OK So its a wooden resonator without a cone, Right? Wrong!

Hello Again Fret heads!

Yes twice in a day - I am really spoiling you eh? OK one for the rare bird fans here. And this one goes out to anyone who has seen one of these before.

Stunned silence eh? OK well its about the loudest wooden parlour guitar I have ever played. Its a particular type of guitar called an Ampliphonic Guitar and it was built by a gentleman called Peter Thomas Ney from Grimsby. Who apparently mainly built banjos or perhaps still does!

And at that point dear readers the story and trail goes cold!  The Ampliphonic nature of the guitar accounts for its extremely loud and resonant, some might say forceful tone. The craftsmanship and fit is superb with high quality tuners a stunning top, ebony hand carved bridge and a unique "Art Deco" style tailpiece.

So what else can I tell you about this guitar? Well it isn't your typical "man in a shed" project guitar, by any measure, the craftsmanship is just far, far too well done. There is a label in there that states "Made by Peter Thomas Ney, England 1998". Another Ney instrument, a rather fine parlour guitar in the style of Lacote was recently offered at auction for £800. So someone else out there in guitar land knows what they are looking at and owns one of these fine guitars. A lute by the same builder was offered in the US for $6000.

A cursory glance at this fine instrument reveals excellent proportions and dimensions, a nice "older" Martin style squared off headstock and a spruce top, ebony fingerboard and rosewood back and sides.  Someone called gripet0 was selling a more conventional Maccaferri style 'Ney' guitar on Ebay in 2013 and provides a detailed and comprehensive write up of the instrument and its build quality. From this listing there may be some other elements common to Ney guitars such as Carbon Fibre truss rods.

Tonally it is well amazingly odd or oddly amazing. Take your pick! Imagine something between the volume of a wooden bodied resonator and a dreadnought, but with the tonal subtlety of a nice say Martin parlour or OM and you are getting close. Lots of complexity in the tone and it makes you work hard to get anything out of it. Acoustic Blues and Folk picking feel easy and finely balanced and its a guitar that is made to be played, aged and loved.  It doesn't have enough patina or wear on it yet as you know fret heads I do like my 1930's Gibson Archtops so I am thinking this is a keeper for oh...about the next 25 years.


Finally I will leave you with one thought and an appeal.  Firstly anyone who does herringbone binding like the photo on the right must be doing something right...Right?

Secondly if anyone out there has any more Peter Thomas Ney guitars to sell or knows Peter in Grimsby or further afield,; or have dealt with him please get in touch?

Finally does anyone else own an Ampliphonic Guitar from another builder?

I so love a good mystery, especially one with such a interesting and well built guitar at the centre of it.



Until next time Fret Heads! Adios!

Cata What?

Aloha Fret Kings and Twang Queens

 Yeah! Yeah! I know! No blog posts for ages, but c'mon the dog ate my homework ( or the dog ate my blog, whatever!) Hey I've been busy and there's major changes at Modern Guitars Towers. I now have a proper job and work on guitar stuff for some very nice Dutch people called...

I work as their guitar auctioneer and this means my friends that I value guitars and set up auction sales of some very fine classic, vintage and high value guitars.  I know the phrase 'greedy kid in a sweetie shop" come to mind. The frustrating thing is I can't bid on any! Oh well its great to spend every day looking at cool guitars and amps! Its my perfect job! They have even been daft enough to put my photo on their rather lovely website! Oh well I did try to warn them! Seriously folks, its a very exciting development in my world as I am happily still working on Modern Guitars and attending the guitar shows but also get to do this Catawiki thing, and I get paid for valuing guitars, what could be nicer! My current auction is on now with 25 Classic and Exclusive items of fretboard, wood and wire loveliness. Spot the museum piece VOX Amp that hasn't been used for years, always nice - and that very lovely Smoke Green Gretsch is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time! Check it out here Catawiki Classic Guitars Auction

Until next time Fret Kings and Twang Queens