Bangor man wows local music scene with his custom-made guitars
These guitars will have you hooked 🎸
Last updated 27th Jul 2021
By Megan Whiteside
For half the price of a Martin, manufactured in some far-away factory by anonymous hands, you could instead have a Hook Guitar made completely to your specification by one man in Bangor.
Neill Robinson is the proprietor of Hook Guitars, a repair shop and guitar builder located in his back garden.
A hobby turned into a living, Neill’s guitars have made many debuts on the Bangor music scene over the years, including by local singer-songwriter King Cedar – aka Stephen Macartney – who opened for the Waterboys in Bangor three years ago.
Neill says he enjoys doing it: “There are very few jobs you can’t wait to get at when you wake up in the morning – this is what mine is.
“It’s the beauty of getting something that has come from the far side of the world and turning it from something with no sound into something that can produce a tune.
“I personally don’t play guitar but I have a lot of very talented friends. It’s a really amazing feeling getting to hand them something that I’ve made and hear them play it at their gigs.”
The woods used to craft these guitars come from all over the world and even have their own stories and individual sounds!
A recent favourite of his has been sinker redwood, which is sliced from huge old-growth redwood logs reclaimed from the depths of Northern California rivers, where they have lain in many cases for more than a century after getting lost in transport.
On a guitar though, this wood typically displays a rich spectrum of variegation, the result of colours uniquely imparted from silt and the mineral-rich water in which they were embedded in for so long.
Why not check out his Facebook page Hook Guitars for your very own custom-made, boutique guitar, whether you are an experienced guitar player or a beginner!
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