Well I've had a good chat with Guy Harrison, and he's offered me to come to the workshop to discuss things, as well as show me the workshop and the wood he has in stock. Basically showing me how he chooses the wood and what works best for what he's trying to achieve. He seems pretty knowledgeable so I look forward to meeting him. I had a good few emails with him and he's happy to spend time on trying to achieve what works for me, rather than just ask for a spec and say "Ok, here, it's built!". He's also about an hours drive away so that works good as well.
He's charging around £3,500 average for a Les Paul build with highly detailed figured tops, and fingerboards made out of woods such as Brazilian Rosewood. It's going to be quite an in-depth build, so I'm happy to go ahead with him as I have a good idea what I want, but he's flexible to consider options and to provide his own input. I look forward to working with him.
I won't be able to afford the build until next March, but I'm going to pay a deposit after the initial meeting if we decide we're both happy. Then it should be done 5/6 months later, so looking around September 2014. I'll be getting BKPs installed, so I should hopefully provide a decent thread of the condsruction from timbers to final.