30 plus years' heritage

I'm now in my 33rd year as a professional Luthier

Having completed my training in 1992, I am now in my 33rd year as a luthier. This page covers my:

Formative years before training
Specific luthier training years at the London College of Furniture, under master luthiers: Herbert Schwarz, Michael Gee and Philip David Knight
Approach to my training and the early instruments built
Parallel work as a repairer and consultant
Relatively untold story of building guitars for the late John Renbourn, with me being the last independent luthier that John worked with, to develop both six and seven string instruments
The reestablishment of my work, after illness and sabbatical for further study

Formative Years

Having taken up guitar in my early teens I built my first guitar at the age of just 14 with the oversight of a professional violin maker friend, Philip David Knight. Eighteen months later I applied to the renowned London College of Furniture (LCF) to train in modern luthiery with Czech master luthier Herbert Schwarz as my senior tutor, alongside fellow master luthier, Michael Gee. On being accepted to the college I became only the second student in LCF history to commence training at just 16 (the first being Michael Gee himself).

After four years, I graduated in 1992 with both Ordinary and Higher National Diplomas in Modern Fretted Luthiery and then established my workshop in Chelmsford, Essex.

My four year apprenticeship at college was a fantastic experience which I enjoyed immensely as I benefitted from the experience and tuition of some of the country’s finest luthiers, not to mention the banter, knowledge and skills of my fellow students. As a student-apprentice I made a whole variety of acoustic guitar types including: classical, steel string, lute-back, octave, resonator and archtop. I also chose to gain wide experience of working different wood species and especially so with reference to soundboards. My final dissertation focussed on the subject of alternative and composite materials in guitar making.

During term-time I was learning from Herbert and Mike, while at weekends and holidays I benefitted immensely from the oversite of Philip David Knight and was able to use his workshop (he was also an LCF master tutor in violin making). Philip kindly coped with guitar projects in his workshop, and more-so he also actively encouraged my experimentation with materials and design.

By graduation I’d made 15 guitars and repaired/restored a bunch more.

Getting to Work

Having started out in business I offered set up, repair and restoration services alongside my bespoke builds. Further to that, I also worked as a consultant luthier, repairer and technician for the UK importers of brands such as Gibson, Rickenbacker, Epiphone and Dean Guitars. Incredibly, over a five year period I set up or repaired over 20,000 guitars!! The people were good fun, but ultimately it wasn’t ‘the dream’, yet it did give me massive experience as I worked with every guitar/manufacturer design issue imaginable. Even today I doubt there are many luthiers in the UK who have worked on as many guitars over their entire career. Those hours of overtime seemed endless!

Therefore, on entering my third decade I decided to concentrate solely on bespoke guitar making. And to this day I don’t repair anymore, though at times I do undertake major restorations.

Since those formative years, I have largely concentrated on making pre-war OM and Dreadnaught guitars alongside my Davies Jumbo Type-R. That said, variety is never far away and parlours, acoustic basses and resonators are occasional orders too.