FAQs

Orders for IN STOCK items are shipped within 3-5 BUSINESS days, excluding weekends and holidays. Orders we receive on weekends, holidays or after 12:00pm EST will process the next business day. Shipping costs will be calculated at checkout. Once your order ships, you will receive a shipping notification with tracking information.

This depends on the shipping method you selected at checkout and what you purchased. Customer is responsible for all shipping and return charges. By ordering from Banker, the buyer agress to these terms. Shipping prices for custom guitar builds are $75 for domestic orders (US) via UPS Ground. Expedited options are available at an extra cost and will be discussed with our shipping coordinator to schedule and confirm your delivery.

International shipping is available. Please be aware that you may be responsible for additional duties or VAT. These charges are different in each country. Any refused packages will be charged the full amount of return shipping to the buyer. It is the law that we declare items at full price. We ship Monday-Friday excluding holidays. Orders we receive on weekends, holidays or after 12:00pm EST will process the next business day.

Banker is not liable for lost, stolen, or unclaimed packages. Please refer to tracking number for online orders and keep an eye out for all incoming packages. If the tracking information indicates that a package was delivered to the address provided, we cannot file a claim on your behlaf. Please note that USPS, FedEx, and UPS are third party services which are not affiliated with nor related to Banker. If you are expeexperiencing delays after your order was already shipped, you must contact the shipping company directly.

All returns for online orders (excludes guitars) must be made withing 30 days of receiving your order. Refunds are accepted for FULL PRICE items only. If items are not in new condition (unworn and unwashed), then the return will be refused and items returned to sender. We only replace items that are defective or damaged. All sale items are final and may not be returned or exchanged. We may deny any item not meeting return policy requirements. Shipping and handling charges are non-refundable. Once an item is approved for a return and the item is received we will credit the account that you used to make the original purchase. Allow up to two weeks for your credit to show up on your account. Once your order is processed, we cannot make changes to your order.

Exchanges are possible for new, unused items. We are able to offer you a size exchange or store credit if prodcut is not available (excluding shipping costs). If you need to exchange an incorrectly sized item, then you must notify us within 30 days of purchase at sales@bankerguitar.com and we will give you additional details. Due to a high turnover with certain items, we cannot guarantee that we will have an alternate size in every deisgn available. In this case, store credit will be issued.

There are a number of ways, and it all depends on what you are looking for. If you are seeking something highly customized, or specifically made just for you and no one else, the HOW TO ORDER page will guide you forward and provide a link to start the process. If you are looking for a guitar ASAP, you can search one of my dealers or browse what I currently have for inventory in the Shop. Please note that in-stock guitars are a rarity for both dealers and my online shop, but on the occassion there is a guitar available for sale immediately it will be listed in the shop.

This varies on several factors (based on type of build, availability of parts/accessories, and even factors completely outside of my control, etc) but typical lead times are between 8-12 months. Estimated delivery date will be provided when you make a deposit and are added to our production queue.

At Banker everything is made by hand, to your order specs, so the sky is the limit on different sound options and design combinations. We are here to help guide you through the design and build process based on your goals/needs. Some customizations are no upcharge; however, other upgrades do come with an upcharge (like a rare, exotic wood fretboard). Please note that the STARTING PRICE as listed for each guitar model is for the standard specs and, again, does not reflect additional charges for upgrades. There is NEVER a hidden fee and any additional fees will be discussed during your design consult.

Please note that the STARTING PRICE as listed for each guitar model is for the standard specs and does not reflect additional charges for upgrades during the customization/design/build process. There is NEVER a hidden fee, and any additional fees incurred will be discussed up front during your design consult. Some customizations have no upcharge; however, other upgrades do come with an upcharge. The upcharges range in price for a variety of reasons. Some upcharges reflect the rarity of the wood/part that exist in small quantities which we meticmeticulously source from all over the world, while other upcharges are reflective of labor intensive customizations like quadruple layer body and/or neck binding which adds several hours of additional work per order.

NO. In order to order a custom build and secure your place in the production queue, a deposit of 50% of the total build price is required. You will receive an email with a link to complete this payment via PayPal. Please note, this deposit serves as a commitment to purchase and is NON REFUNDABLE. Once payment is received, your custom build will be assigned a serial number and moved to the production queue. Estimated delivery date will be given once your order is placed in the production queue.

Your 50% deposit (of the total price with upgrades) serves as a commitment to purchase and is NON REFUNDABLE.

Part of the fun of building your own custom instrument is seeing your design come to life. If you do decide to add changes to your build after your design consult/the 50% deposit is provided, any additional costs for upgrades will be added to the 50% remaining balance and due upon delivery. We will throughly discuss design options with you during your initial consult and provide guidance on different options; however, if you need some time to think through some upgrades and prefer to add some changes throughout the process we can accommodate as much as possible (and to a reasonable extent, meaning we aren't painting your guitar three different colors or fundamentally changing the design mid-way through, etc). There will be a point at which we can no longer accept changes, but we will do everything we can on our end to build exactly what you want.

Shipping prices for custom guitar builds are $75 for domestic orders (US) via UPS Ground. Expedited options are available at an extra cost. Delivery dates and options will be discussed with you and scheduled with our shipping coordinator.

Vintage Gibson electrics were the holy grail of rock guitars to this elder millennial. My fascination with this iconic American manufacturer and particularly the instruments they produced in the 1950’s and 60’s, coupled with being a broke guitarist that could not afford a decent guitar are the things that initially catapulted me into building them. 19 year old me would have thought you were crazy if you told me that I would find myself building guitars for a living, and would have had you committed if you told me I would be partnered with Gibson. How or why the universe put me in this position I do not know; however, my relationship with the company allows me to license certain trademarked body and headstock shapes from them, primarily these unique attributes of their Flying V and Explorer models. I am not an employee of Gibson Brands, nor am I a Shareholder, Stakeholder, Board Member, Ghost Builder, or anything else. That is the full and complete extent of my affiliation with the company.My guitars are not replicas, nor do they bear any branding or carry any warranty or representation on behalf of Gibson Brands.

I understand that some folks cannot fathom why,
but long story short- I don’t want to. I love my life and I love my job, and that is because despite the pressure of paying bills and keeping guitars players smiling worldwide, this is still my favorite and primary creative outlet. I love building guitars, like, really, really, really love building guitars, even more than I love playing them which is hard to believe. It took an MBA and a decade or so in Corporate America for me to figure out that I don’t love managing people. In fact, some days I don’t love even talking to people. For my entire life I have found purpose and solace in creating, it is how I scratch my name upon the wall of time. I am entirely self taught, many of my methods are unorthodox, I’m a terrible teacher, and I would micromanage any employee brave enough to try so badly that they would want to beat me to death with a fret hammer.No one wants any of that, and that is why I keep things lean and mean with no one else between. This should also answer another frequent inquiry- yes, I literally build all of these guitars 100% on my own, by hand.

Please consider this my response to any and all types of the inquiry above: "No."

Well, I suppose it all depends on your perspective. I’m not completely out of touch with reality, I know how tough it is for players who gig for a living. I also know what I feel is fair compensation for skilled labor. Combine that with the
effort, ability, and knowledge required to procure some of the worlds finest VOS old harvest tonewoods, plus the general expense of running a business, and that is why my guitars cost what they do. Not only am I using top tier tonewood, I’m also using some of the most premium hardware and electronics available on the market.  Consider that in addition to everything above, each guitar requires something in the neighborhood of 30 hours of labor from start to finish.  I mill the lumber, I shape and glue the body and neck billets, I laminate my own binding, make my own pickguards, cavity covers, and plastic parts specifically for each guitar, by hand. I do all of the aging on my hardware, I make every nut from raw unbleached cattle bone, I level, crown, and polish every fretboard, I drill every single little hole from inlay pockets to tuning pegs. I wet sand, polish , and buff every instrument and send them out the door in a TKL hardcase with a pro setup and a fresh set of Stringjoy strings.  No part of the process is skipped, no expense is spared, and the thought of an unsatisfied customer elicits mortal terror deep within my soul. I don’t just want you to feel like you got a badass guitar, I want you to be absolutely stoked about the entire experience and feel like it was totally worth it. Also, if you stay current on price points within the high end guitar market, you likely have noticed that my price points are actually a fair amount lower than a number of other household names. In which case, you might be asking the
question…

If you’ve hung with me until this point, then you probably read some babble back there about not being able to afford guitars, as well as gigging and/or panhandling for rations. I’ve crossed paths with a whole lot of people in my life, some who are famous, some filthy rich, some who treat everyone they encounter with equal respect, and some assholes who believe themselves to be superior. I learned long ago that the correlation between money and happiness plateaus rather quickly, and my wife and I are fairly simple people who have no desire to be filthy rich or famous. We are best friends and have more than we could ask for already. We both love music in a very deep, meaningful way, and I cannot imagine a more fulfilling endeavor than sharing my creations and passion for guitars with other artists who use them to create theirs. No offense to the doctors or lawyers out there (I’ve needed you both and certainly will again in the future), but I don’t want you to be the only demographic who can afford one of my guitars. Hearing something that I made singing back to me through my stereo in the hands of a player will always mean so much more to me than some extra cash in my pocket. I know what sort of hard work and sacrifice it takes for the average person to find themselves with $5,000 to spend on a guitar. I think about it all the time, and I truly try to do everything within reason to make my work accessible to as wide an audience as I possibly can. Could I sell guitars at $15,000 price points Probably. Do I want to? No.

While I'm flattered and I appreciative of the offer, but no, I am not looking for an apprentice at this time. Perhaps when I’m older and far crankier, I’ll start thinking about passing down the knowledge I’ve accumulated to the next generation, but today is not that day.

I do not hand out guitars in exchange for endorsement or promo. Not only is it something that is not financially feasible, I already have more exposure than I could ever ask for. While I do not give guitars away, I am sympathetic to the plight of the professional musician and do offer full time gigging and touring players a 5% discount off of the base price of all of my guitars (discount does not extend to upgrades or add-ons).

Please don't. We receive a LOT of communication from customers who have placed a deposit to just email/call/text check to see if their built has started yet. We completely understand how excited you are about your custom build, and waiting months on end for a high ticket purchase like this makes the wait even more agonizing. At Banker, we strive to provide an inclusive build process and keep you in the communication loop, meaning we will reach out to YOU once your build has been started and share progress pics along the way. Our goal is to share as many "in process" updates, photos, etc. with our customers along the way and keep you excited about the progress ONCE THE BUILD BEGINS. We can't always guarantee the "Checking In" emails will be answered, and if they are answered it's typically with non-specific response or non-helpful information like "hello, we received your email, and no we haven't started yet. Thanks". Please be respectful of our time and process and be patient until you HEAR FROM US that your build has begun. We PROMISE it will be worth the wait!