Body

All bodies are completely handmade and finished in nitro-cellulose by me (click here to see a Bravewood guitar under construction). The finish is fully nitro-cellulose, a lot of companies offering nitro finishes don't tell you that it's only the topcoat that's nitro, the undercoats are often thickly applied poly (less work)
Traditionally the woods used are alder and swamp ash.

The bodies are based very closely on their vintage counter parts, in many cases the template measurements I use were taken directly from vintage instruments passing through my workshop for repairs and feature many details like the originals, pin router holes, router hump, paint nail holes, etc.
 

Vintage correct router hump next to the neck pocket on a T type body.

All distressing on 'reliced' instruments is done by hand, no power tools whatsoever are used, it is a painstaking process but worth the effort, yielding a far more convincing finish than many premium priced instruments can offer.

Neck

Like the bodies, all necks are completely hand made in the Bravewood workshop, this allows me complete control over the thickness, profile, fret size and overall feel of a neck, unlike most other 'relic' guitar outfits who simply buy off the shelf repro parts.
 

Most after market repro necks feature a straight join between the rosewood and maple behind the nut, the necks I make have the vintage correct curved join that the original slab board necks had.

As with the bodies, the necks are finished in paper thin nitro-cellulose and can be distressed to look and, maybe more importantly, feel old. Through much experimentation I have devised a method of distressing necks that produces the most authentic look and feel that I have seen anywhere.  Indeed I have customers that own real vintage pieces who have told me that I have replicated this look and feel perfectly. I make one piece maple or rosewood slab/curved join fingerboard versions. The rosewood versions features clay dots, side and front.

Hardware, etc.

Only top quality hardware is used along with Kluson style tuners, CTS pots, CRL switches and Switchcraft jacks. Pickups and controls are wired with vintage correct cloth covered wire. Hardware is aged according to the level of distressing on the instrument, click here to see some of the aged parts used. Pickguards (where appropriate) are cut with the vintage correct 'wide bevelled edge'. All modern pickguards seem to be cut with a 45 (or more) degree bevel, whereas the vintage ones were more like 30 degrees, this allowed more of the layers to show and gives the pickguard edges a 'softer' vintage look.

The above picture shows two J bass pickguards, the top one is a standard type with the usual bevelling, the bottom one is a custom made Bravewood guard featuring the correctly cut vintage bevel. Notice how the black band appears wider despite the material being the same thickness.

Prices

Every guitar I build is unique and may vary in price depending on the specification, but prices are usually around the £1,500 mark.

The bottom line

The guitars are individually handmade by one person (me), from cutting out the wood to packing it for shipping, they are not  handled by anyone else. I personally attend to every aspect of the build.
In recent years there has been an eruption of small companies offering 'relic' replicas, most are vintage enthusiasts armed with electric sanders, acid and a website, they sand pre-finished bodies and necks and corrode hardware in an attempt to produce a vintage looking guitar...good luck to them, but if you want a guitar built (not just assembled) by an experienced luthier, look no further.....

I do not churn out 100's of instruments, as a one man business I couldn't make more than 25-30 instruments a year, hopefully that contributes towards making the ownership of a Bravewood guitar a fairly unique experience.