Nick Marchant holding the
twin symbols of Lutherie
In 1976 I was asked to join a band and as at the time I only had an acoustic guitar and no money I decided to build myself an electric. Bad mistake ! - I managed to cobble together a playable solid body and joined the band but instead of going on to rock fortune and fame I started to think about how I could build a better guitar and so from there I started on the rocky road to Lutherie.
I started building electric guitars in my spare time and really got the bug - taught myself how to do inlay work and various finishing techniques - and started to move towards acoustic steel strings and jazz arched top design.
In about 1980 a friend who is an antique dealer and guitar nut bought this guitar back from the USA.
It's a 1903 Gibson hand made by Orville Gibson himself. He bought it to me to do some repairs and replacing of missing inlays and not too long afterwards I made this little guitar for my children.
It was just an experimental prototype based on the look of the Orville and I've since made a few more sophisticated versions based on the carved top,no struts and pin bridge design. It was a real inspiration to work on such a piece of guitar history (Incidentally my friend sold the vintage Orville a few years later for $4000 but tells me with much bemusement - i.e. he's really hacked off ! - that the same guitar has recently been sold in Japan for $100,000 ! )
In 1983 I set up my own guitar making and repairing business under the name of Nick Marchant Guitars and here in 2010 I'm still going strong .
I tend to build mostly flat-top steel string acoustics these days (Charlotte from Ash has one) and one off orders of things like Jimi Volcano's ukuleles (three to date and there's been talk of a double-neck!).Jimi is incidentally, for those that don't know, the hottest hard rock ukulele player in the world. I also make the occasional custom instrument such as bowed psaltery (yikes!), electric mandolin, electric 12 string and acoustic bass.
If you need anything with strings on repairing or a custom built instrument give me a call.........
I am not a retailer so if you have an old guitar that you think might be improvable I will give you an honest (free) appraisal and not try to sell you a new instrument.
My assistant Tonto checking out the high end response of the new Audiosplat totally dynamic woofer. His verdict - 'it's the dog's bollocks'
ggjaguar
— Info on the lesser known Fenders.
guitarnuts
— Good technical site.
Mandolin Brothers
— Lots of vintage guitar info.
60's
Guitars — Great resource for identifying old cheapos
djangology —
Django Reinhardt Style.
Djangopedia
— More Django Reinhardt Style.
Vintage
Guitars Info —Good site for dating old Fenders.
Music
related injury — Just in case.
Acoustic
Guitar Tips
music
workshop — The best local studio.
noise
indianguitar
— I keep meaning to make one of these.
New
Technique !
Nano
Guitar — Just in case you thought you'd seen em all!
unfretted
— I made a fretless guitar in 1987 — no-one seemed remotely
interested!
daxo —
This site is either really creative and/or really annoying!
(persevere to see some unusual designs)
double-bass
mandolincafe
vintage
guitars
record
production.com — The Jimi Volcano page.
Guitar tricks
— The place to go for online guitar lessons.
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