For me, meeting John Renbourn and making guitars for him was a special experience that has largely slipped by untold - due to me subsequently struggling with ill health for a while and studying before recently reopening the business.
John was a total legend, a real ‘player’s player’. Musicians such as Eric Clapton and the Beatles were regular attendees at John’s gigs with Bert Jansch (Bert and John) in the early 1960s. He then went on to greater success as a member of the band Pentangle, as a solo artist and in a brilliant duo with the great Stefan Grossman. In his last decade John continued to tour the UK, Italy, Japan and the USA, often with the immensely talented Clive Carroll alongside - whose career John greatly encouraged.
The Connection
Back in 1994 I received a phone call from a prospective client, David Forfar, who had seen one of my Jumbo R-Type acoustics on display in a music shop. David was keen to meet and he eventually ordered a Brazilian Rosewood OM28 from me. His main remit was that he wanted it to sound like John Renbourn’s guitar (a Franklin built Martin OM ‘replica’, made by Nick Kukich). Having studied the sound carefully we decided on a lightweight build with a master-grade Sitka Spruce top, French polish finish and a slightly deeper body.
On completion the guitar was my best OM to date (having started building them under master luthiers Herbert Schwarz and Michael Gee (my tutors) some five years previous). David was delighted and the following year he took it to a Renbourn gig at Nettlebed folk club to ask John if he might try it. John happily agreed and really liked the guitar, particular noting the clarity, fast response and warm depth of bass. His final verdict was simply, “It’s a peach, it’s a peach!” (I’m holding the guitar in the opening picture of this article).
A year later, David and I dropped in to see John in Galashiels where he was living at the time. John was just home from touring. Outside it was snowing heavily. We sat by the log burner eating tweed soup as John played David’s OM28, along with another newly finished Davies OM. It was an evening to remember – one which left John’s Celtic bends lingering in our minds as the snow chased us all the way down through Yorkshire before we could relax, safe in the knowledge that we’d make it home, deep into the night.
Although I enjoyed meeting John on multiple occasions I’d never suggested making him a guitar. I was happy that he liked my guitars and was amused that he had offered to buy David’s Davies OM28 more than once. He clearly loved his Franklin OM and it was serving him well with the neck having been reshaped to his preferred thin C-profile. However, around 2002, having again just returned from a tour in the US, John called me to ask if I could work on the Franklin. It turned out that he’d asked Nick Kukich to overhaul it and set it up as it was beginning to give him problems. Unfortunately however, when John returned to collect the guitar personal circumstances meant that Nick hadn’t been able to complete the work.
When I met up with John he was still frustrated as he’d had to take the guitar as was, bodge it up and hit the road. I made and fitted a new intonated ox bone saddle, levelled, crowned and polished the frets and set up the guitar. I also re-glued an open crack that ran down the length of the neck (it had been thinned too much for its truss rod type). On collection John was delighted that his old favourite was up-and-running again, though he noted that with the neck being so fragile it was on borrowed time.
A few months later John called saying, “I think it’s about time I retired and replaced the Franklin, it’s working well but I don’t feel I can rely on it for long” he said, “Can we talk about you making me an OM like David’s?” “Yes of course” I replied, and a week later I joined John back stage in Kent as we measured up the Franklin, prior to his gig that evening. The year was 2002.
The brief was to make John’s new guitar with the neck and string-spacing that he was familiar with, yet with the sound and response of a Davies OM. We chose Brazilian Rosewood for the back and sides and Engelmann Spruce for the soundboard, a one-piece Brazilian Mahogany neck and an ebony fretboard. The guitar was to be French polished.
John was delighted. I still have his letter (dated Feb 20th, 2003) that he sent soon after I delivered the guitar to him at The Snoot – his home in an old chapel near Hawick in the Scottish Borders. John wrote,
“Just a quick note to say how knocked out I am by the guitar… it’s great…The American Agent has been trying to get me all evening but I have been oblivious… thank you so much. John."
Two days later John was on a US bound plane to tour with his former Pentangle band member Jacqui McShee and the late-great Woody Mann (above). During that tour John sent me a Japanese magazine article from “Acoustic Guitar Book 17” where the guitar was featured as his primary instrument. His letter opened with, “Hello Alvin, enclosed is the first bit of global publicity.”
A couple of years on, John wrote again saying,
“Would you consider making a 7-string guitar – I have always fancied an Orpharian which was basically a wire-strung lute. But a 7-string guitar would be much more practical. I had the idea of a short scale length – top string to F# (so tuning would be – low - B F# B E G# C# F# (top 6 roughly a tone higher than standard 6). No double courses like lute – 12-string only gets messy. Possibly a slight cutaway – more pronounced curve on the fingerboard – neck width hardly any more than you did last time. Body shape possibly a bit more rounded, i.e. Gibson – J50 – Larrivée. Rosewood and Sitka. What do you think, it would open up a lot of musical possibilities and get plenty of attention, all the best, John.”
I agreed and after we’d discussed things further to finalised the spec and shape I got to work – designing and building it with master-grade East Indian Rosewood back and sides, an Alpine Spruce soundboard, Brazilian mahogany neck and an ebony fretboard and bridge. Once completed, I dropped it off to John at The Snoot. Again he was very happy with the guitar and sent me a follow-up postcard from Edinburgh saying,
“Just wanted to say that I’m knocked out by the new guitar. It’s a great instrument. Remember the secret formula! It was good to see you.”
It was mesmerising to watch John getting to grips with the 7-string for a couple of days. His learning curve was steep, but unsurprisingly he adjusted quickly while I checked out some of his other instruments. We broke for lunch to enjoy Renbourn bacon sandwiches and then later for a liver, sausage and bacon hotpot, with a bottle or two of red flowing late into the night.
On delivery of the new guitar John also asked if I would service his Davies OM28 and we both agreed that it would be good if he had a back-up OM that was the same as his Davies OM28, which he’d now owned for four years.
John kindly insisted on a quick picture on the grass outside The Snoot, which I was delighted to agree to before waving him goodbye. I felt content as I heading north to stay with David Forfar and his family in Aberdeenshire - where they had recently relocated to. John Renbourn was now playing two of my guitars and he’d even insisted on paying for the seven-string. Soon he would have a third Davies guitar. Not only that, I’d repaired and studied his Franklin and he’d also recently purchased an early 1850s Martin Size 2 ½ Parlour guitar from me - It was my own guitar which I’d restored. I really loved that little guitar, though I was pleased to now see it finding its ultimate destiny in virtuoso hands. Recalling this as I look back, I now realise that over time I’d somehow become John’s go-to luthier!
John was both a client and endorsee, yet we never talked that way, because above all he was a great friend. We talked about everything from guitars and touring to English folk music, fellow musicians and beliefs. John always claimed that luthiers were even crazier than musicians, and he citing my pastime of building and racing cars as solid evidence. I couldn’t really argue with that!
On returning home I hand-jointed the back and front for John’s new Brazilian Rosewood Davies OM and cut out the neck. However, I was soon to fall very ill with ME/chronic fatigue. It was something I’d struggled with for a few years but around 2007 it took a turn for the worse and all I could manage was a few guitar repairs each week to make ends meet. John was happily playing and experimenting with his new 7-string at The Snoot, while his touring Davies OM28 and his new OM build languished untouched as my health declined.
As my career ground to a halt John dusted-off his 1985 pearl-inlayed Ralph Bown OM which he’d had for many years, and pressed it into regular service. It wouldn’t have been his preferred choice at that time as it didn’t have the feel or sound of the Franklin and Davies. On his website John noted that the Bown was, “Close to the Franklin in design, but quite different in character.” However, while I felt exhausted, upset and frankly quite guilty this was hardly ‘slim pickings’ as Ralph makes exceptional instruments.
Over the last eight years of John’s career he regularly played that pearl Bown guitar and in 2008 Ralph made him an excellent off-the-peg OM cutaway. John noted that, “He [Ralph] didn’t actually make it for me, he just made it then called me up to say if I wanted another of his guitars one was finished, and to get down there fast before it went elsewhere. So it was sold unseen” (again quoted from John’s own website).
In 2010 the C.F. Martin guitar company honoured John by producing a signature model OM28 for him. On launch of the model John stated that “The goal was to combine the best of American and European lutherie”. It is hard for me to read his statement without feeling that John’s words showed appreciation to those luthiers who had built guitars for him along the way – namely Kukich, Bown and myself, for John had never used a Martin OM before, only luthier-built OMs. Furthermore, it was of no surprise to me that he/Martin specified Alpine Spruce for the top - something which we’d also decided on for his new Davies OM28, and which we’d chosen for his Davies 7-string. While John certainly did on occasion play his Martin, it is clear from those close to him that in some respects he wasn’t completely happy with the instrument, which is disappointing as it could have been so good. At least the honour was there, if perhaps not the execution.
A little jig-saw piece in John Renbourn’s Immense Legacy
John Renbourn passed away while at his beloved home, The Snoot, in the Scottish Borders on March 26th 2015. I miss him immensely, on so many levels – as a friend and musician, as well as for his humour, kindness and hospitality. I am eternally grateful to him for seeing something in my work. He was really delighted to help me as a young up-and-coming luthier, in a similar way to how he encouraged Clive Carroll as a playing protégé-apprentice. I’ll forever remember him showing such genuine delight and excitement when I delivered each guitar to him.
John’s support for my work has ultimately made me the last independent luthier that he worked with as an endorsee. Together we alone formed the specifications for his instruments as we carefully choose each design feature, aesthetic, measurement and material. What an honour!
What happened to John’s Davies OM28 (above)? Well it was eventually and fittingly sold to our mutual friend David Forfar, the man who started the Davies-Renbourn connection. David owned the guitar for many years until recently. Along the way it was modified from Martin 28 to 42 spec and refinished by Casimi Guitars in Cape Town (picture to follow).
Incredibly it has come full circle and I have now been able to buy it back – thanks to David’s generosity and keenness to see Davies guitars succeed once more. I have also bought back the OM 28 that originally inspired John to originally commission me to build for him (below right) - it had never had any work done and it still played amazingly well after 30 years.
Today both OMs are a part of my small collection of early Davies originals for prospective clients to try. And the unfinished OM28 that I started to make for John?...I will complete it just as John commissioned, to the spec we agreed – as a tribute to John’s life and music, as I honour the memory of my good friend.