25th Anniversary
Updated: 7 minutes ago
November 2026
Twenty-five years ago this month I opened the workshop door for business. The first guitars had been coming together for a few years by then, slowly and mostly by trial and error, and the work has never stopped teaching me something.
To mark the anniversary I’ve drawn up five guitars, each built around a pairing of woods I’d like to see made. They’re ideas for now, and each can be shaped to the person who plays it. Here they are, with photographs of the tops, backs and sides.
A. Redwood and Bloodwood
A finely grained redwood top, over bloodwood back and sides in deep red. The back is joined with a fine strip of ebony and quilted cedar, and the guitar will be bound in ebony with the purfling following the cedar. The rosette is my spinning motif, worked in bloodwood, ebony and boxwood so that top, back and sides belong to one piece.
Here's the back ready for bracing.
The rosette inlaid into the redwood.
B. Cocobolo
Cocobolo back and sides, dense and richly coloured, running from deep red to almost black. The back is joined with a strip of the tree’s own pale sapwood, left in rather than cut away, so you can see where the heartwood stops. I have a couple of tops that would suit it, and the choice of top is yours. Photographs of those to follow.
C. Tigerwood
Tigerwood back and sides, warm orange-brown with darker striping that gives the wood its name. A broad band of pale sapwood runs down the centre joint of the back. The same choice of tops is open as for the cocobolo.
D. Carpathian Spruce and Ziricote
A Carpathian spruce top, pale and fine-grained, over ziricote back and sides. Ziricote is dark brown with black veining, and no two pieces are alike. The back is joined with a strip of pale sapwood, and the top carries a fine black and white rosette.
E. Ziricote/ Poplar and Spruce
A European spruce top from Germany, with a fine black and white rosette, over a back built from ziricote and Italian poplar. The dark wood and the pale sit side by side, divided by fine ebony pinstripes, and the sides are made to match, so the pattern carries round the whole body of the guitar. Of the five, this is the one where the making is the feature as much as the wood.
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