I know I’m never going to master this one:

I would have had to be quite a lot younger and able to apprentice myself to a true master to capture the nuances required to join that club.

But you have to try. And I love the commitment of pulling out a beautiful piece of Spruce, and thinking: ‘OK, no excuses, make a good one’.

I've made five to date, two have been slotheads and three classic OM type instruments. All of them play pretty well, and all of them sound pretty good. Three of them I am happy with in Aesthetic terms.

I’ve come to really like Torrified Tops. They can be very tricky to work with: brittle and alarmingly fragile at times. But the look and feel of a Torrified top is second to none. Like all my instruments I finish them with natural plant oils and never use a lacquer