Marc, I was seriously considering one guitar, but wanted John Budny to give me an estimate on some cosmetic work I wanted done to it. John looked at photographs of this guitar, then gave me the estimate. Obviously the estimate would have been more accurate if he had the guitar in his hands, but I needed to make a decision to buy or walk away. I have no doubt the work done at the Mothership would have been outstanding, but I likely would have spent much more than I wanted to on that particular guitar.

Your budget is $1000 or so. Buy a $500 fixer-upper that needs a neck reset and some other minor TLC and you'll probably sink at least another $500 into it, but that's just a guess on my part. The upside is that you'll have something the factory has looked over and rehabilitated--you'll have a solid instrument for years to come. Your best bet is to email John at jbudny@dwdrums.com and get better numbers should you need to.

Best of luck in your quest!