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Custom & Specialist UK Builders

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TTonyTTony Frets: 27344
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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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27344
    edited August 2013

    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

    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • blueskunkblueskunk Frets: 2867
    Brian Eastwood http://www.brianeastwoodguitars.co.uk/
    PS thanks for the link2thisplace T
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  • spacecadetspacecadet Frets: 671
    A buddy of mine has a Williams. Utterly incredible and would 10 times the price if it had PRS on the headstock.
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  • BucketBucket Frets: 7751
    edited August 2013
    Drew_FX will know Scatterbrain Concepts, as do I because one of the chap's guitars is for sale on Denmark Street.

    - "I'm going to write a very stiff letter. A VERY stiff letter. On cardboard."
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  • JookyChapJookyChap Frets: 4234
    I only noticed these the other day - Roberts Guitars in Bristol. All handmade, £725, think I might have to go and try one of these..

    Roberts Sentry (Hi White)
    Head stock: Solid walnut on Maple
    Machine heads: Quality Roberts fine tune Machine heads
    Neck: Maple with bone nut
    Fingerboard: Solid ebony with custom inlay
    Custom body: Maple
    Pickups: Custom wound Z1 power pro
    Electrics:2 vol 2 tone 3 way, 3 way selector switch
    Parts: Highest quality Korean parts available

    22 FRETS NICKEL SILVER
    *SET NECK
    *HAND CUT BODY, HAND FINISHED
    *HAND INLAID ABALONE CUSTOM MARKERS
    *SCALE LENGTH 650MM
    *NUT WIDTH 44MM
    *D RADIUS DEPTH 19MM 1st FRET
    *FITTED CASE


    image

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  • SporkySporky Frets: 27580
    JookyChap said:
    I only noticed these the other day - Roberts Guitars in Bristol. All handmade
    I'd be interested to see their definition of "handmade".
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
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  • JookyChapJookyChap Frets: 4234
    Hmm.. Looking at the web site it actually says 'All Handmade, All Designed in the UK'..

    *sigh* I am such an ingenue


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  • SporkySporky Frets: 27580
    edited August 2013
    They may well be perfectly decent (I did giggle at the line about "Parts: Highest quality Korean parts available") - I just think the term "handmade" is little more than marketing spiel for a lot of people.

    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.
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
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  • Lexie1Lexie1 Frets: 135
    Here is some of Andy Guyton's work for your perusal chaps,

    First off is "Pyro" Gibson Scale Length, 2 BKP Crawlers (Tapped) and onboard Preamp.
    image

    Seen with "China Belle". Fender Scale Length, Maple Board, Ultimately powered by 2 BKP Mississippi Queens.

    image

    image

    And the 1st one I had. Synth Ready. Solid Rosewood Neck and Board

    image

    imageimage
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  • SporkySporky Frets: 27580
    Nice - I particularly like the green one.
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27344
    Lexie1 said:
    Here is some of Andy Guyton's work for your perusal chaps,

    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 ...

    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • Lexie1Lexie1 Frets: 135
    Yes, he's still working, I am not a Facebook person, but I believe that he uses that far more than the website these days? His more recent work has been seen recently on tour.

    image
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  • chillidoggychillidoggy Frets: 17136

    Sims Custom near Ashford, Kent,

     

    http://simscustom.com/html/home.htm


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  • musicegbdfmusicegbdf Frets: 409
    edited August 2013
    Good to see so many builders still around.
    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"
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27344

    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?

    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
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  • ESBlondeESBlonde Frets: 3576
    Dr Robert/Robbie Gladwell if you can convince him to make one of his custom guitars. Busy man that he is. He made a superb custom bass for our bass player about 25 years ago that was fantastic and hung balanced on the strap too! Nice chap to boot.



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  • Lexie1Lexie1 Frets: 135
    I will do a bit about the pair of Guytons tomorrow.
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  • juansolojuansolo Frets: 1773
    TTony said:

    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?

    Could give it a go. Happy to do one for the WezV Stratele and could still do one for the Feline Lion as it now lives just up the road with a mate.
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