News Archive 2021-2022

December 2021

No wonder no-one can find us!

We sent this little bubinga Holly up to our friend Richard in Market Harborough, our shortest scale six string.

He kindly sent us a copy of his latest book –

And wrote ‘To help customers judge the size of this lovely new instrument you can inform them that it is approximately the length of one Russian Blue kitten. Please note – kitten is not at full extension and objected to being photographed without prior consultation’!

I’ll add another, nearly festive, size comparison – The Holly and The Tavy.

This is Richard from Bristol’s third Brook, an abalone and pearl decorated Lyn

With bubinga back and sides and a figured mahogany laminated neck. Succinctly and to the point Richard wrote ‘Thanks for the Lyn – outstanding’!

Pete came over with the Taw we made for him earlier in the year to pick up an inlay he’d commissioned from Jack of his last black lab.. here it is resting on his guitar.

Nearly every customer featured this month has more than one Brook – so to add to the roster this 613 mm, short scale, walnut Creedy went up to Keith in Greenwich, his second of our guitars!

We’ve still more repairs here than we’d really like, Andy sorted out a tricky problem with the wiring on this Gibson bass

And repaired yet another Les Paul headstock break. The customer was delighted with the result.

Season’s Greetings to everyone

And Best Wishes for the New Year. We’ll be away from the workshop for our winter break until the 5th January.

 

November 2021

We’ve been lucky to avoid the bad storms that have caused so much trouble in the North but with the colder spell early last week the early morning frost brought out this herd of deer,

We haven’t seen them in these sort of numbers so close to the workshop for a while!

We seem to have been making a lot of nylon strung  crossover models recently. We’ve just completed this rather striking Lyn,

Very much with a black and white theme – it has a European spruce top, ebony binding, fingerboard, head veneer and custom ebony bridge,

Along with this lovely maple back, sides and laminated neck,

Complemented by these Schaller tuners.

The second nylon strung guitar this month is this Taw with a tinted Sitka top,

The customer also asked for a pyramid bridge and this coda sign on the heel-cap.

Thirdly we have another European spruce and maple short scale Lyn,

This one with tinted back and sides and another of our custom shaped bridges.

Les here came up from Portsmouth to change the tuners for some chrome 510s on his twenty one year old rosewood and Adirondack Tamar.

Two smallish guitars for Coda Music this month: a Little Silver in front and a parlour size Clyst behind,

Sitka tops on both of them, the Silver has English walnut back and sides, the Clyst rosewood.

David Harsh, who writes for a U.S. music magazine, chose a Brook Taw amongst other items in his ‘Writer’s Picks’ column!

James in Michigan is so happy with his new Tamar he’s decided to sell his 2011 Taw to fund another possible build. It’s highly customised with a four piece back of Vietnamese rosewood and Tasmanian blackwood, the top’s Siberian cedar. You can contact James at james@jamesfilkins.com

This ad for a card game arrived this morning in our email. I don’t think we have to build this guitar to tell you the design isn’t going to work very well, don’t get any ideas guys!

We’ll see you next month for the final news update of 2021!

October 2021

On the way in to work earlier in the month I took some photos of this impressive rainbow.

We sent this Lyn up to Stephen in Kent,

Here’s a full length shot – Engelmann top, cutaway, pyramid bridge,

English walnut back and sides

And a walnut head veneer with Gotoh 510 tuners.

Stephen sent us these photos taken in front of the venue of his niece’s wedding in Norwich where he played the following day. He said the guitar sounded great!

This baritone rosewood Tavy has just gone up to Coda,

It has a 670 mm scale length, we strung it with D’Addario EJ-18s and tuned it C to C.

Martin came down from Worthing for pickup installation a set-up on his 2007 Teign. He took this photo while I was lowering the bridge

And one of his cavapoo Django amongst the autumn leaves in the orchard!

As always, nice to have some interest in the local woods with a lacewood Blackwater and Lyn, and also an English walnut Lyn getting their first coats of lacquer in the spray-room!

After a hard day at work wiring up a couple of electric guitars Andy took a day off….

To take on the challenge of repairing the wiring his wife Anita’s MX5,

While Jack worked at home on his latest inlay.

Sometime after being persuaded to part with my Lamorna – and the standard turnaround time, I now have a very nice rosewood and spruce Taw!

September 2021

All the repair work we’ve taken on over the last few months has rather upset our routine and we’ve ended up with a couple of batches together in the spray-room

Consequently we’ve not many finished instruments to feature this month.

Fortunately our customers have been sending us photos: Paul came down with his cutaway rosewood Taw

And Chris sent us this one of himself in his garden in Oxford with the Torridge he picked up from Oasis Music in Ringwood.

We sent this 12 fret Tamar out to Michigan last month, James sent us this shot of himself with the new guitar and his Taw tucked in behind on the sofa.

Nigel came down from the Cotswolds to pick up his sunburst Lamorna,

Our friend Richard James’ latest foray into the world of musical publishing is this fine book covering every recorded track by the late, great Tom Petty.

We asked him if he’d like us to accompany this unabashed plug with a suitable moody photo of the author so he sent us this one – not sure that’s the correct location for the ear plugs Richard!

The last guitar we made for Rob Garner was a little Creedy made from a chestnut tree that was in his garden. Recently a cherry tree had to come down, we’ll wait and see what Rob has in store for that!

Two of Beth Gibbons’ guitars came in this afternoon, Beth’s 12 fret Tavy for a set up and restringing and this 1888 Martin parlour guitar – in great condition with the original case!

Finally, as we’re rather short of news, we have a couple of photos from a forthcoming article about Brook Guitars – more of which next month. Firstly Andy and me at our respective work benches,

And lastly a view of the dusty collection of assorted instruments in our display room.

August 2021

Graham came over to the workshop from Tavistock with his partner Gail to pick up his new Tamar, they treated us to a medley of Nick Drake songs!

Graham’s figured English walnut and European spruce topped Tamar featured a shorter 630 mm scale length for ease of playing.

We had two new guitars for Coda: This figured mahogany Taw

And this sunburst top Lamorna,

A customer visiting the workshop the other week took a fancy to the Lamorna and arranged with Coda to buy it, then pick it up from us when it was ready. Hopefully we’ll get a photo of Nigel collecting it for next month’s news.

This little Clyst is going off to Russ in Oklahoma,

Here’s a close up of the traditional looking tinted Sitka top with abalone purfling and rosette and a pyramid bridge,

And here’s the torch inlay on the headstock.

Phil and Keith came down from Somerset for quick tweaks on their two Brooks.

Now – just some of the ever-increasing repairs we’ve been acquiring: a new bridge for this McAlister, a Martin D18 neck re-set, a Kinkead with multiple splits, and general repair work on this National . We are going to have to turn down some of the repair work before too long as it’s starting to interfere with our main job – making guitars!

Here’s the little jig we made up for cutting the fret slots on the latest fan fret Tavy we have on the go.

We were kindly given these sections of an old mahogany table to re-saw as guitar sets.

 

 

July 2021

Louise has been waiting for a long time to come down and personally pick up her new Blackwater!

Like Louise’s last Brook it was customised to her specifications, this time with lunar inlays,

And exotic ebony back and sides with a figured maple centre strip,

She was brought up in New Zealand and chose the Southern Cross as a pick-guard inlay!

Another rather interesting Brook is going off to James Filkins in the U.S. in a couple of days – a twelve fret cutaway Tamar,

With koa back and sides, padouk neck and binding,

African blackwood for the fingerboard, bridge and head veneer, with a mixture of these woods for the rosette.

Along with inlays of James’ design on the headstock

And fingerboard.

Owen sent us this photo of himself and his new Lamorna at the Boilerhouse Gallery in Corfe Castle along with the message ” Please find the attached photo of me with the best guitar I have ever played”. Excellent, thanks Owen!

Here’s Pete picking up the Taw we made for him, we featured the guitar in last month’s news!

Rosa Rebecka gave a spirited performance at our local music day with the Lyn we made for her ten years ago out of local yew.

June 2021

French singer songwriter Julie Blasco sent us these two photos of herself with the Creedy she’s just acquired!

We made this back in 1998 for another French artist. Check out a video of Julie playing the Creedy on our YouTube channel and for more information about Julie go to https://www.blasco-official.com

Coincidentally we have a second 1998 vintage Brook featured this month – this Okement that we’ve just re-set the neck on.

David and Bryony called in for a set-up on David’s resonator we made in 2015.

Here’s the latest Lamorna for Project Music,

Check out the wild looking figured English walnut!

And this is the latest figured mahogany Lamorna for Coda.

Richard sent us this fine photo, taken whilst musing about the mysterious confluence of the Torridge and the Avon!

Pete from Yelverton ordered this Taw which will be ready for collection shortly.

It has another set of striking English walnut back and sides, a walnut neck and lace-wood binding,

Along with a few personalised inlays on the headstock.

Another vintage Brook here, this time a 1999 Torridge 015. Bernard, the owner, asked us to retro fit a sound-port in the ribs.

Bob bought this Lyn from Coda and brought it along for a free first set-up while visiting the area.

Steve has several fan fretted guitars of ours and we’ve just drawn up a quick plan of the latest for him with a slightly more extreme 640/678 mm scale, we’ve just started work on it.

Will Adams was spotted busking with his Lamorna in Weymouth.

Repair Shop: Disappointing to see a virtually new Martin in need of a neck reset so soon after leaving  the factory.

We repaired this huge acoustic bass

And scale-wise, at the other extreme, we’ve been sympathetically renovating this uke and an Italian mandolin, coincidentally both were owned and played by the respective owner’s fathers!

All visitors to the workshop please beware of potholes, I took these photos along a short stretch of road on my way out here one morning recently.

Drive carefully!

May 2021

This May, as the expression goes, ‘it’s been raining cats and dogs’. Although of debateable origin it does allow us a tentative link to the photos following these Dartmoor shots of West Mill Tor and Yes Tor I took last week –

Tim’s delighted with his new koa Lamorna and, by the look of it, Tigger’s relaxed with the new addition to the family!

T.V. has been playing live request shows over the lockdown as his intense gigging schedule came to an abrupt halt. Over the period he’s played 250 of his own songs – without repeats!

One viewer sent in these photos of a couple of TV’s new online feline fans.

Dave came down from North Devon to pick up his new Blackwater.

He got back to us later “Just wanted to say thank you – to be part of the creation makes it even more unique and personal, the way the natural colours of the wood have come out are just stunning and it sounds and plays beautifully”……Thanks Dave, we appreciate the kind words!

Owain’s new Weaver joins three other Brooks in his collection – a Torridge, Lamorna and a Cary. The Weaver‘s back and sides are made of an old mahogany school bench top Owain brought over to the workshop last year.

John, from Bath, brought in his 2017 Lyn and we fitted a K&K Pure Mini pickup.

Brian called in with his slightly older Okement. He bought it in Hanks, in Denmark Street, way back in 1998 and it’s served him well ever since. It was the first time Brian had visited the workshop so we honoured our normal offer of a free first set-up!

Apologies for the slightly shorter news this month, as you can see from the case collection, we’ve been inundated with repairs and we’re attempting to work our way through them one by one……

Including extensive work on this rather battered 1964 Gibson Dove.

April 2021

Firstly, this month, we have this spectacular Koa Lamorna.

We bought the wood from a local furniture maker who regularly visits Hawaii sourcing the timber,

Koa purfling to match.

It’s great to be able to include customers again in our monthly news update now we’re able to invite them back into the workshop and I think it’s fair to say Tim was delighted with his guitar!

Another Lamorna left the workshop with singer songwriter Will Adams who records under the name Graffiti,

Here are two previous recordings, Will’s planning on writing a Lamorna song inspired by the instrument.

The third Lamorna of the month, a rosewood and Sitka one, was collected by Kevin from Milton Abbot in West Devon.

David sent us these photos of himself with his Engelmann and black walnut Taw in his parents’ garden in New South Wales, just south of Sydney.

He’s just put in an order for a reclaimed mahogany and Sitka Lamorna.

Stewart came over and we fitted a pickup on his new Abbey, he brought over his sunburst Lyn which will be coming up for its tenth birthday shortly.

James managed to navigate the lane in the largest motor-home we’d had up here for a quick set-up on his fifteen year old cocobolo Torridge.

Bob bought the rosewood Taw we had in the shop, we were delighted to see the slightly serious face offset by the very fine fez!

A pair of Torridges here for Coda,

Sitka tops, one with a figured mahogany back and sides and the other with rosewood.

Amongst the repairs this month perhaps the most interesting was this neck narrowing and reshaping on a guitar for Matt, a fine guitarist and classical guitar teacher in Exeter.

That’s all we have for you until next month!

March 2021

Rick Camp wrote to let us know that the Clyst model we originally made for him back in 2001 was now 20 years old, it’s been gigged extensively, here are a couple of photos of Rick and the Clyst in action!

Regular visitors will be aware that this is our new website. We’re still tweaking it, let us know what you think. We’re really pleased with the way it’s turned out – we’ve nodded our heads to the style of the old site and improved the information on the different models and their relative sizes.

We made this 12 string Tavy for Andrew in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. It has a Sitka top

And English walnut back and sides, Andrew was after one similar to the one we made for Ant Phillips.

Since the first lockdown and the ending of any live musical activity, our old friend, musician Richard James has taken to writing! His latest book is about the rock band UFO and, like buses, he has three more coming along shortly, celebrating Tom Petty, Status Quo and Joe Jackson. We promised Richard we’d give him a special author’s discount when his sales catch up with previous Brook owner, author Kazuo Ishiguro.

We had some stormy weather the other morning,

Andy discovered the lane blocked by a fallen tree and had to take a detour to the workshop.

Spring is in the air and Jez took the opportunity to take this little un to the park! He wrote “Thanks so much for your hand in my present! We’re setting a pattern here with the Lyn for my 40th, Holly for 50th….”

Jack started making up some mahogany linings

So Andy thought it may be time to overhaul the jig he made up to slot them on the bandsaw!

I started roughing out the padauk neck for James in Michigan, as always with padauk there’s a lot of bright orange sawdust!

I thinned out the neck and narrowed it a little on this classical guitar for Matt from Exeter,

Here we have the first coats of lacquer on James’ Tamar and Matt’s classical.

Megan and Brian from the duo Red, Green and Blue came down for set-ups on their guitars and treated us to an impromptu concert!

We’ve just reset the neck on this twenty one year old Taw

And this Gibson LG-0, we also replaced the cheap plastic bridge with an ebony one.

Stay safe as we start to come out of lockdown.

February 2021

Steve Tilston latest album ‘Such Times’ has just been released on Riverboat Records, it’s a generous helping of fifteen fine songs and tunes and we heartily recommend it.

 

Steve used his Calder on all but one of the tracks!

 

We’ve just completed this rosewood Taw for our shop,

 

Here’s a close up of the Sitka spruce top.

Two here for Mak in Rathbone Place –

 

An English walnut and cedar Torridge and a bubinga and Engelmann spruce Taw.

 

Every year we post a photo of the snowdrops in the orchard so here’s this year’s array,

 

Along with a scattering of snow on the pond.

 

Woody Mann emailed recently – “I’m just getting in touch to let you know that the guitar you made for me way back is sounding great and is so comfortable to play.  A different voice from my other instruments…I’ve been playing it a lot lately. Reminds me of my visit to your shop years ago.” Thanks Woody!

 

Here’s Andy grafting a strengthener across a tricky break on an Atkin headstock.

 

Anyone for a nice set of cocobolo?

 

And finally – a quick shot of some of the guitars we’ll be putting together and stringing up shortly.

 

January 2021
This beautiful all koa Lyn went off to Coda,
Here’s a close up of the back, the wood came directly from our supplier in Hawaii.
The headstock is fitted with Schaller Grand Tune tuners with snakewood buttons.
A Lyn and a Lamorna went up to Mak at Mak’s Guitars in Rathbone Place.
The Lyn‘s walnut and Engelmann, the Lamorna‘s rosewood and Sitka.
Two more Taws for Project:

One rosewood and Sitka and the other walnut and Engelmann.

Andrew has a Lyn he bought some years ago, he couldn’t resist the Lamorna in our shop. He wrote  “the guitar sounds wonderful, it’s a superb instrument. As requested here’s the Brook siblings, about 20 years separating them I think!”.

Andy did a fine job again getting John’s damaged Torridge back in working order.

He’s been preparing some custom necks out of maple, walnut and paduak along with some standard ones out of our old stock mahogany

Meanwhile I’m carving necks for this batch, then preparing the guitars for lacquering.

Mark Robinson sent us this photo of the Tamar we made for him nearly twenty years ago. He’s running a songwriting workshop on Zoom on February 17th.

We’re still busy redesigning the website, we’ve been looking through the archives and thought we’d add some models we’d initially made as one-offs to our range,

we hope to have the new site up and running to coincide with the February news update.

Coincidentally while all the plans were around a little Holly came in for a set-up. This one’s the guitar model on the uke body.

Stay safe.