Recent Work

Unfortunately I am asked to carry out a repair of a broken Gibson Les Paul neck all too frequently. Maybe nine out of ten neck repairs I carry out are on Les Paul’s. Why do they break? The angle of the headstock to the fretboard and the fact that the neck is carved out of […]

I am working pretty much as usual at the moment. The main difference is that I am not receiving customers in my workshop. I have put together a documents which explains my appointment process and how you can get a guitar to me. If you send me an email I am happy to send this […]

Flame Guitars Newsletter-Late April 2020 As I write this newsletter the early evening sun is casting beautiful shadows across my garden. The weather we have been experiencing recently has been wonderful (April showers it has not been) It is also remarkably quiet compared with the normal traffic noise I normally hear where I live. And yet this […]

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 […]