We have a new addition to the family… a lovely guitar – but not just any old guitar. This one was custom made and is very very special.
It all started when webmaster John went to a folk festival without me. (That is always a mistake, she says, smiling.)
John met a man who makes guitars out of… wait for it – hardboard.
It’s all the brainchild of Felix Byrne – a musician and designer who wanted guitars that combined his ecological ideals with his musical needs.
He couldn’t buy one – so he built one. Now he’s making them for other people as The Hardboard Guitar Company
He uses low impact sustainable materials – for example he achieves the lovely finish on his wood by using an eco-friendly stains and oils – not a smelly high gloss varnish. The face of the guitar is Leylandii wood, which is very common and so easy to grow it’s almost like a weed at times. It can become a terrible nuisance, but the timber makes for a very pretty guitar.
The neck of the guitar is detachable and the head fits inside the body so that the whole thing can travel on a plane as carry-on luggage, which makes webmaster John very happy. It gets expensive keeping guitars in multiple countries.
Of course, when you set out to make an entirely new guitar, you need tools. Felix didn’t buy them – he made them out of hardboard and plywood, recycled lawnmower and washing machine parts and with the same attention to detail and aesthetics that he puts into his guitars.
It was wonderful to spend some time in the workshop understanding how John’s new guitar was made.
And the entire business of building the guitar resulted in just one bucket of rubbish – all of which can be composted or used in a fireplace.
So now John is spending his evenings getting to know his new guitar. It has a lovely sound.
And it looks so pretty sitting next to the bookshelves. I can’t play guitar, but I don’t need to in order to enjoy having something so wonderful in the family.