4.52am Issue: 008 13th November 2016

ANDY MANSON
A Bouzouki for Andy Lambert
I hate to start an article by suggesting that
we are moving from the ridiculous to the
sublime, but in terms of approach to guitar
making, I think we can safely say that Andy
Manson comes from a more traditional
direction.
I’m genuinely pleased to say that Guitar
Quarterly will have a full feature on Andy’s
work in January, which is rightly regarded as
some of the finest in the world, but I didn’t
want too many issues of 4.52am to pass
without having at least a little look at one of
his builds.
As you would imagine, Andy Manson makes
all his guitars, mandolins and in the case of
today’s example, bouzoukis entirely by
hand, as he has done for over 40 years. To
date he has made more than a thousand
instruments and is still taking the finest of
woods and discovering the beauty within
both aesthetically and tonally.
I asked him about his approach to
tonewoods and whether he thought that
there is really any merit in the idea?
“I use most of the classic timbers for guitar
and mandolin construction. Rosewood,
spruce, mahogany, cedar, ebony, maple. I
like to use locallysourced woods as well,
when possible. A particular favourite is
English and European cherry.
The maple I use is grown in Europe, as is
most of the
spruce. I like to use some of the other
traditional instrument making woods that
have not been so common in modern
instruments, such as boxwood, pear,
apple, yew. I have laburnum, plum,
sycamore, walnut, strawberry wood, olive.
The particular sound of the instrument is
created by the interaction of the strings
and what they are attached to. The
variables apart from string characteristics
are weight, density, stiffness, size and
shape. Different woods have different
degrees of weight, density and stiffness.
In 1967 I built my first instrument, from
necessity. It was a teardrop shaped body
with a long neck and 30” scale. I don't
remember what inspired the long scale,
though I remember measuring strings to
see how long I could make it. I think I
hoped for a more strident sound with a
long string.
The body had plywood sides with oak top
and back and an African mahogany neck
with teak fingerboard. Not traditional, just
what happened to be lying around in my
Father's garage.
The thing could deliver a tune though and
I played it all over London, Paris, the Cote
D'Azur and anywhere else I landed. Then
there was a car crash, the guitar's top was
smashed in.