About......



Nick Marchant playing one of his hand-built acoustics.

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 2020 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, 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.

 Lutherie 



[ doing  luthier  stuff ]

In The Workshop

I first started playing guitar in 1964. Forty odd years on and I still haven't quite mastered it but have had lots of enjoyment playing with various combos in pubs , clubs and functions.

I started out playing mostly blues then moved to rock, was in a few different punk and post-punk bands, played funk guitar in a couple of outfits and more recently developed a passion for jazz. I like to think I have a very broad taste in music and listen to every thing from 1930's Django Reinhardt to modern day dance/trance and world music - here's a link to the website of my current band  The Kings of Lounge 




LINKS
mostly to sites of interest to myself


 ggjaguar   — Info on the lesser known Fenders.

 Mandolin Brothers   — Lots of vintage guitar info.

 60's Guitars   — Great resource for identifying old cheapos

 Fetish Guitars    — European Guitar rarities (Italian site)

 Vintage Guitars Info   —Good site for dating old Fenders.

 Vintage Guitars on VintageandRare.com   — nice selection

 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!

 mandolincafe   — Mando site

 Ukulele hunt   — good uke resource

 FreeGuitarTuition.com   — The place to go for free online guitar lessons.

 Kings Of Lounge   — The band for all occasions

© Nick Marchant Guitars