Guitar Bodies FAQ

No. Please understand this product does not include the guitar body. The customer must provide the guitar body fully stripped of the neck and all hardware for modification. If you are uncomfortable doing so yourself, we recommend you have a skilled local Luthier to do that for you.

There are many guitar bodies on the market and many of them can be laser engraved. However, some materials they might consist of may be harmful to process.  Please be sure to specify make, model, and year when filling out the guitar body form so we could confirm if the manufacturer used any materials on that model that might be harmful for us to laser engrave. 

1.  Contact Us Here with the make, model, and year of the guitar body so we may confirm that we can safely process it.  If it is safe to laser your guitar body, we will reply with a confirmation number for you to enter with your order. DO NOT strip the guitar until we have confirmed. 

2. Choose your engraving options in the shop and add them to your cart. Make any important notes about what text you are adding or the band logo you are sending in for incorporation into our designs. In the drop-down menus, include the confirmation number from the confirmation email, serial number and model of guitar.  NOTE: You will need the confirmation number to process your order.

3. We recommend that you also purchase shipping insurance for your return. We offer this under ‘Shipping Insurance’ in the shop. There you will choose your return shipping carrier, select the amount of insurance, and add Return Shipping Signature/Insurance to the cart.  If shipping insurance is not added, the customer assumes all liability for loss or damage incurred during return transit once the guitar body leaves our facility.  All guitar bodies sent in for custom work will be returned to the shipping address provided at the time of order. Please double check your address for accuracy.

4. Place your order with us, print out 2 copies of the invoice, one to keep for your records, and one to include in the box with your stripped guitar body.  Please send them to us at:

Dust Storm Engraving

6945 E Whispering Mesquite Trl.

Scottsdale, AZ 85266

5. Once we receive your guitar body and it is checked in you will receive an email that it has arrived and is in the process of being worked on. Please allow a few days from the time your tracking says “Delivered” to receive the email from us. We thoroughly unbox each package and this takes time.  If there is any damage from transit, we will report it to you with photos before and after unboxing. 

6. When your guitar body has been completed, we will email you the return shipping information with tracking.

7. Receive your custom Dust Storm and have your mind blown!

GUITAR BODIES ARE FRAGILE! The corners and edges are especially vulnerable areas. It is critical to package your guitar body well for shipping to prevent damage during transit. We recommend wrapping your guitar body in several layers of polyethylene foam (or multiple layers of bubble wrap), taking special care to protect the back corners and edges. Go over all open edges of the packed, closed box with clear packing tape to prevent any water getting in there.  Packages sometimes do get delivered in the rain. 

DO NOT SIMPLY PUT YOUR GUITAR BODY IN A BOX OR ENVELOPE WITHOUT PADDING! IT WILL BE DAMAGED!

A good test is to shake the box after you have packaged your guitar body. If you can hear it moving around, you have not used enough padding… if there is any doubt, add more padding.  DO NOT wrap a lot of tape on the padding wrapping the guitar body as it might stick to the body and the padding will be reused.  Only use enough tape to hold the padding in place. We also recommend writing your order number outside on the box.

It is the customer’s responsibility to ensure their axe is not damaged in transit on the way here.

We have a video on our Shipping Page to assist you further with how to pack your guitar body up.

Again, we strongly recommend thoroughly packing up your guitar body, so no damage happens to it or the packaging resulting in your guitar being lost in the mail.

Max dimensions: 32” L x 20” H x 10” D

Absolutely.  Laser engraving is a permanent modification that cannot be reversed. The combination of stripping the hardware and neck from the guitar body plus engraving it will probably void any warranty you have. 

What is the “Return Shipping Signature/Insurance” option?

This option allows the customer to purchase their desired level of liability protection from the carrier of their choice during return shipping. You may purchase it by Clicking Here.

Please see our Shipping Page for complete directions on how to ship in your guitar body.

Currently 4 -8 weeks. Please note that lead times are fluid and are subject to change without notice due to current workload, and do not include holidays or shipping times.

The current lead time is 4-8 weeks with an additional 1-3 weeks for color fill. 

If you are inside of those first 4-8 weeks, please be patient, it is difficult and time-consuming for us to keep every single customer updated.

After you place your order, you will be able to view your current order status by logging into your customer account.

Once you send your guitar body and it is received here, we will inventory it into our system and mark your order as “Received/In Process”. Please allow up to one week from the time your guitar body arrives here for us to get it unboxed and inventoried. You will receive an email when your order is updated to “Received/In Process”.

If we find any issues with your order once it has been inventoried into our system, we will contact you directly at that time.

The next update you will receive from us is when the work is completed, and we are shipping your order back to you.

You will receive a tracking number via email when your order ships.

In an effort to keep lead times as low as possible for all customers, it is our company policy not to provide more detailed status updates.

There are five order statuses.

Awaiting Fulfillment:  Which is what your order shows on our backend when you have placed your order.

Package Arrived at Dust Storm Engraving:  Which is the status change that happens when your guitar body is unboxed in our shop, we email you a “Received/In Process” email and put it into the queue for work.

Engrave:  Status of making it a reality.

Design: The creation process and longest status.

Shipped: Final status,

We have had guitars engraved with our designs tested for issues prior to their release to the public. We do not release products that we feel are a danger to the user, or those that have significant reliability issues. With that said, every individual guitar body and player is different, so certain modifications may alter the reliability and/or sound of your guitar.  Obviously, all of our laser engraving services will remove some mass from the guitar body. We find that most models continue to function as intended from the factory even with significant engraving.

Yes! We can fill the engraved areas with an oil-based paint to achieve a higher contrast. However, we do not do any kind of sealing or clear coating afterwards. With use the paints might patina making a cool, antiqued look. Color fill looks great but is not necessary. Purely personal preference of the guitar owner.

Please see our Policy Page

Any and all warranty work or repairs for products not manufactured by Dust Storm Engraving INC cannot be handled by our company, even if the product was originally purchased from us. Customers must contact the original manufacturer of the product for any warranty claims or repair requests. Dust Storm Engraving INC is not responsible for any defects or issues with products not manufactured by us, and we are unable to provide warranty services for such products.