Made to order from £3,225
DeVilleIn my mind I envisaged the bastard offspring of a 335 and a Jaguar… and here it is.
Hopton, Suffolk. Tuesday to Saturday, by appointment.
Relic electric guitars, built one at a time in shed heaven at the bottom of a garden in Suffolk.
Soundings
If it feels nicer in the hand, it's easier to play. If it's easier to play, you're going to play more.
Read onThe Guitars
Three to start from.
Made to order from £2,375
ThicklineMy signature guitar… The Thickline. A hollow bodied Tele, a whopping 60mm deep.
Made to order from £1,875
Gateway Drug LineThree classics. Basic, raw, unadulterated rock and roll. An SG Junior, a Les Paul Junior and an Esquire. All single pickups. The timber is set, and that's what makes them the price they are.
Tone Control
What would that sound like?
Guitars that started out as a question of sound we just had to build to find out. Each a Tone Control one of one, tuned up, ready to play.
One in stock £2,350
EchoA fantasy Strat, '62 and all in blue, made to look like it's been round the block.
One in stock £2,235
The 107Built for tone, not decoration… but it looks damn good regardless.
One in stock £2,375
The Lost ModelEvery so often a lost idea returns…
One in stock £2,235
The RunawayA beast of a T-type. Named the Runaway because with this beast… you ain't runnin' nowhere.
Commission
We make a handful of exceptional guitars each year. We’d love to make yours.
We usually kick things off with a few questions about how you play, and you can start on them right here. Have fun. We’ll read every answer and write back with a few ideas, and one of them may well end up as your dream guitar.
Question 1 of 12
What makes you forget your day and just play?
I like rat rods. I like busted-down homemade choppers. I’m almost turned off by the new and shiny. Which is probably why I build what I build.
On film
Three conversations in a Hackney studio.
Dalston Sessions Vol. 1
Andrea from Soul String interviews John. Part one examines guitar No 100.
Hear
Same player, same room, same amp. Every time.
A Vox AC4TV with a Celestion Greenback, at one watt, and the same hands on every take, so what you’re hearing is the guitar.
Echo · clean0:49
The 107 · clean0:14
The Lost Model · clean0:34
The Runaway · clean0:26
DeVille · clean1:08
The Rebel · clean0:35
The Kid · clean0:40
Fine for comparing guitars on most speakers.
Soundings
Thirty years of opinions, arrived at by doing it wrong first.
11 Nov 2026
Fretboard wood types: maple, rosewood or ebony?
The three fretboard woods that get reached for and why, whether the wood changes the tone, why maple is lacquered, rolled edges and finger marks, the sticky neck, and roasted maple.
11 Nov 2026
Types of guitar frets: size, height and what they're made of
Guitar fret sizes explained from the bench: nickel silver or stainless steel, narrow, medium tall and jumbo, what a taller fret does under the finger, a fret dress and a re-crown, and when it has to be a refret.
3 Nov 2026
Which wood is best for an electric guitar body?
The great tonewood debate: alder, swamp ash, korina, walnut, mahogany and maple, which get reached for and why, roasted necks, reclaimed timber, figured and bookmatched tops, binding, hollow and chambered bodies, the exotic stuff, and the short answer.
The shed
Come and play one.
Bury St Edmunds, Thetford and Diss make the triangle; the shed sits in the middle of it. By appointment, Tuesday to Saturday. Nobody has yet come down and left without saying yes to a guitar.