insufficient strength. This angle is also key to tuning stability when a tremolo is used as the strings will not bind as much in the nut. |
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Heel-less set
neck: All of my designs incorporate a set neck that allows unparalleled access to the upper frets on the guitar. The neck also extends under the neck pickup maximizing the area of the join for better sustain and sound transfer between the neck and the body. |
| Two Humbucking
Pickups: Along with either a 5-way rotary switch, or 3-way switch with coil splitting, makes the guitars extremely versatile ranging from vintage to modern in both the single coil and humbucking sounds. The pickups shown are Smokestacks that are handwound by BG Pups |
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High gloss body
and oiled neck: I use a water base acrylic lacquer on the body which is not only friendly on the environment but also on my health. It is harder, slicker and more chemical resistant than the traditional nitrocellulose lacquer, while still maintaining the high clarity and gloss that is expected on a guitar. For the neck, I use Tru-oil which is a polymerized linseed oil originally designed for gun stocks. It gives a very slick natural feel to the neck. |
| Jumbo Frets: The jumbo frets allow you to play the guitar without your fingers making full contact with the fretboard. This produces easier string bends because there is minimal friction between your finger and the fretboard. |
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| Icarus | Indivia | Interceptor | Classic L | Classic T |
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coming soon | coming soon | coming soon |