How They Are Made
We are USA built and USA proud of our work, so nothing less than the best will do.
Every Somnium guitar is an exercise in attention to detail.
Our precision pickup interchange system requires every part of the guitar to work together to achieve the most professional playability and tone.
We start with premium body woods such as Alder, Ambrosia Maple, Walnut and Ash, hand-selected and carefully matched for beautiful grain in a natural finish. Even the basic block of wood is carefully glued, cut and prepared to precise dimension in preparation for CNC machining. The machining process itself is carefully monitored to ensure the quality of every cut meets our exacting standards. After all, that wood has to be precisely mated to CNC machined metal so there is no room for error.
Our aluminum docking ring and pickup cartridges are works of art in CNC machining. They are skeletonized to minimize weight, enhanced with specialized positioning features and high tolerances to ensure a smooth, bank-vault-tight lockup and unshakeable electrical connection. You cannot break this system, we've made sure of that.
The body finish gets equal attention. The wood is hand-sanded, hand finished, carefully prepped, primed and painted by a highly experienced paint specialist using the finest polyurethane products. Final wet sanding and buffing creates a gorgeous finish worth of a boutique-level guitar.
If the feel isn't right and it doesn't play like magic in your hands, then it isn't one of our guitars. Our premium necks are handmade, hand shaped, fitted with a zero fret system for greatest tuning stability and medium jumbo stainless frets for a lifetime of playing. While our default neck profile feels instantly comfortable to many, we offer a variety of alternate profiles to match your shape preference perfectly.
Final assembly is another exercise in precision and strength. Our necks are fitted with metal inserts and bolted through an integrated aluminum brace with precisely torqued machine screws. It is such a solid and secure joint that you can feel it when you play, and hear it in the extended sustain of the strings. Every piece of USA hardware is carefully fitted and tested, then rested for three days, then tested again. Electronics are the finest USA components including EMG pots, a custom Freeway switch and a bulletproof QiJack all carefully soldered inside a shielded control cavity. Every pickup and cartridge are repeatedly tested for clean connection and perfect tone.
Prior to shipping we test one more time and do a final cleaning and finish check. We've put an incredible amount of time and effort into every Somnium guitar so we make sure it's worth it. Even our packaging was designed as a custom heavy-duty box with extensive padding that suspends the guitar case to protect it from impact. We are USA built and USA proud of our work, so nothing less than the best will do every step of the way.
