SPARKpickups and the controls, Those are the eye-catching
bits. But all the labour and effort is really in the neck
- if you don’t get that right, it’s not a musical
instrument. It’s, at best, a bit of art.
“On the second guitar, I did the fretwork, which I
shouldn’t have done, because that made the project
run over way more than it should have done. I broke
my own rule and made too big a jump. I bought a
neck without frets, and I ended up having to do the
frets three times before I got it right.
“Guitars three and four were built together, and
I’m about to replace the neck on guitar three. It was
an OK first effort, but I’m a slightly better guitarist
than I was two years ago, and it now annoys me.
“A guitar has to speak to you in many ways. We
are emotional beings, and our relationship with our
instruments is partly based on how we feel when
we look at them. I care about getting the details right
so that the person who gets it has that sense of
pride. I want them to go on stage. What makes me
happiest is when people are on stage playing a guitar
that I built. That’s the most awesome thing in the
world. I went to one of my brother’s gigs, and he
was there on the stage playing a guitar that I’d
made. In some small way I was responsible for the
audience having a good night. That’s an amazing
sensation – nerve-racking as well, because if the
guitar breaks, it’s all my fault.
THE QUEST CONTINUES
“Ultimately I’d love to do archtops. I think those
jazz-style guitars are amazing. But it’s just a journey.
I started with a Fender Telecaster, because it’s the
simplest, dumbest guitar. It’s the original solid-body
guitar, right? It’s a great starting place for someone
who’s got no experience.
“I’d always had a Telecaster so I knew what it
should feel like. And on each one, I try to do a bit
more. The builds I’ve got going at the moment, one
of them is the first one where the body design is my
own. And it’s got some features from a Les Paul –
it’s got the electronics cavities in the rear. That, to
me, is a very sensible design decision. Whereas the
fact that you have to take the strings off to do
anything with the electronics on a Fender design just
strikes me as insane.
“What I want to get to is making guitars that
people like, in the shapes that they like, and I bring
along the engineering elements that make them a
good instrument.”Above^
Michael makes his
guitars at Cambridge
Makerspace,
benefiting from the
shared knowledge
there as much as
from the tools