It's funny, archtop guitars have been much on my mind of late. Maybe it was performing on Linda Manzer's Iceberg at the closing ceremony of the Group of Seven exhibition in London...
Or discussing the joys of good archtops with…
Read moreAug 5 2019
It's funny, archtop guitars have been much on my mind of late. Maybe it was performing on Linda Manzer's Iceberg at the closing ceremony of the Group of Seven exhibition in London...
Or discussing the joys of good archtops with…
Read moreJul 29 2019
Luthier Jason Kostal is rightly recognised for his attention to detail at all stages in the guitar making process and during my recent visit to his workshop in Phoenix Arizona we had a chat about the importance of string choice…
Read moreJul 21 2019
Over the past few years Rory Dowling of Taran Guitars has been working on a very special new design with legendary UK guitarist Martin Simpson! Yes, really!
Taking inspiration from a 1930's Martin and Rory's Tirga Mhor design this…
Read moreJul 16 2019
I recently spent a wonderful morning at the Tate Modern in London catching up with a dear friend of mine, guitar collector and musician turned luthier Howard Feng.
We met at The Tate Modern to get some inspiration, there is…
Read moreJul 12 2019
Nick Branwell is a London-based luthier who is perhaps best known for his beautiful Torres style classical guitars. Recently Nick has turned his attentions to the steel-string acoustic instrument and he invited me to visit his workshop this week to…
Read moreJul 10 2019
I spent a wonderful morning at ATB Guitars in Cheltenham this week and amongst the frankly superb (even for someone as jaded as me!) inventory I found this beautiful Gibson Super 400 from 1935, the first year of production.
It…
Read moreJul 3 2019
The desert is a weird place. And there's a lot of it. Especially in-between Phoenix and Spring Branch...
It was this desert that Jason Kostal and I would traverse in an epic 1000 mile road trip through Arizona, New Mexico…
Read moreJun 17 2019
Have you been keeping up with my reviews in The Guitar Magazine? If not then all is not lost, you can read them online too! I've looked at some really exotic kit recently, some of it is useful for…
Read moreJun 16 2019
Well, that's a very good question! As the buying public's appetite for exotic woods (especially post-CITES Dalbergia alternatives) has increased, there has been something of a rush to find the next, greatest, coolest, rarest, oldest, etc woods possible. One choice…
Read moreJun 6 2019
I'll just leave this here... I hope you enjoy it!
Do please share, comment etc. Your support means a lot to me. If you'd like a closer look at the mic set-up, well it's two pairs of Gefell M300's and…
Read moreJun 6 2019
So here's the thing, I know nothing about tangos, literally nada. My only real tango experience was that scene in Scent of a Woman where Al Pacino dances with Gabrielle Anwar. Maybe that hit me at a formative age, who…
Read moreJun 3 2019
As far as I'm concerned there are few things in life as pleasurable as playing a new guitar for the luthier who made it. In this case the instrument in question was a beautiful small body TS model in Bog…
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