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UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45
Custom & Specialist UK Builders
TTony
Frets: 26143
A list of UK-based builders who can build your custom guitar, and/or who are building some great guitars under their own brand name.
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In no particular order, other than alphabetical, UK-based small / custom electric guitar builders and luthiers.
What would be absolutely, hugely, incredibly GREAT, would be to get your review, photos and/or playing clips of any guitars that you have from any of these UK-based guitar builders. Just reply to the thread.
And, if you know of others that aren't on list, reply to the thread and I'll update the master list.
Bailey Guitars - where Mark Bailey makes dreams come true ...
Blackmachine
Case Guitars
Coley Guitars
Crimson Guitars
Dalmedo
Diaz Guitars - one day, one day.
Ethos Guitars
Eve Guitars
Feline Guitars Oh yes!
Flame Guitars
Ged Green
GMR basses
Gordon Smith
Goulding Guitars
Gus
Guyton Guitars
HJ Williams
Jaden Rose
James Blake
JJ Guitars - still going strong
JXG Guitars - we've seen some of these on the forum over the years ..
Legra
Lindsay Wilson
Longfellow - aluminium
MacPherson Guitars
Martyn Booth - the Martyn Booth
McIntyre
MPL
Nocturne - Jem builds what he loves, and we loves what he builds.
Organic
Ormsby Guitars
Overwater Basses
Patrick Eggle - not really *small", but had to be on the list!
Pete Woodman
Philip Porter
PR Guitars - no "S"
Probett Guitars
Rees Guitars
Rob Williams
Sabre Guitars - A rapidly developing reputation.
Serpentine Guitars
Simnett Guitars - well known to some of us.
Solwayer Guitars
Status Graphite
Stormshadow Guitarworks
Vanquish Guitars
Wez Venables - Wez does guitars, not websites
Paul doesn't make electrics, but he's a top bloke and he does make just about any other musical instrument with strings on that you can imagine, so an honorary entry on the list to;
Paul Hathway
PS thanks for the link2thisplace T
*sigh* I am such an ingenue
No power tools used at any point? Bullhonky. The frets certainly won't have been hand-made. Most of the hardware will have been pumped out of CNC machines. And given the price and the stacks of half-finished ones in the gallery, I'm confident that they're as hand made as an iPhone.
Some beautiful looking work there.
Is he still building? I've not noticed any updates to the website in ages - not that I'm a frequent visitor to the site. He's not a million miles away from me either ...
Sims Custom near Ashford, Kent,
http://simscustom.com/html/home.htm
I know when I was chatting with Martyn Booth he was telling me we are a very limited market. Most people ( and would suggest that "most" of us on this forum do not fit into this group) when spending a fair amount of cash will go for one of the big names. For this reason it is hard to make any kind of living out of it.
Knowing the poor resale of custom built guitars , I would expect those of us who own one (I have a MB Special) buy them as "keepers"
How about we do some reviews of "our" small/custom build guitars?
Between us, I think we've got guitars from a fair few of the builders listed, and it's only going to help raise awareness of their products if we review them here?
I'm thinking lots of pics ... as objective as we can be ... explain why you went with that option rather than a "name" brand on the headstock ... anything you don't like about it ... etc?
I'm also thinking that we'd highlight the reviews via our Twitter feed, all helping to raise awareness of the site too.
Who's up for some reviewing of their guitar/s?
I first meet Andy Guyton back in 2003 when we moved to Norfolk. I had an ES1275 that was in need of some wiring attention and I was recommended to him by Cooke's of Norwich. It turned out that we only lived about 4 miles from his workshop and a mile from where he was living at the time.
He is one of those guys that you instantly warm to, very self effacing and a thoroughly decent sort.
Whilst showing him the problem with the wiring, he showed me a few things that he had in for attention and then produced the superb Solid Rosewood Necked Beauty that he had recently completed for himself. Think Double Cut LP Junior ish, loaded with 3 Seymour Duncan P90s, A Roland Synth Pickup, a Hipshot Trem and some of the most beautifully done switching that I have ever seen. Eventually, that became my first Guyton.
I had become very impressed with all that Andy was doing and thoughts began to turn towards having a guitar built. Andy took tremendous time and care designing the guitar that we had spoken about so much during the previous months, taking great care that all the quirks I had thrown at him where catered for and then some. I wanted a Mahogany Bodied, Maple Capped Guitar that was specifically designed more towards the player who would mainly be seated when playing, I wanted as much of an improvement on upper fret access as was possible, given that we were mainly thinking Single Cutaway. The Guitar had to balance perfectly not only when on your leg, but also when strapped on. The biggest point being that I wanted the neck of my R04 replicated. Yes it was big, but it was also the nicest neck I had ever met.
Andy drew up a few ideas which we then looked at closely and ended up scrapping them in favour of something that came about by a chance comment I made about a Musicman Access Sport that was in the workshop. So the body ended up looking like that, but lightly more offset so that it would balance better when on your knee. The only thing that I had very definite ideas about was Pickups, Andy was using either Seymour Duncan or Wizard Pickups on just about everything he did so my providing Bare Knuckles Crawlers was something new to him, he is now a Stockist.
So, Two Humbuckers, Coil Tapped by a Push Push Tone Pot and we were in business. The one thing we had both agreed upon at the outset was that this would be a Wrap Over Bridge. Andy had played my R04 on many an occasion and was really taken with the incredible amount of resonance that the Wrapover produced, so a Tonepros Wrapover would be the bridge of choice.
Everything was covered in minute detail, he did scratch his head a bit when I said that I wanted something similar to Martin's Snow Flake Inlays, but on hindsight, not only did it work, but I believe that it inspired another customer to have the same style on his build.
The finished guitar was without a doubt the most resonant that I had ever met. This of course translated into something pretty special when plugged in, The sum of the parts worked really well and the BKP Crawlers were everything that I had hoped for and then some. The Coil Tap engaged on Both Pickups and the selector in the centre position gave an “almost” Piezo Acoustic sound which had to be heard to be believed.
Interestingly, as mine was being built, another commission came in that was very similar, so it proved interesting to hear the differences between to two guitars once completed. The second one had a much smaller neck than mine, was powered by Wizard Pickups and in addition to Coil Taps also had a Phase reversal switch. They were both similar, but most would agree that “Pyro” as mine became known, had a far throatier sound and for various reasons, but mainly we believed the Wrapover, had considerably more sustain.
As you will have seen from the photos I put up, Pyro gained a Sister, known as China Belle. Same Body and Top, but with a Fender Scale Maple Neck and Board.
This one featured Andy's own Trem
design and was powered by BKP Mississippi Queens. This was an out and out Rocker whereas Pyro was a slightly more polite Blues Rocker. Both guitars were everything that I could have wanted and saw quite a lot of action when I was still gigging. They are both now owned by a collector on the South Coast and still get out and about to various gigs I gather.
I should mention I suppose that it had never been my intention to part with them, but due to a financial crisis of monumental proportions befalling my step daughter, they, along with all of my gear, had to go to raise money to bail her out. The only way to look at this situation is that I can at least say that I “used” to have some truly beautiful guitars etc.
Time for another "my custom guitar" review I think.
Who's got something from Martyn Booth?
#10 from the first run
Spec:
African sapele body - 1 piece
Canadian rock maple neck with sapele headstock laminate
Jaden Rose ceramic pickups with Dimarzio coil split
Black wax finish
It has a wide thin neck with 17" radius with 24 frets - almost reuleaux trianges with a rounded top. The body is a slab top andthinner than a strat. It differs from an Ibanez RG because of the radius applied to all the edges.
The ceramic pickups are hot and suited to hard rock, metal and shread. I have found that it requires a bit of EQ tweaking to get the best out of them. They work well to drive an amp, and crunch tone with an SD jazz turns into a heavy rock two on these pickups without any changes to the settings.
The action was low and fast. Jaden not only makes excellent guitar but also sets them p brilliantly. The only issues with the fit and finish are some of the edges around the pearl inlays are slightly rough.
I have not had it long enough (& don't gig) so can't comment on reliability but give the quality of the instrument and simplicity I expect it last longer than the duracell bunny.
Over all a massive thumbs up. Excellent especially when you take into account it is available from £899 and made in the UK. Various specs are available, as is a Jaden/Hiscox hardcase, and all are option extras.
All in all 8.5/10 - a workhorse guitar that really impresses.
Charlie Chandler of CCGX (Hampton Wick) will build you a great Strat or Tele from top notch parts.
Simon at SVL and Matt Schofield's tech, repairer makes lovely guitars and someone from MR had one of his gorgeous Olympic white Strats..
Nothing really innovative or original here but great luthiers.
Sadly, we don't have the great Sid Poole with us anymore and he made some great originals and LP clones.
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!