Recent Work

Flame Guitars Newsletter-April 2020 I really do hope that you are well and coping during these difficult times.  Unprecedented is certainly an overused word at the moment but how else do we describe the times we are living through. For some life has slowed down and provided an opportunity to reflect on how we spend our […]

1965 Fender Jazzmaster: Refret or leave it as it is? I was asked by a customer to refret a 1965 Fender Jazzmaster. Now, every week I see guitars that have worn and indented frets. And so I discuss with the owner whether the frets can be levelled, re-crowned and dressed, or whether it is best […]

Building a headless guitar Last year I was approached by a customer, Ian, about the possibility of building a headless guitar for him. Ian had been looking around for a headless guitar and found that, as a left-handed player, the options were limited. And so he approached me. This was my first chance to build […]

A few months back I was asked to carry out a restoration of a 1966 Fender Jaguar. This Jag belongs to Mark Refoy, guitarist with Spiritualized, Slipstream and The Petshop Boys. Although the neck and body were original, over the years many changes had been made to this guitar. In all, this Jag was looking […]

  I was contacted a few months ago about the repair of a broken neck on an 1865 parlour guitar. This guitar has been in the family for 150 years and the owners were, not surprisingly, very upset when the neck break happened. The guitar had been hanging on the wall when suddenly the neck […]

It was a pleasure to be asked, for the second time, to take part in the BBC programme, The Repair Shop. The filming for this episode took place in the autumn of 2018. And for this episode I was asked to restore a 120 year old Portuguese guitar. It was the first time I had […]

This early 70’s Guild F40 came into the workshop needing major works. The neck had previously been removed, but not done very well. Removing the neck of an acoustic guitar is not a straightforward job, as the earlier attempt at this shows. Once the neck was removed I reset the neck angle, fitted a Bridge […]

A few months ago a friend of mine, Nishi Sharma, film maker and event photographer, asked if he could make a short film about my journey from fire-fighter to guitar maker. Nishi loves to tell stories through film making and I am really pleased with how Nishi has told my story. I am also grateful […]

Having recently created a post about shielding a Telecaster I though I would do one about shielding a Stratocaster. In this post I will explain what can be done to greatly reduce or even eliminate that annoying hum that we associate with single coil guitars, particularly Stratocasters. Why do electric guitars hum or buzz and […]

How I got involved Last summer I was contacted by the production company for the BBC The Repair Shop programme. They were seeking advice about the restoration of a 1966 Fender Jazz bass. I initially thought they might pass that information onto their own in-house restorers. But much to my surprise I was contacted a […]