The Holy Grail Pair
In May 2020, I was due to exhibit at my second Holy Grail Guitar Show in Berlin. For me, this show represented the pinnacle of contemporary guitar building. The finest luthiers from across the world assembled to share knowledge, friendship and of course, display their craftsmanship. Unfortunately, the global Covid-19 pandemic meant that the HGGS was cancelled and it was announced that there would be no future show planned. This very special pair of guitars would have been my offering to the show. Every ounce of my guitar building story is poured into these simple wooden boxes. Two guitars with two stories, both worthy of a few words.
Both guitars feature top grade Italian spruce soundboards and reclaimed mahogany necks from a billiards table made by Orme & Sons.
The OMC features Bog Oak back and sides, fingerboard and bridge. This remarkable material is occasionally discovered by farmers in the fens whilst ploughing their fields. Once discovered it is extremely carefully handled and slowly dried to a workable state after over 3000 years of stasis underneath the iron rich peat. Tannins in the Oak react with the iron in the soil and water to transform the timber into this deep black colour. You’ll find it called Fenland Oak, Neolithic Oak or even Black Oak, but essentially it’s Oak, that fell into a Bog, that’s why I prefer to call it Bog Oak.
The OO has reclaimed Rippled Ash back and sides and a Wenge fingerboard and bridge. The Ash was salvaged from bathroom paneling during a renovation, I had noticed that it was perfectly quarter-sawn and just fell within the minimum dimensions required for a small guitar. I asked the renovators that if they could keep it rather than throwing it on landfill. I affectionately call this wood “Bog Ash”.
Stylistically, I’ve stripped both guitars back to their bare bones, with a simple soundhole binding in place of a complicated rosette. Offcuts from the sides create the binding materials for the soundhole and perimeter, lending a cohesiveness to the design.
Most importantly, I’m extremely happy with the sound of both of these guitars, and I’m very grateful to the excellent Ben Walker for his lovely playing in the demos below. If you haven’t heard it yet, I urge you to check out and his album ‘Echo’, a magnificent contemporary folk fingerstyle treat - https://benwalkermusic.bandcamp.com/
Both guitars are now sold (Nov 2020). Please get in touch if you’re interested in commissioning a similar instrument, or would like to be kept up to date with future guitars as and when they become available.
OO #30
The OO combines the sweetness of a shorter scale length (25”/635mm) with the substantial projection of smaller guitars. This is a wonderful guitar for solo playing and seems especially well suited to celtic fingerstyle pieces such as Si Bheag Si Mhor as played here by the staggeringly talented Ben Walker.
OMC #31
The OMC has a slightly longer scale, 25.5”(647.7mm) which gives it a powerful voice. This guitar has a lovely deep bass response that makes it feel like you’re playing a bigger guitar, yet it’s still articulate across the mids and trebles as you would expect from this body size.
Both guitars are now sold (Nov 2020). Please get in touch if you’re interested in commissioning a similar instrument, or would like to be kept up to date with future guitars as and when they become available.
