Episode 5 - Nik Huber Guitars
I’m not really sure when I first saw one of Nik Huber’s guitars but I’ve been admiring them for a long time, always considering them to be some of the finest crafted guitars out there. After the success of the episode with Patrick Eggle I was looking around for another high end guitar builder to film and so fired off an email to Nik and got a reply straightaway saying they’d be interested in being involved. I have to admit to being pretty excited about getting the chance to look behind-the-scenes at Nik Huber, but despite our best efforts our clashing work schedules meant I had to wait six agonising months before we could find a date that suited both of us. Finally in October we managed to find a time that worked and as I spend part of my time in Chamonix, France I jumped in our clapped out Citroën C1 and set off through Switzerland in the direction of Germany. After what seemed like an endless journey getting stuck in traffic around Karlsruhe and Mannheim I finally made it to the sleepy town of Rodgau just outside Frankfurt
Stepping inside the factory was like entering a guitar wonderland, with incredible looking guitars in various stages of completion everywhere you looked. We started off with Nik taking me on a tour of the whole factory and it quickly became apparent that if you could dream it up, Nik could build it for you. I was blown away by some of the craftsmanship on show, especially the intricate inlay work, and the highlight was definitely a Maori inspired turtle inlay covering the whole body of a Reitbergen hollowbody. After the tour I was pretty excited to get started with the filming and so jumped straight into shooting Nik selecting some tops from his impressive collection of woods, which included some beautiful pieces of 50 year old Brazilian rosewood that had originally been intended for billiard cues.
The next two days became a bit of a blur as I marvelled at the craftsmanship and attention to detail that went in to each stage of the build process and I could have happily spent another week filming. It was also great to hear Nik talk about how he got into guitar building and particularly how he first met Paul Reed Smith in 1994 by blagging his way into a Frankfurt music venue on the pretence of giving Paul some cassette tapes that he needed for the gig. This encounter led to Paul taking Nik under his wing and helping him in his early days of guitar building; being well before the days of the internet Nik would send Paul questions about guitar building via fax, getting answers back days later. When it came round to editing the film Nik managed to dig out some brilliant photos of one of his first meetings with Paul Reed Smith (complete with early 90s hair!) and these made a great addition to the film.
A huge thank you to Nik and Clemens for allowing me the opportunity to come and get in the way for a couple of days. The finished film is available on the Six String Tales YouTube channel now!
nikhuber-guitars.com - instagram.com/nikhuberguitars/ - facebook.com/NikHuberGuitars/
Episode 4 - Rift Amplification
I first became aware of Rift Amps when I played through a Rift Vibro 35 that my partner’s Dad owned. I’ve always been a fan of vintage Fender amps and fell in love with a brownface Fender Concert amp at a shop in the USA, particularly the warmth and lushness of the harmonic tremolo (unfortunately being a 4x10 there was no way I was going to hump it back on the plane!). Finding a hand built brownface clone from a UK amp builder was definitely of interest to me and the amp sounded stunning, especially when you cranked the volume up. Again fate intervened when I discovered Rift was based only a few steps away from the ThorpyFX workshop in Farthinghoe and I met Chris Fantana, the man behind Rift Amps, when I was there filming with Adrian Thorpe. A few months later I found myself heading back to Northamptonshire to film an episode with Rift Amps.
Much like filming the previous episode with Patrick Eggle working building guitars there was something very therapeutic about filming Chris wiring up the amps, a huge amount of time was spent making sure every component was positioned perfectly and you could tell Chris really enjoyed the process. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine the amp builders of the 1950s working in much the same way and it definitely gave me a some sense of nostalgia. One of the things that making this series has taught me so far is how many great guitar brands are out there that are still truly handcrafting their products; every part of Rift’s amps are produced in the UK including the cabinets which are made my hand in Wales. If you’re in the market for a truly handwired point-to-point amp make sure to check Rift Amps out!
Many thanks to Chris for having me, you can check out episode four of Six String Tales with Rift Amps over on YouTube!
https://www.riftamps.com/ - https://www.instagram.com/riftamps/ - https://www.facebook.com/riftamps
Episode 3 - Patrick James Eggle Guitars
Before Six String Tales was launched I really wanted to film an episode with a UK based guitar builder but didn’t really know where to start. Fate intervened however during filming for the first episode with ThorpyFX when Adrian produced a stunning looking guitar with one of the most impressive flamed tops I’d ever seen. We ended up using this guitar to film all the playing that featured in the ThorpyFX film and I couldn’t put it down when I finally got the chance to play it. The guitar was a Patrick James Eggle Macon Single Cut, part of a relatively new venture into the high-end electric guitar market by Patrick Eggle. Certainly no stranger to guitar building though Patrick has been making guitars for many decades, some of which have graced the hands of Tony Iommi, Rory Gallagher and Albert Lee, not a bad list of guitarists to have used your instruments! After a few emails back and forth I found myself heading down to Oswestry to film at Patrick’s workshop for episode three.
I had fairly high expectations about the kind of footage we’d be able to get filming someone making such high end instruments but I was still blown away by the time and attention to detail that went into every step of the build process. As soon as I arrived we jumped straight into filming Pat work on the stunning quilt top Macon in the photo below. This had one of the deepest, most impressive quilts I’ve seen on a guitar (even before it had been strained and sprayed) and I found it mesmeric watching the stain bring out the quilt pattern even more. Although I’m not convinced I have the patience to be a guitar builder I can definitely understand the deep level of satisfaction that comes from producing such finely crafted instruments and you could tell Pat was in his element whilst working on them.
An unexpected bonus to the shoot was a visit from blues guitarist Aynsley Lister who came in to talk about the specs of a Macon Single Cut that Pat was building for him alongside another for Chris Buck. We ended up filming Aynsley improvise on a Macon for about half an hour and some of this playing features at the end of the film, the soundtrack for the rest of the film is also one of Anysley’s tracks ‘Rain’ from the album Upside Down. For anyone interested Pat and Aynsley also sat down and discussed the differences between the Macon models as well as how much wood choices affect tone (dare I mention tone woods!) in the video below
A massive thank you to Patrick and the rest of the team for taking the time out to let me film with them. The finished film is on the Six String Tales YouTube channel
https://eggle.co.uk - https://www.instagram.com/pjeggleguitars/ - https://www.facebook.com/pjeggleguitars
Episode 2 - Origin Effects
When I was a teenager and massively into recording I bought an old Urei blackface 1176 compressor from a guy on the Isle of Man. My knowledge of vintage gear at the time was pretty minimal to say the least and I had very little understanding of how sought after the compressor was (I don’t think the guy I bought it from did either!), all I knew was it sounded fantastic on pretty much everything, especially guitar. Fast forward a few years to being a skint student living off beer and endless bags of rice and I very foolishly decided to sell the compressor, not bothering to do any research first and letting it go for a fraction of what it was actually worth. It wasn’t until quite a long time after this I realised how great the 1176 was, how much of a mistake it had been selling it and that it was very unlikely I’d be able to find another one (that I could afford anyway!). It therefore peaked my interest when flicking through one of the guitar magazines to see a new compressor pedal by a company called Origin Effects, inspired by the 1176 and housed in a slick looking enclosure with Universal Audio style knobs it looked great. When it came round to launching the Six String Tales series I was looking around for companies that still manufacture in the UK and Origin Effects came to mind, they’d just released the Revival Drive and seemed to be going from strength to strength. They were also conveniently based just down the road from ThorpyFX (this part of England seems to be a hot spot for guitar brands for some reason!) and so the day after I’d been to film episode 1 with Thorpy I headed down the road to Origin Effects new HQ in Buckingham.
Having just filmed the first episode I felt like I’d found my feet a bit with the filming style and it was great to jump straight into filming the pedals being built, which proved to be another perfect demonstration of hand built craftsmanship. The original goal was for all the films to have a cinematic feel and so it was a lot of fun getting creative with the lighting and filming angles, I mean who doesn’t love solder fumes in slow motion!
The highlight of the day though was filming Simon Keats, founder of Origin Effects, playing through some of the impressive collection of vintage amps they used when designing the Revival Drive. It definitely felt like being a kid in a sweet shop with the plethora of black and brownface Fenders, Marshalls and other iconic vintage amps stacked up everywhere but the icing on the cake was Simon’s stunning vintage ES-345 which he definitely knew how to play!
Many thanks to everyone at Origin Effects for having me along, especially Simon Keats and Jack Dunwoody. Episode 2 is available now over on the Six String Tales YouTube channel
https://origineffects.com/ - http://instagram.com/origineffects - http://facebook.com/origineffects
Episode 1 - Thorpy FX
I bought my first ThorpyFX pedal back in 2015, the ever popular Fallout Cloud fuzz. The first thing that drew me towards the pedal was the unique looking enclosure it came in, a mix of vintage feel, military precision and seeming indestructibility. Fortunately the pedal not only looked great but it sounded great too and so it didn’t take long for ThorpyFX pedals to start to take over my pedalboard. When it came to starting the Six String Tales series making a film about ThorpyFX seemed like an obvious place to start. It was at this point that I discovered how interesting the story behind ThorpyFX actually was. Founded by Major Adrian Thorpe MBE after finishing serving as a bomb disposal expert in the British army the company was the result of the years of development gained through designing and building pedals whilst still serving in the army . Working on pedals was the perfect way for Adrian to pass the long evenings and avoid spending endless hours in the bar and risk becoming an alcoholic in the process! These kind of stories are one of the main reasons I decided to start the series, despite the seemingly endless gear focused guitar content on YouTube there seemed to be very little that actually focused on interesting and authentic storytelling.
Turning up at ThorpyFX HQ I was a little unsure about how the filming day would go, particularly as it was a bit of a leap into the unknown being the first episode of the series. Fortunately it proved to be pretty effortless and filming Adrian solder pedals was extremely cathartic. Watching the individual components slot into place perfectly demonstrated the workmanship that goes into each pedal and you can definitely be confident that the pedals are going to take what ever abuse you can throw at them!
Many thanks to Adrian for having some faith and agreeing to take part in the series. Make sure to check out the finished film over on YouTube!
https://thorpyfx.com/ - http://instagram.com/thorpyfx - http://facebook.com/thorpyfx