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Valley Arts

Custom Pro

The top of the line at Valley Arts wasn’t a spec sheet. It was “any way you wanted it.”

Studio City. Larry Carlton waits at the counter while they refret an old SG. On Saturdays the session players come by, and there’s pizza upstairs. The guitar that came out of that room was whatever the person ordering it asked for.

Introduced
1987
Type
Solidbody electric
Class
Closed run
Read the story · 3 min

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The short version

  1. 1971

    The teaching store changes hands

    Duke Miller sells to Mike McGuire and Al Carness. About a year later it’s Valley Arts. Another count says 1975.

  2. 1973

    Ventura Boulevard

    The shop moves to the Studio City address it keeps for seventeen years.

  3. 1977

    A first guitar from scratch

    Around then. Strat-like, quilted maple. McGuire thinks Carlton ended up with it.

  4. 1983

    Vose Street

    A factory in North Hollywood, eventually thirty-five people.

  5. 1987

    The flyer

    A signed menu that already describes the Custom Pro. No launch year is on record.

  6. 1990

    The fire

    26 December. Suspected arson.

  7. 1992

    Samick

    Half the company mid-1992, all of it by June 1993.

  8. 2002

    Nashville

    Gibson opens a Valley Arts store. It closes in 2005.

Side A

A1

Saturdays on Ventura

Larry Carlton walks in with an old SG. It isn’t his main guitar. He waits while they refret it.

That’s the kind of place it was. A repair counter in Studio City, on Ventura Boulevard from 1973. Saturdays, the session players came by: Tommy Tedesco, Robben Ford, Lee Ritenour, Mitch Holder. Upstairs there was pizza.

Mike McGuire and Al Carness came out of a teaching store run by Duke Miller. Carness joined around 1969. By 1971 Miller had sold them the rest, and about a year later the sign said Valley Arts. Another count says 1975. Keep both.

Repair made the room. The room is what made the guitar.

A2

Top of the line

Around 1977 McGuire built a guitar from scratch. Strat-like, quilted maple. He thinks Carlton ended up with it. That’s a memory, not a model name.

In 1983 they opened a factory on Vose Street in North Hollywood, which eventually had thirty-five people. The line took shape there. McGuire lists it in order: a Steve Lukather model, a Larry Carlton model, and then the one this page is about.

“The Custom Pro model was the top of the line. You could pretty much get it made any way you wanted it.”

Jay Graydon pushed for a smaller body, a 7/8 with a 24 3/4-inch scale instead of the Fender-length 25 1/2. So they made one, and then every option in the line could be had that size. A shorter scale means a little less string tension, so bends come easier and the chords feel a touch looser. One session player asked, and the whole menu grew a column.

A3

A menu, not a model

Nobody printed a launch year. The date people use is 1987, because that’s the flyer, signed by Carness and McGuire, that already describes the Custom Pro. A magazine caption from 2008 calls one of Lukather’s guitars a “1983 Valley Arts Custom Pro.” Keep the flyer and the caption.

The flyer reads like a menu. Alder, ash, basswood, koa, mahogany, quilted maple, teak, or walnut. Neck width, thickness, and radius to order. Either scale. Any good pickup you wanted. Thirty-five coats of nitrocellulose. By 1989 the basic guitar started at $1,400: ash or alder, three EMG single coils, a pickguard, a fixed bridge. Quilted maple was $240 more.

The guitar people picture is the dressed-up one. A quilted maple top on alder, bird’s-eye maple neck, ebony board, gold hardware, no pickguard. Two single coils and a humbucker: Strat sounds for most of the job, and something fatter at the bridge when the solo came around.

Who made what in the shop depends who you ask. One builder remembered that the electric necks came from outside, from Warmoth and then LaSido. The flyer says hand-made in their shop. Keep both.

Flip the record · By the numbers

  • $1,400

    The 1989 starting price, before the quilt top and the rest of the options.

  • 35

    Coats of nitrocellulose, by the 1987 flyer.

  • 24 3/4"

    The shorter scale Jay Graydon pushed for. Every option came in that size.

  • 26 Dec 1990

    The night the Ventura shop burned.

Side B

B1

Two Lukather guitars

Here’s where it gets tangled, so go slowly.

Lukather’s main guitar from mid-1984 to 1993 was a Valley Arts Strat-style he called the Robot. “Every record I did,” he said. How it began depends on the telling: the third or fourth guitar the shop made, or a vintage Fender he brought in that they rebuilt with a new neck, a humbucker, and two single coils. Either way, the Robot is not the guitar captioned a Custom Pro.

That one is a Cherry Sunburst with a fancy maple top and a Floyd Rose, which he kept for the history. Nobody has named a session it played. And “Beat It”? That’s his 1959 Les Paul. Not a Valley Arts at all.

He left when the company was sold to the Koreans. From 1993 he played a Music Man.

B2

The day after Christmas

On 26 December 1990 the Ventura shop burned. Suspected arson, a $2.5-million fire, at least $600,000 in instruments. Carlton called from a session. Fern Carness said something every player understands: a custom guitar could lose its tone to the smoke and still look whole.

McGuire’s version has a Molotov cocktail thrown into the Pier 1 next door, and insurance that paid about twenty cents on the dollar. They sold the retail store. Samick bought half the company in mid-1992 and owned it all by June 1993. That October McGuire went to Nashville to run production at Gibson Custom. Gibson opened a Valley Arts store there in 2002. It closed in 2005.

There’s no Custom Pro to order now. What’s left are the guitars that came out of Studio City before the fire and the sale, each one built the way somebody asked for it on a Saturday.

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

  • 1983

    Steve Lukather

    Cherry Sunburst, captioned “1983 Valley Arts Custom Pro”

    Fancy maple top, a Floyd, kept for the history. No record is pinned to it. His Robot is a different Valley Arts guitar.

  • Larry Carlton

    Valley Arts Standard Pro (not this model)

    The client who made the shop. His signature model is a Standard Pro, and his recorded guitar is a ’68 ES-335.

  • Jay Graydon

    The 7/8 body, 24 3/4" scale

    The reason the short scale exists. No Custom Pro is pinned to him on a record.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Quilted maple or swamp ash, a bolt-on in two scales, and an EMG set — Valley Arts’ Custom Pro, the Studio City session guitar, not a Stratocaster and not a Suhr.

Body
Quilted-maple top on alder; double-cut S, no pickguard, rear-routed (registry Bent-S). One-piece quilt and swamp ash are the other limited recipes.
Neck
Bolt-on bird’s-eye maple
Fingerboard
Ebony on the Bent-S card. Rosewood on the swamp-ash limited version. Radius to order on the 1987 flyer.
Scale
25 1/2" with 22 frets (full), or 24 3/4" with 24 frets (7/8). Inches only. Millimetres unpublished. Mix flagged.
Pickups
Single/single/humbucker, EMG or Seymour Duncan, black. 1991 promo names EMG SA / SA / 85 on the limited pair.
Hardware
Gold; VA/Gotoh tuners; locking or non-locking tremolo. Promo: a Valley Arts Floyd Rose.
Electronics
Volume and tone; 5-way
Finish
Midnight Blue, Forest Green, Emerald Green, Trans Red, Trans Black, Trans Purple, Antique Burst, Fireburst, tri-color burst. 1987 flyer: 35 coats of nitrocellulose.
Nut
1 11/16" on the Bent-S card. Material unpublished there. 1989 basic sheet: Delrin, width to order. Mix flagged.
Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Classic living example = pre-Samick USA Custom Pro, double-cut S, Studio City / North Hollywood. The table is the registry’s Bent-S card, not every guitar they would build. 1989 basic floor, same page: ash or alder, hard-rock maple, three EMG singles, a guard, stationary bridge, chrome, Delrin. The bass PJ line on that sheet is not this table. Bent-T is the Tele. 2003 Gibson Nashville sheet: another factory, nut printed 1.687", full-size 25.5" / 22 frets or 7/8 at 24.75" / 24 frets. No millimetres on the flyer, the registry cards, or that sheet. None invented. California Pro, Standard Pro, Larry Carlton Standard Pro, and the Japan M Series are other guitars. Tom Anderson Classic and Suhr Classic S are other shops. No Fender SKU. Standalone.

Construction

The job was a Strat-layout solidbody the Los Angeles session players could order from the shop that already had their guitars on the bench. Bolt-on. Two scales. Figured maple if you paid, swamp ash if you didn’t. Studio City, not Fullerton. Not a Fender Stratocaster (fender-stratocaster). Not a Tom Anderson Classic (tom-anderson-classic). Not a Suhr Classic S (suhr-classic-s).

Mike McGuire and Al Carness came out of Duke Miller’s teaching store. Walter Carter, from their interviews: around 1969 Carness joined; by 1971 Miller sold them the rest; about a year later Duke Miller Guitar Center became Valley Arts. Wikipedia’s infobox says founded 1975. Keep both. The Los Angeles Times (28 December 1990) has the shop at 12162 Ventura Blvd. for 17 years, so the move off Laurel Canyon is 1973. Repair made the room. Carlton walked in with an old SG that was not his main guitar and waited while it was refretted. Saturdays upstairs were pizza.

Around 1977 McGuire built a first guitar from scratch. Strat-like, quilted maple, a bird’s-eye ebony board. He thinks Carlton ended up with it. A memory, not this model name. 1983: a factory on Vose Street in North Hollywood, eventually 35 people. McGuire, to Carter: a Steve Lukather model, a Larry Carlton model, then “The Custom Pro model was the top of the line. You could pretty much get it made any way you wanted it.” California Pro was the pastel full-size. Standard Pro was the cheaper one. The Mickey was a carved Tele. Jay Graydon pushed a 7/8 body at 24 3/4" instead of 25 1/2", and every option in the line could be had that size. Thirty-five people is a payroll, not a guitar count.

No factory introduction year is in these sources. guitar-list dates the Custom Pro to 1987 because that is the flyer, signed Carness and McGuire at the Ventura address, that already describes it. Vintage Guitar (September 2008) captions one Lukather guitar “1983 Valley Arts Custom Pro.” He does not use the model name. Keep the flyer and the caption. This plate’s year is the flyer. It is not a launch ad.

The flyer is a menu. Alder, ash, basswood, koa, mahogany, quilted maple, teak, or walnut. Neck width, thickness, and radius to order. 24.75" with 24 frets, or 25.5" with 22 frets. Valley Arts fret wire. 14:1 machines. Any high-quality pickup, a fixed bridge or a pickguard. 35 coats of nitrocellulose. Inches only. Millimetres unpublished. Mix flagged.

The registry’s 1989 sheet is the priced floor: basic features from $1400.00. Ash or alder, three EMG singles, a guard, a stationary bridge, chrome, Delrin, nut width to order. Options: an Interlock neck at $250, quilted maple at $240, Floyd or Kahler or a stop tail, and pickups from an EMG humbucker to Tom Anderson, Duncan, DiMarzio, Alembic. Anderson’s name there is a pickup. His Classic is Newbury Park.

The guitar people mean is the figured S on that same page. Bent-S: quilt top, alder, bird’s-eye and ebony, 1 11/16" nut, gold, SSH, volume and tone, 5-way, no guard, full size or 7/8. A circa-1991 promo (auto-transcript; the numbers match the card) names two limited versions — one-piece quilt with ebony, or swamp ash with rosewood — and EMG SA / SA / 85 with a Valley Arts Floyd. Blue Book’s row, ash and a 24-fret rosewood board, EMG HSS, marked discontinued with 1994 on the entry, is one catalog line. It is not the 22-fret full-size guitar, and it does not erase the menu.

A 2016 account quotes builder Dan Grosh: the shop never made the electric necks (Warmoth, then LaSido), and Standard Pro bodies arrived from LaSido already painted, while most other bodies were in-house later. The flyer says hand-made in their shop. Keep both.

The store burned 26 December 1990. The Times: suspected arson, a $2.5-million fire, at least $600,000 in instruments. Carlton called from a session. Fern Carness: customs could lose their tone to smoke and still look whole. Carter has McGuire on a Molotov into the Pier 1 next door, and insurance at about 20 cents on the dollar. They sold the retail store. Mid-1992 Samick bought half (Carter). Blue Book: full ownership by June 1993. McGuire was Gibson Custom’s production manager in Nashville from October 1993.

Japan’s M Series, 1986–1995, could not wear “Custom Pro USA” at first. Later headstocks say Custom Pro and leave off the USA. Samick California Pros are Korean bodies, assembled in the U.S. Neither is this Ventura guitar.

Gibson opened a Valley Arts store in Nashville on 3 December 2002. First new guitars at NAMM, January 2003. The copyright-2003 sheet says manufactured in Nashville and prints the 1.687" nut. Vintage Guitar’s Custom Pro bass review puts a later shop in Conway. That is a bass, and a different address. Wikipedia: the Nashville store closed in 2005; McGuire retired 3 August 2012. No 2026 product page turned up. The living object is the old USA guitar.

Players

Do not hang a Fender, a Music Man, or the Robot on this plate. Do not hang Carlton’s 335 here either.

Steve Lukather — two Valley Arts guitars, and only one is captioned a Custom Pro. Vintage Guitar, September 2008: the first Toto album used a Les Paul Deluxe, a 335, and “the number three or four Valley Arts Strat-style guitar.” That one “is now the Robot.” Mahogany finish, painted later. Three EMG singles, then an 85 routed into the bridge. Music UK (December 1983): a black Strat Valley Arts made about five years earlier, EMGs, a Floyd. Guitar World (15 July 2024): he brought a vintage Fender in; they made a neck, fitted a humbucker and two singles, painted the robot; it was his main guitar from mid-1984 to 1993, “every record I did.” Origin contested. The records line is the Robot either way.

The other guitar is the candidate. Same 2008 piece: a Cherry Sunburst with a fancy maple top, a Floyd, kept for the history. The caption reads “1983 Valley Arts Custom Pro.” No session is named for it. “Beat It” and “Running with the Night” are the 1959 Les Paul, serial 9 0494. Basically everything from 1980 to ’83, he said, was that burst, “and the first Valley Arts guitar” — the Robot’s line, not this caption. He left when they sold to the Koreans. From 1993 the guitar is a Music Man, and the neck Dudley Gimpel scanned was “on the Robot.” McGuire lists a Lukather model and the Custom Pro as two sentences. The registry files a separate Fireburst Lukather-series Custom Pro, 22 frets, 25.5". Three objects, if you let them stay three.

Larry Carlton is the client who made the shop, and his recorded guitar in Vintage Guitar’s Fretprints is a ’68 ES-335. The Carlton model on the registry is a Standard Pro: 24 frets, 24.75", “only 100” signed. The quick-disconnect in “Larry Carlton’s guitar” was McGuire trying pickups. Not “Room 335.”

Jay Graydon is why the 7/8 scale exists. A scale. Not a pinned Custom Pro on a record.

Also known to play stays the Saturday room Carter lists: Tedesco, Robben Ford, Ritenour, Eddy, Mitch Holder. No Custom Pro serial for any of them here. Brent Mason’s Valley Arts signature, in Vintage Guitar, is a single-cut swamp-ash guitar. Not this double-cut.

Rarity

You cannot order a new Studio City Custom Pro. The Nashville store closed in 2005, and nothing in a 2026 Gibson catalog turned up.

No Custom Pro total was published. None invented. Serials don’t count a year: on the registry’s own thread a 1990 is VA00825 and a 1988 carries a higher number. The 100 Carlton Standard Pros are a different model. So are the M Series, the California Pros, and the Standard Pros. The Interlock was a $250 option. How many got one is not in a factory source. Lukather’s captioned Custom Pro is one guitar. The interview never gives it a serial.

Value

Informal estimate, 30 September 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask versus sold, labeled. No celebrity hammer on this model. The 1989 floor, $1400.00, with quilt at $240 and the Interlock at $250, is 1989 money.

New street. None. No current Custom Pro page in this pass.

Used. No Reverb Price Guide band for a USA Custom Pro S. Don’t invent a midpoint, and don’t fold Teles, Japan, and Samick into one number. Named asks, not hammers: a 1991 USA cherry sunburst at $6,401.45 (Tokyo Guitars, listed); a 1991 one-piece flame, listing ended at $8,481.71 (Kurosawa — last price, not a confirmed hammer); a 2003 Nashville-era HSS at $3,372.84 (Pat Guitars, listed). A Japan M-series, 1988–89, shows sold at $1,950. Other factory.

Vintage / collectible. Pre-Samick USA guitars are the scarce end of the name, because that shop stopped. They are still used guitars, not a one-year run with a published count. The Robot and the ’59 Les Paul are not comps. They are not this model.

See also

  • fender-stratocaster — the 25.5" bolt-on this Studio City guitar was ordered instead of
  • tom-anderson-classic — the other LA custom S; Anderson is a pickup option on the 1989 sheet, not this factory
  • suhr-classic-s — a later Strat-layout from a different Los Angeles shop

Sources

Guitars this one gets compared to, confused with, or descended from.