Current build lead time is 4 - 6 weeks

Custom guitars from a Cornishman in Yorkshire

Me

My name is Dan and I was born and raised in the sunny climes of Cornwall (Newquay to be specific) but moved t'North in 2009 - I live in Bradford now with my wife and family and a greyhound called Larry. I'm a Project Planner & PMO Specialist by day and an aspiring luthier by night.

I started tinkering around with electric guitar kits during Covid and quickly began to customise and tweak them as I gained confidence before finally deciding to build one completely from scratch. Like most people do, I started by making a Telecaster - the humble workhorse of the guitar world! Once I'd made this I moved on to the next... and then the next... and so on...

Taking flat lumps of wood and crafting them into a guitar from your imagination is an extremely rewarding process (one I would recommend to anyone interested).

Ethos

I approach guitar building the same way that I do everything - do your research, prepare well and focus on doing the simple things well. Every guitar should be better than the last and last guitar should be the best you've ever built.

If someone orders a custom guitar from me then that's a big honour and they deserve to get exactly what they want but, at the same time I'll always be honest about what is and isn't achievable. I like to build guitars that excite me and that I would love to own - I've custom designed the headstock shape and the bodies to look good and be functional.

Every guitar I build will be always spend at least a week with me after it's complete so I can 'play it in' and ensure it's settled and setup just right before sending it to it's new home.

Inspirations

In terms of guitars I take inspiration from the classic Telecaster with its simplistic and sturdy design that hasn't really changed from its beginnings in the 50's and is so versatile and able to take on any genre of music with any number of pickup combinations, whilst also loving newer guitars like the amazing Yamaha Revstar which I think is best of any newer era shapes (I have one myself).

The music I listen to also informs the style of guitar I like to build and how I put them together - I like a wide and varied range of genres but I'm a die hard Bruce Springsteen fan and as with his Fender Esquire, that's been his main guitar since he started, I love the idea of a guitar that becomes like an old friend that is as unique as the artist voice or their songs. I'm also a fan of The National and one of the guitarists has a battered Gibson Firebird with a natural wood finish - to me that's one of those guitars that looks strange if you were to take any of it's parts in isolation but as a whole just looks cool and also uses the underrated Mini-Humbucker style pickups that contributes to his unique tone.

Lastly I look back home to Cornwall and the stunning coastline and out at the rolling hills of Yorkshire for inspiration - natural wood grain coming through and a considered and limited use of colour that is taken from my own personal tastes but also out of practicality (it's tough in a small setup to get a top-quality paint finish).