Author: Si

August 2020

We’ll start off this month with a new model, the Lynher, which we developed for Tulley in Montana.

As you can see – it’s a parlour size, left-handed, fourteen fret, nylon strung instrument.

The back and sides were constructed from solid mahogany, the back’s carved into an arch making back braces and linings unnecessary. The top’s braced as we would a classical guitar. The instrument is surprisingly loud and we’re really pleased with the way it’s turned out. We can offer this thinline option on any of our models.

Jack inlaid this snowdrop design on the fingerboard. The guitar is off to the States next week and hopefully we’ll have a photo of Tulley with his third Brook to add to the September news.

Another left hander and another going to the States, this one’s off to Massachusetts. The Abbey is a 595 mm scale small parlour model.

Our customer is a Jethro Tull fan and asked for a replica of the one we made for Ian Andrson.

As you can see by this mountain of cases, the repairs have been coming in thick and fast:

It seems to have been Martin month:
Brian McDonald of the duo Red, Green and Blue called in for a proper set up on his Martin, due to Covid their tour has been postponed and, along with most musicians, performances have come to a standstill for the time being.

This one came in for a refret with Evo Gold fretwire,

This Martin came in with the common fault – the plastic bindings were coming away from the body, Andy re-glued them and refinished the problem areas.

This twenty year old Teign came in after a severe knock to its tail block, Andy glued it back together, re-sprayed the back and sides and it’s as good as new!

We re-fretted this Watkins Rapier, in the early 1960’s American guitars were hard to get your hands on so lots of musicians over here went  for this, the English equivalent of the Strat! Anyone of ‘a certain age’ will remember these from the Bell’s mail order catalogue way back in the 1960s.

Matt brought in another ’60s classic for some TLC- this Gibson J-160E, the John Lennon model. The originals were sunburst but like Lennon’s, this one has had the top stripped at some time in its life, the serial number is forty two away from its famous counterpart!

Andy reset the neck on this Taylor, which, we have to admit, is a much simpler job with their unique neck joint.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. The makers of these Chinese guitars spuriously claim they are Brook’s ‘New Series’. I don’t think we have to worry too much about the competition, take a look – if you can see any similarities between these and the real thing apart from the fact they are vaguely guitar shaped let us know.

Julian Bream
15 July 1933 – 14 August 2020

July 2020

Kev Aram asked us to make a tribute to the cowboy guitars of the 1930’s and ’40’s,

Back then they were cheaply made and often stencilled displaying the cowboy legends from the films of the period.

Our Lyn certainly isn’t cheaply made and maybe not to everyone’s taste but we absolutely love it!

Adam came all the way down from Scotland to pick up his Blackwater 12 string.

We showed you the headstock inlay last month, here’s the rest of the guitar,

Adam provided the Huon pine top

And the cocobolo back and sides.

George didn’t have far to travel from Bridgwater to collect his nylon strung Cary,

Here’s the full length photo

And close-ups of the Sitka top and Crelicam ebony back.

George in Battersea ordered his second Brook, this time a cedar and walnut Tavy cutaway, it’s off with the courier to him this week.

Bob came over from Dorset to pick up his new rosewood Tamar, also his second Brook! he wrote “The guitar sings, it’s wonderful, many thanks”.

Michael sent this photo from the mountains of Colorado. “I don’t think I’ve ever owned an instrument with an Engelmann top – it sounds fantastic and I love it already”.

Last month we mentioned Phil Beer, this month it’s Steve Knightley’s turn! On the wall behind him in his recent videos there’s one of our more unusual instruments – the Ash.

It’s a reproduction of the instrument we made for Billy Connolly for his 60th birthday nearly twenty years ago!

Matt from South Devon brought up some outer cuts of a tree that had had been stored for years in his dad’s workshop with the hope we could use them to build a Lamorna.

To be honest they didn’t look too promising but a few hours work removing the bark and re-sawing revealed some beautifully figured dark mahogany!

Dawn, our post-lady, makes model buildings in her spare time so we gave her a bag of our workshop off-cuts, she showed us this photo of her latest project – the local church made from guitar remnants!

Please mask up, maintain social distancing and stay safe over the summer.

June 2020

Here are the latest two guitars for Coda Music – a rosewood Lamorna and another figured mahogany Lyn.

Our thanks to Phil Beer for mentioning us in the first of his YouTube lockdown gigs on 30th May. Our friend David Oddy made his very last guitar for Phil, we lacquered it after David died and Chris Billings completed it.

Here’s  a photo of Adam’s newly strung Blackwater 12 string headstock, Adam supplied the original shadow photo of his family as the basis for the design of the inlay.

Tony Skinner is a welcome addition to the Brook fold, amongst other things he’s written over 100 guitar education books, contributed to 250 issues of Total Guitar and had three quarters of a million hits on his YouTube channel!

Wendy’s Lyn has been repaired and is ready to collect.

We’ve just completed two new guitars for our shop: This rosewood and European spruce Lamorna

And a mahogany and Sitka spruce Lyn.

We’ll be getting in touch with Bob from Weymouth shortly to let him know his new Tamar‘s ready.

Richard narrowly missed entering his lockdown photo in the April and May competition but we thought it deserved a spot this month!

Two almost opposite causes of guitar damage here: firstly this Taw, much to its owners annoyance, was left in the searing heat on an airport runway in the Middle East for a long period – we’ve at last been given the go-ahead to re-top it.

Whereas this Martin has suffered from over-humidifying and the back has sprung off in places – hopefully not quite such a major repair job needed for this one.

John, an old friend and Brook collector from Somerset, came down to order a nylon strung Taw, to help fund it he’s put up for sale this rosewood and Sitka 2013 Lamorna. This one’s still labelled an OM as it was the first of this model we made, it comes equipped with a Fishman Infinity pickup system and is in ‘as new’ condition. If anyone wishes to try it get in touch, it’s here at the workshop, John’s asking £2,100 for the guitar.

Lastly, a preview of our tribute to the cowboy guitars of the 1930s and ’40s, we’re making this for Kevin Aram.

We’re still taking the Covid threat very seriously so if you’re thinking of visiting please be prepared to wear a mask, sanitise and maintain social distancing.

May 2020

We’re back at work at last. Initially just the three of us, Andy, Jack and myself because of the difficulties in social distancing in our fairly compact workshop. We hope Yasmin and Jake will be able to join us again later in the year. We’ve only been back a week so there’s not that much to show you in the way of finished guitars but we’ll walk you through what’s going on:
Jack’s putting together the next batch of bodies

Including this left handed Abbey for a customer in Massachusetts

And this thin-line nylon-strung new and, as yet, un-named model for Tulley in Montana. This one’s also a lefty.

Andy’s in the machine shop preparing necks for these guitars.

I’m upstairs fretting and preparing the bridges for the next batch to be completed including this figured mahogany Clyst for Coda

And this twelve string Blackwater for Adam in Deanston, Scotland.

Now for the latest customers’ lockdown photos: Roel sent us this photo from his home in Ghent, Belgium.

Pat, from Las Vegas, sent us his second contribution, this time featuring the twin six and twelve strings we made for him back in 2007.

Dave Smith’s mahogany Torridge seems perfectly happy in hog heaven!

Mike sent us sent us this one on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of picking up his Taw, he says “The tone has only got better as the guitar has aged. It still looks like new, Thanks again for producing such a wonderful instrument “. Good to hear, thanks Mike!

Tony sent us this ‘Darby and Joan’ photo of his pair of cutaway Tamars – a steel string on the left and nylon strung on the right.

Here’s a first – Su sent us this ode to her Taw between a series of photos she’d taken during the lockdown.

Wendy’s Lyn came in for a neck refinish after someone hadn’t thought to remove their thumb ring before some rigorous playing!

This was an interesting coincidence – these two Boveys arrived at the workshop separately the same week and according to the records they were the first two of this model we made twenty five years ago!

Even older – this Manson Dove from 1990 came in for repair.

A few days in, a few slips of a blade and my hands are back in the same state as before their enforced healing period.

Ah well – it’s good to be back, all the same!

April 2020

We’re still on lockdown and unable to use the workshop for the time being unfortunately. Luckily music-wise there plenty to keep us amused in the way of living room sessions and live content on YouTube and Facebook: Interesting videos from Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Steve Earle, Howe Gelb, Mark Mulcahy, Jack Hayter, Jorma Kaukonen, Neil Young, Laura Marling, Joan Baez, UOGB, Toyah and Robert Fripp amongst many hundreds of others!

Back to the news – Andy managed to get these two guitars, a Taw and a Blackwater, packed up and sent off to Coda in Stevenage.

And now for the competition:

We asked for some photos of our customers with their Brooks while unable to leave their respective houses, so….. here’s Jez with his Lyn, he’s using his time to start work on a koa 00 sized guitar,

While Steve’s in lockdown in the attractive surroundings of downtown Mystic, C.T. with his custom Creedy he’s starting to put together a custom Tele.

Howard’s been busy up in Norfolk putting together this fine photo.

Pat’s masked up in the isolation of his drum studio in Las Vegas, must be a welcome break from all those drums!

Chris is playing in his back garden, fine shirt there Chris!

Tulley’s in seclusion in Montana with his Cary and his Ash.

Andrew Blackburn’s relaxing on his balcony with his Tamar.

Here’s Ronak with his Taw in Ahmedabad, India, working his way through the pieces in Dev’s ‘Fingerstyle Etudes’ book.

Quite a few of our customers have found the time to record videos: Jon London wrote and recorded ‘The Brighton Rag’ on his Teign!

Amit has been recording in his kitchen with his new Bovey.

Robbie sent this Brook social distancing photo and has been very busy composing and recording,

And Nigel recorded his Lyn in his garden! Check our YouTube channel for these videos.

Now – a fine effort, as we would expect, from Richard James, who sent the message ” luckily I was able to jet off to my private island for the photo of my Bovey in lockdown”

And fabulous as the panorama of Richard’s tropical island is – this month’s winner has to be Howard – after all that effort with a tiny coping saw and a huge stack of plywood! If you keep on sending the photos we’ll repeat the competition next month!

One advantage from all this time away from work – for about the first time in my working life my hands are relatively grime and split free after the years of in-ground ebony dust, plus cuts and splits have taken their toll…… still not particularly well manicured admittedly but their current condition certainly benefits the guitar playing!

We lost one of our greatest songwriters this month.

RIP

John Prine

October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020

March 2020

Well……things have developed rapidly since last month’s admonitions

to wash our hands thoroughly. We started with notices asking people not to

visit if they showed any symptoms of the virus to ‘Strictly No Visitors’ –

then the government’s total lockdown for non-essential businesses. It goes

without saying that the workshop is closed during the current crisis. We’d

like to apologise to all of our customers, in particular those who’ve

ordered and are going to have to wait a little longer for their new

guitars: Louise, Adam, George, Bill, Tulley, Kev, Dev, Jack and also of

course Coda, Project and Intersound.

Andy’s taking care of the Facebook page and I’ve set up office at home

to keep on top of the email and the website.

So – not much to show you this month but Andy managed to deliver a

rosewood Torridge and Taw to Project Music in Exeter.

We set up this Les Paul, re-glued the bridge and repaired the finish on

the Santa Cruz and did a neck re-set on this eighteen year old Torridge that had been exposed to some

humidity issues sometime in its life.

Caspar was evidentially pleased with Andy’s set-up on his vintage

Hofner bass.

Chris bought his Lyn from Coda

Music, he sent us this photo taken in his hometown of Rye, he said

“The Lyn’s great, it just falls under my fingers, I love the feel of

the 12 fret set-up and the action is really good!”.

I took the opportunity before our

enforced break to take a few photos of the empty workshop.

I’m afraid next month, for the first time in the twenty years we’ve

been keeping you up to date with our latest news, we’re going to be rather

short of news items so – all you self-isolators out there – how about some

photos of yourselves with your Brooks

to fill out the April news? The wackiest photo wins a set of Elixirs!

We realise that a large proportion of our customers, like us, are

likely to fall into the high risk category so we wish everyone well,

Stay in, stay safe and keep in touch.

February 2020

We’ll start off the February news with a couple of little ‘uns and a

proud dad! Here’s young Jay, Amit and his new Bovey.

Amit’s a fine player, he came down from Birmingham to collect his Bovey, one of our range of travel

guitars.

He asked Jack to inlay a Jay on the headstock (for obvious reasons!)

Check out Amit’s album on Bandcamp, we’ll hopefully get some video

featuring the new guitar soon.

Charlie McKeon borrowed my Lamorna

for a recording session with renowned producer John Wood whose credits

include John Martyn, Nick Drake and Sandy Denny. Charlie’s a talented young

artist from Liverpool, he’s going back to complete the album with John next

year.

Trevor didn’t have far to come

from Sidmouth to pick up his 015 cutaway Lyn,

It has an Engelmann spruce top, rosewood back and sides, lacewood

binding with the custom 015 abalone purfling,

Bound headstock and gold tuners.

John bought his Lamorna from Coda in Stevenage and came all

the way down from Lincolnshire to have a K&K pickup fitted and to see

where his guitar was made! John’s in the folk band Between The Lines.

Andy picked up the Madagascan rosewood and Adirondack Lamorna we featured last month, it looks like

it was worth the wait!

We fitted the second K&K this month on this Weaver and made up a koa pickguard for this

partscaster for our old friend Richard James.

Last week we had a couple of visitors

down from London: Sam for a set up on his Taw and George to check out the progress of

his second Brook, an English walnut Tavy.src=

Down here we’ve managed  to avoid the worst of the floods that

ravaged the rest of the country so here’s the annual photo of the snowdrops

in the orchard with the workshop in the background.

Here are the latest two for Project, top to bottom – a rosewood and

Sitka Lamorna and and rosewood and

Engelmann Tavy.

Andy hand-made the brass tailpiece for this Fylde bouzouki for Norman,

another of our regular customers.

If you’re travelling to the Middle East don’t leave your guitar for

hours on the runway in the searing heat – this is what it did to the Hiscox

case, the guitar fared slightly better but will need a new top!

We’ll show you the results in future news updates.

January 2020

This is the forthcoming album by the excellent Pete Berryman, it’s a

fine mix of Pete’s songs and exquisite guitar playing. We’ll be

interviewing Pete in the next issue of Babbling Brook.

Tony picked up this crossover nylon strung Tamar as a sister to the steel string one we

made for him last year.

Classical style headstock and bridge,

European spruce top with rosewood back and sides.

Talking of nylon strung guitars here’s Paul Esslement busking in the

Tottenham Court Road underground with his nylon strung Weaver!

This custom Lamorna is awaiting

collection, it has an Adirondack spruce top, three ring rosette, an abalone

border,

Madagascan rosewood back and sides

And headstock with an abalone border and Waverly tuners.

In case you haven’t seen it yet Steve Tilston has just posted a fine

new song ‘Crying Shame’, check it out on our YouTube channel.

Tom was quick off the mark when he heard

his Taw was ready to collect, he came

over from Minehead the following day and picked it up!

Here’s our latest model in the ever expanding selection, it’s loosely

based on the early Gibson 180 body shape with a shallower body depth and a

640 mm scale length. We’re making a highly customised one of these for

Louise Loft. Louise has named it the Blackwater, a tributary of the river Axe!

This has an Engelmann spruce top and rosewood back and sides. If anyone

is interested in this particular one just get in touch.

Anthony from Surrey bought this Tamar we’d recently converted  as a

left-hander and he’s very happy with the result!  It’s become his main

instrument in his work as a musician in care homes and for people with

learning disabilities!

We reset the neck on this 1926 vintage Martin for Andy from Modern

Music in Truro, it now has a nice low action now and plays beautifully and

still has the original bridge and saddle.

We’ve just repaired the broken headstock and sorted out some damage to

the top of this Taylor belonging to Chris Hallsworth.

Luckily he still has his two Brooks

handy when he gigs with folk band Celtic Heartbeat,

Here he is at Evolution Recording Studios with his Taw.

We’ll be delivering this mahogany and Sitka spruce Lamorna to Project music next week.

That’s about all for January!