Tucked away in southwest Illinois near St. Louis, luthier Steve Weller is making interesting instruments. His El Dorrado model is a solidbody with nods to the angular shapes of the Firebird, Explorer, and Iceman, but amped-up with the kind of detail and precision you expect from a custom plan.

The El Dorrado has a three-piece mahogany body with a raised center section (like a Firebird) and a wide waist. The neck is a nitrocellulose-finished, five-piece combination of walnut and padauk with a 22-fret ebony fretboard, offset pearl inlays, and a Gibson-style scale of 24.75″. In similar Kalamazoo spirit is a tune-o-matic-style bridge and stop tailpiece, though Weller uses an original three-and-three headstock shape with Kluson tuners and a swank padauk truss cover.

Electronics include CTS pots, a Switchcraft three-way toggle, and Seymour Duncan humbuckers – Jazz neck and JB bridge with push-pull Volume pot to split to single-coils. For glam-tacular stage appeal, Weller offers two poly finishes (Aqua flake and Black flake) and a brushed-aluminum pickguard.

As you might suspect, a solidbody with a mahogany body that weighs about 8.7 pounds is going to prefer rockin’ tones, and the El Dorrado delivers in abundance. The neck carve is a shallow D on the upper frets, becoming rounder (ergo, more vintage-feeling) as you go down; it’s a truly comfortable profile – go ahead and play your hottest rock and blues licks, with as much or little overdrive as you want. Setup on our tester was perfect out of the box; the builder obviously spent time making sure every detail was right.

The El Dorrado loves crunchy power chords, sustain, and piercing Gibson screams, so don’t be surprised if you can’t put it down. But also play with the coil taps to access glassier P-90 sounds.

Whether riffing in the style of Johnny Winter, Billy Gibbons, Aerosmith – or licks all your own – the Weller El Dorrado is a serious custom guitar with exquisite craftsmanship and drop-dead good looks.

This article originally appeared in VG’s November 2024 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.