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There isn't much voodoo to building a 'glass rod or graphite rod. Customer selects blank and components before order, piddling around about it for a few weeks, or else that takes less than an hour. Then the production time starts. Components installed, guides wrapped: one or two evenings. I guess you could add a few days for test casting with various guide spacings, but that is mostly bunk and the builder should pretty much know the spacing that's right on the blanks used, the truth being that a variety of spacings would work fine anyhow. If the builder has to test too much, it's because he doesn't know what he's doing. Finish applied, a week or two if using varnish--still the best way. A couple days if using an epoxy finish--the quick way. Total time, three weeks max. I'm not a custom builder by any means, but for goodness sakes. Back when I assembled a few rods for people, they'd get the blank, we'd go to a nearby shop for any other components they wanted if they hadn't ordered them, and they'd be fishing with the rod in a few weeks. Let's see, I worked full time, fished most evenings and often early morning as well, and still did a neat functional job that resulted in a rod the acquaintance was proud of. The wraps usually included trim wraps, and I never used prebuilt handles, but built them up from rings and shaped them to the owner's liking, this with no other equipment than a drill and dowels and sandpaper. I didn't charge anything, just received a little gift, or a trade of tackle or flies, since I tie flies but don't especially enjoy it.

As for bamboo, yes, much more refined, specialized work in making the rod itself, but if that is the builder's passon, he'd be all over it, with basic tapers in progress. Then component assembly and such, almost as quick as 'glass.

As for communication: place order with specifications and requested delivery date. Maker confirms or revises with date certain. No more communication needed except delivery and final billing. Courtesy updates or responses to inquiries during the build period are fine but unneeded. If the gestation period is too long, skip the chants, sonograms, herbal tea, tall tales, global imaging, in vitro educational conditioning and so on. Abort and get a rod from someone who delivers. Ignore the builders who give all the complex reasons they can't deliver in a reasonable time. A good fly rod is charming, but there's no mysticism in building one on a schedule.

A rod builder doesn't have any mystic privilege to defy the laws of business sense; heck, even most electricians don't try to get away with that any more. If he is doing this so far on the side that he barely does it at all over 18 months, then the would be buyer might as well learn the basics and build his own, which could be done by anyone in less time than that. Or if the builder is just a stealth hobbyist with the "labor of love" cover, then why does he charge so much. If you are paying, you need someone who loves labor.