A New Guitar !

Back in May I returned to the workshops of Luthier Richard Osborne in Llanidloes , to build a new Acoustic guitar as my main instrument. 4 years ago I went there and built my guitar bouzouki , which has been a fantastic instrument , and the experience was fabulous as well as resulting in in a first class instrument

Over the last few years I have been having issues with the tendons and joints in my left hand which has started to inhibit my playing , so I had the idea of building a guitar with an easy action and shorter scale to hopefully extend my playing time.

In February I went over and met with Richard and after measuring a number of instruments, we came up with a specification for the neck , agreed on the body size, scale length and the woods for the soundboard , back and sides to give a guitar which would suit my playing style and capable of being both driven hard and gently fingerpicked.

So in May I spent a month producing this wonderful instrument :

The one month guitar course run by Richard operates 3 or 4 times a year and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Not only do you get to build a custom instrument worth significantly more than the cost of the course, but it’s always a great experience to work with someone so skilled in his art and a small group(3) of generally like minded people . Added to that Llanidloes is a fabulous place to spend a month. I camped on a farm site on the banks of the River Severn , which was tranquil and 5 minutes bike ride from the workshop ! Not only that but there are a number of local music sessions you can join in the evenings ! I would recommend this course to anyone. http://www.osborneguitars.co.uk

So I played this guitar for the first time at my daughter Rowena’s wedding and it is now my main instrument. Here is a shot of it in action at The How the Light gets In Festival in Hay :

Now I have a pair of beautiful unique instruments :