2008 in review. Continued 1.

Mid April I went to Farnham malting to show my guitars. This event was one of the shows put on by The Sussex Guild,by its members. It was a very nice venue for a show. I have been a member of the Guild for several years. This year 2009, I am taking a year's sabbatical to concentrate on developing the business of making and selling guitars. Due to this I will not be taking part in any Guild shows during 2009.

The beginning of may I spent time in the workshop working on repairs one of which was this upright double Bass. As the photo shows the heel had split and made the instrument very difficult to play. I will display some photo's of the repair later. The repair consisted of removing the neck and making a new section to replace the split section and re-applying lacquer to match the existing lacquer, all this in my tiny workshop.

All this work went on while I was building an OM cutaway in figured English walnut for my father in law who lives in California and being videoed by Harry and Alan, prize winning members of a local amateur video club. When the publishing embargo has ended I will be uploading the video of the guitar being made, to You Tube.

The weekend of the 24th of May I went to the Chippenham Folk Festival. It was wet and wonderful again. I sold a Baritone guitar, the one featuring Terry Lees on the Recent Works Page.

The end of the month saw me going off to California to spend time with my family and especially my dad who'd just been in hospital, it was lovely to see him recuperate after his surgery.This is us together the previous February at San Juan Baptista, California. Dad will be 89 this year.

During the following weeks I worked on the bass and Tom's Mandolla and prepared for the next show which was the Sidmouth Folk Week at the end of July.

This was my second year at Sidmouth and it turned out to be an adventure, just like the previous year. 2007 we had to put up with the farmyard smells and in 2008 we had 1/3 of the marquee given over to the bar in the main auditorium. Needless to say the floor plan was of little use. It became a first one in got the space situation. Unfortunately three of the stands had to be accommodated out in small tents outside the main trading area.

Just prior to going to Sidmouth I had completed the Bass project and was able to re-unite the instrument with its owner. This is what it looked like after the repair was complete. It turned out that as I took it to bits for the repair I found that at least three previous repairs had been done to the heel.

Saturday in the workshop

When I am at shows or get into conversations with people about guitar making, one of the frequent questions asked is. Is your workshop always as tidy as shown in your book "Step by Step Guitar Making".

I always answer yes and no. Because my workshop is small, at 12 x 8 feet, I need to keep it tidy so I can work neatly. By the end of the day, especially after a very intense time of working it looks like this.

This picture was taken today at lunchtime. The guitar in the vice having its purfling and binding fitted is a 635mm cutaway OM in Brazilian Rosewood. It will be ready in time for the Cheltenhan Folk Festival on May 22nd to 25th.

Full details of all of my guitars, including prices and additional photographs, is available by email, sales@willisguitars.co.uk.

The guitar with the rubber banding is another OM being made for Bob Axford, it is due for delivery at the end of February. The two necks in the background are for a LEFT HANDED 000 in Indian Rosewood while the one below is for a 00, also in Indian Rosewood. Both of these guitars will be at Cheltenham, unless sold before. One of the sets of bent ribs above the necks is for a CM guitar in Indian Rosewood. The guitar back just showing behind the OM cutaway is for another one of my Parlour Guitars, this one is being made from extremely figured Cocobolo. This one may not be ready for the show but I do have one that is. New for me this year will be a Tenor guitar. It is going to have a scale length of 584mm and a 00 sized body made from highly figured Walnut.

2008 In review

2008 was a very busy year, two trips to California included. The beginning of the year saw me busy trying to catch up with the repairs jobs in the workshop and prepping the guitars that I would be taking to the shows.

My first show was at Cheltenham in February. Nice building and an excellent location for displaying guitars. My stand location was in the bar along with some of the other stands. To keep the costs down for the weekend I slept in my van, -5 degrees Centigrade, ice on the ceiling in the morning, still it was mackydees for breakfast. The music in the hall was great, the music in the bar was continuous. Of all the shows I do each year this was the strangest, probably to do with the fact that all of the punters come in to town for the music and as a result the music stands are treated as optional extras, to be seen on the way for a beer.

In March I delivered this parlour guitar to its new owner. The body is Brazilian rosewood and the top is cedar. It was my first lefty and I found it interesting trying to figure out how to play simple chords wile tuning it up,I now know what it must feel like for left handed players. I decided then that I will always have a lefty in the stable for those who find it difficult to find one. I will have a lefty at Chippenham, it is a 000 in figured walnut, 635mm scale, as soon as it id completed I will post a photo on the main web site.

At the beginning of the year a customer who had seen me at Michelham Priory called to order a Mandola, or as some people call them an Octave Mandolin. I had never made one before so I made this one for him to try out first. He brought a friend, who is blind, yes the genuine blind test, along to play it and give him an apprasal of the instrument and inturn my ability to make what he wanted. It passed the test and final specs for his instrument was decided.


Late March saw me doing my stint at Skeggy for Spring Harvest, have a look at their site, http://www.springharvest.org/ this year instead of the cold windy wet weather we got snow. It only lasted a couple of days then the weather returned to normal, cold wet and windy. More tomorrow.

Welcome to my new web site.

Welcome to my site and my blog. My name is Alex and I hand make fine guitars. Veronica, guitar website hero, has set up my new web site for me. For me it has been like leaving the stone age and arriving in the space age, thanks Veronica.

Folk festival tour dates for 2009

Check out the website for an update on which festivals I will be attending this year. Come and have a chat with me about my book, guitar making or anything else!

See dates in the news section here >