spot the crooked 10th fret...

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...
Guitars
(some of them, old and new...)
Very clever pickup design by Aaron Armstrong (Kent Armstrong & Son)

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).

For Me !!!

A really excellent upgrade for the standard Fender® Stratocaster (click)...

"Thing" & "Baby Blue"
Left - "Thing" - 1997
Right - "Baby Blue" late 2004 -
and one for the stove (below)... 1990
burn, baby, burn!!!
late 2004 a guitar called "Fetish" late 2004 - a guitar called "Fetish"

Aberaeron, Wales UK

What's happening May 2005? A giant guitar sculpture (above) is constructed.

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. See Art pages...

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).

<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.

'Arthur'

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...

"The Thing" (super 'widdly-diddly' heavy metal rock guitar) and "Plankensticken" ~fretless bass~ both made for use in The Ankh Band.
Browser Default

Not much to say about any of this...

Just a small selection of custom guitars is all.

1988 - 1997

Full-screen would help here.

"Gis'nob"
Hand made parts

"The Fly"

"Blues Junior"

(Rolling ball volume control and staggered humbucker)
Hand made parts

machine gun water pistol

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?

< Machine gun guitar

17th century >>> Telecaster™ copy. The hurricane of 1987 which hit the South of England made old barns collapse and provided me with the opportunity to make some really unique instruments.

17th century tele

various copy

"teles"™

®Fender
bird's eye maple

Hand made parts

Hand made parts.

Distressed finish very popular.
'beer colored' (requested)
TEAMWOOD (4"x2" body) distressed finish very popular...

brass parts; hand made pickups

Distressed finish
engraved with hops for Kentish Farmer

"Disturbaphon"

nylon "hinged" trem
nylon hinged trem

one-piece brass nut-string tee
three necks and three bodies at once (never repeated)
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...
Dear old Beethoven "Bear"

"Brick wall" guitar, complete with overflow pipe, green slime and ivy scratchplate.

Electric harp made from armchair and stair bannister. Solid aluminium 18-string electric guitar, with trem system, given to Pete Townsend of 'The Who' (Break this, you f***er!)...

Takes ages but at least you know you're breathing high quality dust...

  

A plastic (Formica fronted) antifeedback acoustic prior to the back being fitted. 1994.

plastic guitar construction

Download (20 kb)

Download (439 kb)

(Download mpeg samples)
 
three from 1976she'll never admit to 40

~ 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
The Ford 34 Coupé guitar. Built for Jeff Beck in 1992 (commissioned by a mutual acquaintance). Body and wheels carved in Jelutong (pattern-maker's favourite) wood.

What's happening early 2004?(A beginner's guide to guitar design and construction).

"Flying Plank" for Troy Tempest.

"George" guitar. Rubber "Super-ball" suspension trem system developed over 5 year period 1974-1979. This was the first axe I built at Yalding, Kent, upon moving there in 1978, from South-East London. 10 years later, Troy Tempest offered George Thorn a lot of money for this instrument but the offer was declined and the would-be punter was told I had ceased building. Troy approached me and had two guitars built to his own design. This brought me out of temporary retirement and eventually led to the limited edition of "tele"(™) copies built between 1988 - 1997 (about 80-90 lost count...)

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.

start somewhere else <<< and for some other very weird and wonderful links to obscure places on this site, click the drip...

Browser Default

or go to top