Early years
After being captivated by Steve Jones' (Sex Pistols) and Geordie Walker's (Killing Joke) guitar sounds in my early teens, the passion for anything to do with electric guitars was well and truly ignited when I wandered past a junk shop in 1981 and saw what was to be my first electric guitar. After raising the princely sum of £10 to buy the guitar, I proudly took it home and was soon annoying everyone.
I soon realised that cheap 'junk shop' guitars weren't quite up to the mark, so I set about some early attempts at re-finishing, re-frets and general upgrades. Some were more successful than others but overall I loved what I was doing.
Recent years
Rolling forward to 1998, I had bought Mervyn Hiscox's book 'Make your own electric guitar'. This was the pivotal point in my career, and I've been passionate about designing and building guitars ever since. At first, orders were very slow and I made a living carrying out repairs to pay the bills whilst building instruments for pleasure. I would trawl these early guitars around with me to certain gigs and try to get backstage to get feedback from guitarists I admired. It wasn't very long before I made a name for myself locally, and soon after, internationally.
My first endorsee was the acclaimed guitarist from the band 'A', a fabulous player by the name of Mark Chapman. This was soon followed by a phone call by my good friend and top luthier Martyn Booth asking me if I'd be interested in restoring Brian May's first guitar. This was the second pivotal point in my career, one that would catapult me from relative obscurity to international recognition. After restoring Brian's early guitar I was asked to produce faithful replicas of his famed Red Special. The full story of this guitar can be found on the Red Special page of this site.
Following my association with Brian May, I soon started getting phone calls from people such as Bryan Adams, and the sadly now departed, Gerry Rafferty.
After being captivated by Steve Jones' (Sex Pistols) and Geordie Walker's (Killing Joke) guitar sounds in my early teens, the passion for anything to do with electric guitars was well and truly ignited when I wandered past a junk shop in 1981 and saw what was to be my first electric guitar. After raising the princely sum of £10 to buy the guitar, I proudly took it home and was soon annoying everyone.
I soon realised that cheap 'junk shop' guitars weren't quite up to the mark, so I set about some early attempts at re-finishing, re-frets and general upgrades. Some were more successful than others but overall I loved what I was doing.
Recent years
Rolling forward to 1998, I had bought Mervyn Hiscox's book 'Make your own electric guitar'. This was the pivotal point in my career, and I've been passionate about designing and building guitars ever since. At first, orders were very slow and I made a living carrying out repairs to pay the bills whilst building instruments for pleasure. I would trawl these early guitars around with me to certain gigs and try to get backstage to get feedback from guitarists I admired. It wasn't very long before I made a name for myself locally, and soon after, internationally.
My first endorsee was the acclaimed guitarist from the band 'A', a fabulous player by the name of Mark Chapman. This was soon followed by a phone call by my good friend and top luthier Martyn Booth asking me if I'd be interested in restoring Brian May's first guitar. This was the second pivotal point in my career, one that would catapult me from relative obscurity to international recognition. After restoring Brian's early guitar I was asked to produce faithful replicas of his famed Red Special. The full story of this guitar can be found on the Red Special page of this site.
Following my association with Brian May, I soon started getting phone calls from people such as Bryan Adams, and the sadly now departed, Gerry Rafferty.