In 1961, after learning Ukulele, and numerous home made kitchen drawer-and-wooden stick string-twanging machines, I started to build six-string things. Among the very first, seen here held by my first ever playing student, Barry Pyatt, this was probably the third or fourth solid-bodied electric I made. It's a dim memory but the chances are that this was made from a stolen school desk lid...

I turned professional guitar maker and service mechanic in 1972, working with Wing Music, Bromley, Kent, UK. They gave me my first commercial workshop in 1974. So...

Barry Pyatt now runs Angel Films.

Early 2005 - "Gibbon"... (TV100 lookalike) For Mark Dawson at www.golddust.co.uk Recording studios and CD duplication.

Very clever pickup design by Aaron Armstrong (Kent Armstrong & Son) enabled the neck pickup used here to be concealed under the scratchplate with no noticeable volume drop compared to the bridge pickup. Carbon graphite matrix reinforced neck joint. Beeootiful. This was so successful that it inspired me to build one of these for myself; well, two, actually (see below).

A giant guitar sculpture!

(commission)

May 2005 - a very fast and easy utility finish for guitars has been something I've wanted to work out how to do for many years.

This is black PVA applied with a stippling paint brush. The result is similar to the that of a typical bowl-back (very like an Ovation).

Inspired by watching Bob Ross, the TV painter.

The combination of a Telecaster™ ®Fender type neck pickup with an under-saddle piezo transducer on a semi-acoustic body yields a truly fantastic sound (with bronze strings).

<Far left - A recently-auctioned eBay item; built circa 1991, I think - and below, a small experimental acoustic body in plywood, showing decorative crossed-sword motif X-bracing and extra sound holes in Celtic form. Body sacrificed to re-use a good neck.

Fishing-line, kitchen drawer and a resounding "bang" as the bridge fell over. All of the notes were in the wrong place when I stood it up again. We learn about harmonics eventually...

Machine gun water pistol (very powerful). The funny story associated with this is that it was ordered by the customer as a present for someone else who turned out to be a left-handed bass player. Kharma, eh?

Distressed finish

Made from a picture frame back from the Victoria and Albert Museum, the front laminate on this one for some reason proved eye-catching to many punters. It produced voluminous orders. In the end, despite setting the number for the limited edition of hand-made "teles" at 47 (because that was the year of my birth and also the year that Leo Fender developed his ideas for the first properly-serviceable solid bodied electric, the end number was 70-ish. Lost count...

One for the fire

"Brick wall" guitar, complete with overflow pipe, green slime and ivy scratchplate. Plus, far right, "Knotty One" made from scrap pine joist with carved heffalump; neck rosewood and maple.

~ above left; three guitars attempting to 're-invent the wheel', previously adequately covered by Leo Fender...

~above right; a key ring for a lady who will never admit to being 40 years old...

~and to the right; a harp dulcimer for a thalidomide victim

Not a guitar - an electric "Multi-Harp" (1980).

Rubber "Super-ball" suspension again. 7 harps, each of 6 strings, each harp pre-tuned to a separate chord, each chord with its own individual trem system, keyboard selection and cross-fading facilities. Totally the business sound.

For George Thorn, eventually traded for studio time.

See better picture (on Facebook)

More recently, in retirement, I have dabbled again with acoustic guitar experiments, using thin plywood and a kind of fan bracing system. The acoustic guitars you hear on the mp3 tracks from album 1 on this site are mostly recorded with one of these. "Rocks On Mars" was made in my garden, straight to minidisc (when the thing used to work), using this epoxy-coated prototype. The Celtic knotwork style rosette was carved in wax and cast in a silicon rubber mould.

The "Dove". Some time ago, I was given some planks of teak timber and made this axe from it. Not the usual construction material for a solid-bodied electric guitar... necessarily the body had to be extremely thin! The pickup was designed along the lines of a Charlie Christian thingy. Great for recording with effects but not very nice at all straight to amp. Cool thing to own, though. Neck is straight through, one piece with body.

Below is a shot of four of my arsenal of planks...

On the left is "Thing", the body of which is oak (and a lot of superglue). Second from left is "Teamwood", used by Jeff Beck to make the 1990 album "Guitar Workshop". "Dove" you know about. On the right is "Knotty One" made from some old pine joists, rescued from a skip.

Calendar Stone is concrete from silicone mould.

This Zemaitis copy (below left), was built for Roger Wootton of the band Comus. Another example of my bracing system. Below right is a "Dreadnought" proportioned prototype, as suggested by Andy Manson, upon seeing "Nameless" the small-bodied original. This also bears the fan-braced plywood system and black stippled acrylic finish. Epoxy-cast Celtic rosette from wax original via mould.

"Nameless" is Bernie's. Built 2007 for me.

"Beethoven Bear" and two tele copies 1988.

<<< Two 8-stringers - Left: -"Botticello" (see buttocks)

<<< & Right: -"Isabella" electric mandolin.

Below, "Sarah" sitar-harp.

Leo Fender just got it so very right when he designed the Broadcaster, later to become the Telecaster.

It was a huge privilege, I consider, for me to have reproduced this icon of super-classic industrial design so many times over the years.

Impossible to improve upon or simplify, this headstock design just reeks of class and "fit for purpose" style.

A mechanic's spanner is designed for and does just one job and the Telecaster is the perfect machine that the world of modern music needed at the time: - 1947.

Once Leo put a truss-rod in the neck it was "job done".