About Me
If it has strings, Jim'll fix it.
The workshop, which is based in Ripon City Music, is open from 9 am to 6 pm, Monday to Saturday. The majority of my work comes from word-of-mouth recommendations, and I provide assessments and quotations free of charge. Every instrument upon which I work receives a complimentary clean and polish. Banjos, ukuleles, dulcimers and upright basses have all passed through my hands.
I am also the only strings specialist in North East England to hold Professional Membership of the National Association of Musical Instrument Repairers.
No job is too extraordinary or too small, and in case you're wondering – nothing makes me blanch. My services range from re-stringing to neck re-sets. If your guitar doesn't play as it should, bring it to me and I will put it right. If you have a dusty old violin in your attic, I can recondition it for you.
Before I became a luthier, I played bass and guitar in bands around London and South East England for fifteen years. I enjoyed some modest successes, playing at venues such as Ronnie Scott's, the 100 Club and the Borderline.
Then I enrolled in the Guitar Making and Repair course at Merton College in Surrey, and found my calling.
The next year, I moved to America to train at the prestigious Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Arizona. The Roberto-Venn School, which amounts to a cluster of sheds and shacks in the shadow of the Phoenix Mountains, enjoys an unparalleled reputation. Former students have been recruited by Collings Guitars, Santa Cruz Guitars, Gibson and Fender, amongst others.
There, I designed and built a number of instruments including an acoustic guitar and a courting dulcimer. I also received a thorough and formal training in the repair of fretted, stringed instruments, including the violin family.
I began taking in instruments for repair and in January 2006, I became only the second British person to have graduated from Roberto-Venn. The school offered me a training position, but a chance meeting at the NAMM show in Los Angeles brought about my return to the UK, and the opening of my workshop in North Yorkshire.
The workshop, which is based in Ripon City Music, is open from 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, Monday to Saturday. The majority of my work comes from word-of-mouth recommendations, and I provide assessments and quotations free of charge. Every instrument upon which I work receives a complimentary clean and polish. Banjos, ukuleles, dulcimers and upright basses have all passed through my hands.
I am also the only strings specialist in North East England to hold Professional Membership of the National Association of Musical Instrument Repairers.
You can find my price list here; please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, or require further information.
Jim.