British electric guitar makers who make their own necks and bodies

PNE63 · September 2023

Are there any electric guitar makers in the UK (eg Eggle) making the whole guitar themselves - their own necks and bodies - these days? I know pickups will most likely be out sourced.

JRgtar · September 2023

I think Gray Guitars do

p90fool · September 2023

Rob Williams Guitars.

GoldenEraGuitars · September 2023

Kithara Guitars do. Chris buys his own wood stock and makes everything from scratch, absolutely superb luthier.

@Danielsguitars also do. Darren prefers set neck builds and everything is handmade in house, he even does his own spraying/finishing.

rlw · September 2023

Flame Guitars

Benm39 · September 2023

Trent

ZenOvertone · September 2023

Eternal guitars in Chichester (plus Dave winds his own pickups too)

Bigsby · September 2023

Gordon Smith, (they make their own pickups too).

Penn · September 2023

Do crimson now?

mudslide73 · September 2023

Mike Smith of Southport. I reckon my next one will be one of his.

Fishboy7 · September 2023

I imagine most do - seeing as that's the two main parts of the actual guitar

TrentGuitars · September 2023

Yes I build everything from raw stock and the pickup parts come from axesrus which I then wind myself.

danishbacon · September 2023

Zero One

floeighty2 · September 2023

Ancoats Guitars does as well.

GoldenEraGuitars · September 2023

Fishboy7 said:

I imagine most do - seeing as that's the two main parts of the actual guitar

Some “F type” bolt on neck “builders” will use bought in bodies and necks though, as opposed to making them themselves because it’s cheaper to do and they don’t have the facilities to manufacture a body and neck.

Jonathangus · September 2023

No-one's mentioned @FelineGuitars or @IvisonGuitars yet.

chrisj1602 · September 2023

Fidelity

Corvus · September 2023

Me. Most will.

If a thing is cheap, best ask yourself why - like I'm just buying for three builds, the first one is well north of £800 in materials with more to go.

Sassafras · September 2023

Ian Elson?

richardhomer · September 2023

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Fishboy7 said:

I imagine most do - seeing as that's the two main parts of the actual guitar

Some “F type” bolt on neck “builders” will use bought in bodies and necks though, as opposed to making them themselves because it’s cheaper to do and they don’t have the facilities to manufacture a body and neck.

Sounds Very Likely…

MSedg · September 2023

Atkin (plus pickups)

WezV · September 2023

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Fishboy7 said:

I imagine most do - seeing as that's the two main parts of the actual guitar

Some “F type” bolt on neck “builders” will use bought in bodies and necks though, as opposed to making them themselves because it’s cheaper to do and they don’t have the facilities to manufacture a body and neck.

Plus there seems to be a growing number where most of the woodwork is outsourced to someone with the appropriate machines.

guitargeek62 · September 2023

Penn said:

Do crimson now?

Yes - I had a full tour of their facilities while on a course there this week and it’s all in-house, they also offer their own pickups too that are made there.

guitargeek62 · September 2023

WezV said:

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Fishboy7 said:

I imagine most do - seeing as that's the two main parts of the actual guitar

Some “F type” bolt on neck “builders” will use bought in bodies and necks though, as opposed to making them themselves because it’s cheaper to do and they don’t have the facilities to manufacture a body and neck.

Plus there seems to be a growing number where most of the woodwork is outsourced to someone with the appropriate machines.

I’m likely to go down this partial route for a couple of early steps where it doesn’t warrant the setup space & costs (e.g. thickness sanders etc.) - partly because I have other options that I can access easily nearby though! I’m also not planning to do much in the way of in-house spray finishing, though that may change - I suspect this is something that many outsource in part too, depending on finish & build requirements.

WezV · September 2023

guitargeek62 said:

WezV said:

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Fishboy7 said:

I imagine most do - seeing as that's the two main parts of the actual guitar

Some “F type” bolt on neck “builders” will use bought in bodies and necks though, as opposed to making them themselves because it’s cheaper to do and they don’t have the facilities to manufacture a body and neck.

Plus there seems to be a growing number where most of the woodwork is outsourced to someone with the appropriate machines.

I’m likely to go down this partial route for a couple of early steps where it doesn’t warrant the setup space & costs (e.g. thickness sanders etc.) - partly because I have other options that I can access easily nearby though! I’m also not planning to do much in the way of in-house spray finishing, though that may change - I suspect this is something that many outsource in part too, depending on finish & build requirements.

You can't call yourself a luthier if you didn't chop the tree down yourself.

In all honesty, I don't think it matters if a builder does everything or not... it's the end result that matters.

I do like to do as much as myself as possible, but I'm building one off guitars.

I don't bother so much when making standard Fender style stuff. I will happily use decent parts and focus my build time on stuff that can't come off the shelf. But then I don't do as much of that stuff these days for that reason.

GoldenEraGuitars · September 2023

WezV said:

guitargeek62 said:

WezV said:

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Fishboy7 said:

I imagine most do - seeing as that's the two main parts of the actual guitar

Some “F type” bolt on neck “builders” will use bought in bodies and necks though, as opposed to making them themselves because it’s cheaper to do and they don’t have the facilities to manufacture a body and neck.

Plus there seems to be a growing number where most of the woodwork is outsourced to someone with the appropriate machines.

I’m likely to go down this partial route for a couple of early steps where it doesn’t warrant the setup space & costs (e.g. thickness sanders etc.) - partly because I have other options that I can access easily nearby though! I’m also not planning to do much in the way of in-house spray finishing, though that may change - I suspect this is something that many outsource in part too, depending on finish & build requirements.

You can't call yourself a luthier if you didn't chop the tree down yourself.

In all honesty, I don't think it matters if a builder does everything or not... it's the end result that matters.

I do like to do as much as myself as possible, but I'm building one off guitars.

I don't bother so much when making standard Fender style stuff. I will happily use decent parts and focus my build time on stuff that can't come off the shelf. But then I don't do as much of that stuff these days for that reason.

I would never call myself a luthier, although I do laugh at some of those who do. I get called an “artist” which I’m delighted with. Takes the pressure off and gives me that mental freedom I need. The end result is absolutely all that matters but I do wonder why some a) lie about buying parts in and b) try to use the word “luthier” as if they think they can fool their customers to believing they are one when all they do is assemble ready finished items. Of course, that raises the question “what makes a luthier” which has been covered here many times before, I’m sure

ICBM · September 2023

Sassafras said:

Ian Elson?

The perfect illustration of why making everything by hand yourself is not necessarily a good thing.

Danielsguitars · September 2023

WezV said:

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Fishboy7 said:

I imagine most do - seeing as that's the two main parts of the actual guitar

Some “F type” bolt on neck “builders” will use bought in bodies and necks though, as opposed to making them themselves because it’s cheaper to do and they don’t have the facilities to manufacture a body and neck.

Plus there seems to be a growing number where most of the woodwork is outsourced to someone with the appropriate machines.

I would like some transparency with what is actually made by the maker because it's not the same outsourcing and just assembling rather than going wood shopping and making from scratch, there's a time and price difference.

I don't care who's doing what but it would be nice to know so people have an idea why hand made costs X over cheaper Y

GoldenEraGuitars · September 2023

Danielsguitars said:

WezV said:

GoldenEraGuitars said:

Fishboy7 said:

I imagine most do - seeing as that's the two main parts of the actual guitar

Some “F type” bolt on neck “builders” will use bought in bodies and necks though, as opposed to making them themselves because it’s cheaper to do and they don’t have the facilities to manufacture a body and neck.

Plus there seems to be a growing number where most of the woodwork is outsourced to someone with the appropriate machines.

I would like some transparency with what is actually made by the maker because it's not the same outsourcing and just assembling rather than going wood shopping and making from scratch, there's a time and price difference.

I don't care who's doing what but it would be nice to know so people have an idea why hand made costs X over cheaper Y

I see a lot of “handmade” nonsense getting thrown about and theres obviously something strange when a “handmade telecaster” is £1200, for example. These people/companies are either lying to their customer base or enjoy paying themselves £3.64 an hour because the materials and overheads alone wouldn’t make it feesable.

Sporky · September 2023

I suspect "handmade" includes running a pin router around a laser-cut template.

But not a CNC machine following the same profile that was used to make the template (with the same amount of prep and finishing needed).

rlw · September 2023

Josh Parkin

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

British electric guitar makers who make their own necks and bodies

Comments