John Hullah

Timcito · April 2023

My first ever 'good' acoustic was made by ex-Fylde luthier John Hullah back in 1988. I Bought the guitar in what used to be Barretts of Manchester and took it to Spain, where I was living at the time. After a year, I came back to the UK and had it set up personally by John, who was living in Preston, relatively close by my Parents' house. The guitar was a lovely 000 cutaway in cedar and mahogany and became my main guitar for many years.

Does anyone else have a Hullah guitar? If not, has anyone else heard of him or know where he is now? I imagine he must be retired.

JCA2550 · April 2023

A band-mate and good friend had 2 John Hullah Bouzoukis, one acoustic with slightly bowled back and one electric. Both very comfortable to play from memory.

Timcito · April 2023

JCA2550 said:

A band-mate and good friend had 2 John Hullah Bouzoukis, one acoustic with slightly bowled back and one electric. Both very comfortable to play from memory.

Now that you mention it, I have a memory that Hullah made a name for himself more from other stringed instruments than for guitars. I may be wrong on that - it's a very distant bell that rang there!

Supportact · April 2023

I'm pretty sure someone was selling one of his guitars on here a while back. Never tried one, but if they are in any way similar to Fylde then I'm sure they're great.

Timcito · April 2023

Supportact said:

I'm pretty sure someone was selling one of his guitars on here a while back. Never tried one, but if they are in any way similar to Fylde then I'm sure they're great.

Mine had a rich, woody timbre to it with a lot of punch in the mids. It really came into its own for me when I got into learning Joplin rags.

Wazmeister · April 2023

I've owned a few of John's guitars - all excellent - and I visited his home where he made them a few times. He did EVERYTHING by hand, literally.

He ended up with a workshop/home in Anglesey.

I think he went on to make high end HiFi speakers, as the boutique acoustic market was not as robust as it is now, maybe.

I think his great grandfather was a close friend of Charles Dickens !

Really lovely guitars.

Timcito · April 2023

Wazmeister said:

I've owned a few of John's guitars - all excellent - and I visited his home where he made them a few times.

Was that the caravan? When I went to his place around 1989, his workshop was in a caravan next to his house.

Basher · May 2023

Timcito said:

Does anyone else have a Hullah guitar? If not, has anyone else heard of him or know where he is now? I imagine he must be retired.

I used to look longingly at the bouzoukis and mandolins that were sold through the Halshaw Music catalogue.

I later owned a handmade bouzouki-type-thing that was very much in the Fylde style and someone suggested it was an early Hullah. Absolutely no evidence for that though, other than a high build quality and similar construction method & materials.

The following discussion suggests that he packed in making instruments about 10 years ago but I don't know how reliable the posts are:

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=152432

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John Hullah

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