About Me (The Short Version)

DGN Custom Guitars started way back in 2008 like most small companies do, in the basement of my home. Then to my wifes dismay, I expanded and took over the garage.... And I did that for 14 years.... In that time my main focus was guitar repair and restoration work but I always managed to find time to work on custom builds. I was fortunate to have the ability to hone my skills with real world experience working on some of the greatest guitars ever produced. Aside from general repair, I worked on countless highend and vintage guitars from the Golden Era of factory guitar building. Late 50's guitars like ******, ******, ****** and ******!!! (Dont need to trigger any trademark issues) You get the idea, you name it and Ive worked on it. Yes even a handful of '59 Bursts as well. Thats about as close as I can get to naming names. I became obsessed with these instruments and tried to learn from each one I worked on. The knowledge I gained from these amazing instruments directly influenced the way I build guitars today. I was able to see what made great guitars great. What made great guitars not so great. Certain desings had flaws, how do I work around those? How do I get over the quirks of 50's guitar design limitations to create an instrument that has the vibe and feel of an old guitar but is brand new right from my hands to yours??? Like most of us, the pandemic changed the dynamic and direction of not only my business but me personally. Im a life long musician. There was nothing... Because there was less contact with people, zero gigs and less of pretty much everything, there was very little to no repair work. I spent most of my time building and creating. Basically I spent a lot of time in my garage. This time of growth literally changed everything. In 2021 I decided to take the plunge and move my shop from my home to an industrial space to build custom guitars full time. Wow, was that leap ever nerve wracking....
My name is Dan Neafsey and I'm the Owner and Builder of DGN Custom Guitars. I also do R&D, inventory, sales, shipping and recieving, run the metal shop, marketing, accounting (still learnign this one), machine maintanence, stock the mini fridge, clean the lunch area, take out the garbage and really anything else that needs to get done around here. In a nutshell its just me... Well actually thats not quite true. My dad works here part time as well. He spends his time here making pickups, stuffing circuit boards, providing general conversation so I talk to the machines and wood piles less, making old man noises and anything else not listed above. So yeah, its me and my dad. Pretty freaking cool!! Today I occupy 1200 sq of the Historic Conti Building In Downtown Shelton CT. Fun fact, the exact space where I am now was at one time (early 1900's) a Corset factory. The corsets are long gone but my shop is currently jam packed with every single tool and machine you could possibly think of. All for the sole purpose of building high quality custom guitars. You won't find any CNC machines, or much automation at all to be honest. My process is a tribute to those great guitars built by master craftmen in the Late 50's. They were built by man and machine and I do it that same exact way. Well, to be fair I do have a laser cutter, but its mostly used to make templates for machines, pickup parts, fingerboard inlay, and some other random stuff . BUT, if you were to step into a guitar factory from that era, capture it, shrink it down a lot and drop it in CT, thats what my shop looks like. Plus a laser cutter. In addition to my wood shop, I now have an ever expanding tiny but mighty metal shop. Im fairly new to metal work and machining but like most things in my life, Im a very quick study. I now make every single piece of hardware for my guitars completely in house. Except for tuning machines. For now... Wait thats crazy right? Yeah totally crazy. Maybe its not so crazy? Anyway.... You get the point. I like building and creating. Im also an active guitarist in the greater Bridgeport CT area. This aligns with my firm personal belief of, yes a guitar builder does need to know how to play them and play them well. How else do you know if they suck or not?? Also whats the point of building them if I can't get out and play them from time to time. Its basically to offset the extreme jealousy I get every single time I have to ship a new guitar out to a clent..... Ive commited myself to building the best guitars I possible can, with the best woods and materials available today. Every single part of the process is done right here in Shelton CT. Except for Tuning machines (for now). From Board to Chord!! What can I build for you??