Ebay custom basses
 

For the price it's almost worth it lol! "Made to order" :p
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mint-Custom-...item337fead760

Link doesn't work for me.

Updated the link, should work now.

in 2010 through ebay i had a chinese luthier in wuhan china make me a 12-string firebird electric guitar. he did a great job on the woodwork, fit and finish, but the electronics and hardware were a bit shady. After a lot of upgrades, it's a beast of a player. it took like 2 months to build and ship. i probably should've just found a dude in chicago to make one for me, or better yet had Hamer do one for me haha. i'd be a bit skeptical of what they consider to be "professional grade", but i got a very nice shell out of the deal. I dont remember exactly, but i think $400 for the guitar, $100 shipping, & about $150 in used parts to upgrade it.

oh, at closer look... haha, maxetone... same guy! he changed his ebay name and he raised his prices! you can see mine 4th row down from the top, second from the left haha, that's my SH*T.. i told him what i wanted and he made it, and now he's selling it's brother! wow too funny!

I wouldn't expect it to be spectacular, but even a made to order custom shell for that price isn't bad at all considering custom basses like MTD's start @ 5K

Hmmm......not bad. I think I'd just have him build me a shell and I'd add my own components.

That's one of the reasons i had him do it. Nobody makes a Firebird 12 string so i had him do it! i will say that he was very concerned with making me happy and building what i wanted. The body was a bit more explorerishly pointy or swept than i'd envisioned & although I'd told him "les paul style headstock" he made it more firebirdy which doesnt lend itself to 12 machine heads very well, but those were the only two "mistakes" he made and i understand both.

I also asked him about making me a 8 string thunderbird bass as well once i'd recieved the guitar, but he wanted more money than the first time and didnt seem to understand exactly what i wanted, so i passed on it. His operation seems to have expanded since then! I guess it depends on how much "set up" work you're willing to do to it.

I still think about an 8 string thunderbird, and he'd probably do a fine job for well under $1000 but ... do i really need it?!

now i'm thinking about it again!!! haha!

I don't have the money for it, but I might consider throwing my fanned 9-string design at them and seeing if they can make the shell.

That looks pretty cool!

You know...that thing doesn't look half bad, for that price...I'd angle the headstock, though.

That picture is just a sample of the work. If you do the auction he makes a bass for you...you can even send him body/shape renderings. Look at the other pics in the auction, he'll do pretty much whatever you want!

I had the same thought! Would be better if I could get him an outline to router the pickup cavities for the pickups I planned on using, then they'd just pop right in!