British guitars

Acoustic Guitars by Brook and Fylde

Brook Tamar 010: My first top quality acoustic guitar was built by the luthiers Simon Smidmore and Andy Petherick and their team at Brook Guitars in Devon in 1999. We were spending a holiday in Devon - partly to see the 1999 eclipse (which happened on my birthday) but also to visit the Brook workshop (situated in a converted barn more reminiscent of Hobbiton than the creation of beautiful instruments - cottage industry indeed!

Andy and Simon at Brook, along with their small team, hand craft some of the most beautiful acoustic guitars in the world - easily the equal of other, more celebrated US builders and luthiers. Interestingly, they also undertake much of the production work for another respected UK luthier - Andy Manson - building many of his "production" model acoustic guitars.

My Tamar is what's referred to as a "small-jumbo" body shape with a solid flamed walnut back and sides, European spruce top and mahogany neck. In a nice touch the headstock is faced with a veneer of spalted yew. The fingerboard is ebony but with a rosewood bridge - an arrangement which is apparently common in classical guitar building. The livery is Brook's "010" style - a simpler style than their higher cost "015" style. Simple wood purfling and binding complement the body woods beautifully and the soundhole rosette and binding feature a delicate herringbone inlay. During the building I also had an LR Baggs Dual Source pickup installed allowing volume and blend control over the under-saddle pickup and internal mic without drilling holes into the guitar sides. Highly recommended when you don't want to carve huge holes in the side of your guitar and a very natural amplified sound!

There is an interesting point to note about the wood which makes up the guitar. The walnut which makes up the back and sides was reclaimed from an old walnut tree which blew down in a local public park during the celebrated storms of October 1987. Adding a little to the green credentials of the guitar. Overall a beautiful sounding and beautifully built guitar.

Fylde Gordon Giltrap Signature Guitar: My second guitar qualifies me for "You lucky little..." status since I won it in a competition in 2003! The competition was organised by Gordon Giltrap to raise money and awareness for the Arthritis Research Council's Make Music Live campaign. This was doubly exciting for my since I've been a long-term admirer of the guitars built by Roger Bucknell in the Lake District and an even longer-term fan of Gordon's music! So, in October that year my wife and I set off to Birmingham for the presentation and spent a pleasant afternoon having lunch with Gordon and Evelyn from ARC having lunch, talking guitars, music and generally setting the world to rights!

The Fylde GG is a smaller bodied guitar but quite different in feel and sound to my Brook. In fact they really complement each other! The front is highest grade Engelmann spruce with a three piece solid Indian rosewood back and Indian rosewood sides. The neck is a laminate of mahogany, walnut and ash with an ebony fingerboard and bridge, walnut binding and marquetry. Beautiful!

I've fitted a Fishman Rare Earth Blend pickup (same as the man himself uses). Again, it gives a beautifully clear and transparent sound with the ability to mix between the magnetic pickup and the internally mounted microphone. I've also got a Fylde Octavius bouzouki - for those folky little moments - but the less said about my bouzouki playing the better!

Electric Guitars by Gordon Smith

Gordon Smith GS90: For the last 25 years Gordon Smith have been making good old, honest to God, working man's guitars just outside Manchester... and at about half the price of their "big name" competitors. Most of their guitars follow a broadly Les Paul and Les Paul Special form with different levels of embellishment and features. However my first Gordon Smith was one of their models which departs from that formula - and it's something of a one-off, the "Gordon Smith G90 Genesis".

The G90 is a variant in the Gordon Smith range of the standard model but with offset cutaways and a more contoured body. The Genesis was specially build for a guitar raffle in support of Flora & Fauna International (a environmental charity supporting sustainable use of Earth resources) in 1995 demonstrating some of the new techniques and features which the company had developed. The guitar is of solid mahogany construction with a revolutionary, one piece mahogany neck with no separate fingerboard BUT still with a truss-rod in the neck! The other interesting feature is the pickup which is actually two single coils mounted together as a humbucker - which means that when coil split you get a real single coil tone.

The guitar was presented to my by Yes guitarist, Steve Howe (another long time guitar playing hero) at a presentation with the other winners at the London Ecology Centre in Covent Garden, London. The guitar was also reviewed in The Guitar Magazine by Dave Burrluck who summed up the sound as "...bright, rich and ringing..." "...resonant tone with almost acoustic-like flavour that, combined with the guitar's inherent crispness and ring, makes for a lively little mover".

Gordon Smith Gypsy II: My second Gordon Smith is a semi-solid Gypsy II model. When I decided I fancied a new electric where else would I go! The Gypsy models are a higher spec version of the basic Les Paul Special inspired "GS model" guitar but with higher spec woods and fittings. My Gypsy also takes advantage of the semi-solid option which Gordon Smith include in their range. The body is birch with a solid maple core (in Gibson ES335 style). In addition it is faced with flamed maple veneer finished in a cherry sunburst. As with the "GS90 SC" I chose the double single coils option for the versatility of humbucking or true single-coil sounds. All in all the guitar is another beauty - visually attractive and with an amazing selection of tones available.

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