My name's Mark and as I kid I always wanted to learn to play guitar, but entry level instruments back then (late 70's) were awful as was amplification. I started learning classic guitar initially at school, but the classes were intermittent and we were learning finger style classic acoustic and I wanted to learn Hendrix. I gave up. In the 80's I started playing bass guitar, initially in cover bands playing Van Halen, Ozzy and other heavy metal classics (or now probably just known as classic rock).
My bass hero's at the time were people like Stanley Clarke, Jonas Hellborg, Mark King, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Marcus Miller and the likes and to be honest they are probably still my bass hero's to this day along with others such as Victor Wooten, of course Jaco, but also players such as Bootsy Collins, Adam Nitti, Brian Bromberg and many more.
In the mid 80's I decided to try to make it in the music industry, moving near London and starting a slightly more jazz funk/pop-centric type band. As is often the case, after a while (and never finding a drummer) the band ceased to exist - I don't actually remember that day, it feels like it just naturally happened.
Many years in the wilderness, my trusty old bass sat in a case unused until sometime in the early 2000's (I think) when I began playing and recording just for my own interest. GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) took over, buying first a 6 string bass, then 5 strings tuning E-C, then 7 string Conklins and even an 8 string Overwater. Then as I got a little better at playing guitar I started down that path, trying to find the instruments that best suited me (or simply inspired me).
I now play Baritone acoustic guitar more than anything else and whilst I am and average bassist, I'm probably a below average guitarist who just enjoys playing the instruments for the fun of it.
You may, at this point be wondering what this has to do with this web site.
Well I've decided I'd like to build some instruments of my own, and I wanted to document the build (or hopefully builds) of these instruments and more importantly all the things I learn along the way.
I am not a carpenter or otherwise particularly good with my hands, I'm a computer programmer by trade and also by hobby, so I have an analytical way (usually) of looking at things and questioning things, so I hope to bring some of that to play in producing a site with information around what I learn.
Let's start the journey and see where it takes us...