Turnstone Guitars - British luthier

TimmyO

I had a really interesting chat with the Luthier behind Turnstone Guitars at the Guitar Show - these are stunning instruments, the sweat of one person's labour, and there is an option for models that only use English woods, which I thought was nice.

Priced as you might expect for individually built to order handmade acoustics, but seemed to be worth every penny

http://turnstoneguitar.co.uk/

@TTony it might be worth making contact re the Forum ?

Tim 

ArchtopDave

/\ - I agree.

She was busy when I went up, so didn't have a chance to talk to her. I did however have a bit of a play on two of her guitars. The one with the Redwood Top was fabulous especially the sound, which, for me, had that bit of "something extra" which is difficult to define. They were easy to play, and I really liked the styling detail  - i.e. the rosettes and neat fretboard markers.  I also noticed her Stand Poster had photos showing her Bracing which is a bit unusual, but clearly works.

I would agree with you, that, on the basis of the guitars on show, her prices  are perfectly reasonable.

BigLicks67

I just checked out the website it's nice that they have a video presentation of each model, gives you a good indication of the sound of the different tone woods.

mellowsun

These guitars look fantastic, will check out the videos later.

Very professional website too. Let's hope Acoustic magazine does a review soon

crunchman

I tried a couple of them at the show.  Very, very nice.  Bit out of my price range at the moment though.

TimberG

I tried all three Rosie had on the stand and the redwood one was phenomenal, I think I was playing while @ArchtopDave was there lol. The other which was made with all English woods was also top draw,

Expensive but I think worth it as your getting a really top quality guitar also the bracing she is using must take ages to make 

ArchtopDave

TimberG said:

I tried all three Rosie had on the stand and the redwood one was phenomenal, I think I was playing while @ArchtopDave was there lol. The other which was made with all English woods was also top draw,

Expensive but I think worth it as your getting a really top quality guitar also the bracing she is using must take ages to make 

So it was your Credit Cards that I heard wailing  "No! No! No!" in the background, was it?

Winny_Pooh

On the website the redwood model is £5,190, wow. Some of the work looks phenomenal, like the cleats on the back joins and instead of purfling, the headstock is quite beautiful too.

sweepy

They do sound very sweet, but I wish that the headstock underwent a re-design, not that I'd ever buy one, but the aesthetics are sometimes the factor that  sway a decision 

crunchman

Winny_Pooh said:

On the website the redwood model is £5,190, wow. Some of the work looks phenomenal, like the cleats on the back joins and instead of purfling, the headstock is quite beautiful too.

If you look at the price list, you could cut £1150 off the price if you lost the rounded bit where your right arm goes over the edge of the guitar, the little mini-cutaway and the sound port on the upper side.  Still steep, but not quite as eye watering.  I'd rather not have that little cutaway anyway, and if it saves £400 to not have it then that would be a no brainer.

Winny_Pooh

True the starting price of some of the models are half that. I'm quite curious about how they sound, the workshop is actually only 20 mins from me.

Moe_Zambeek

Nice looking guitars. I'd like to try one of their smaller models but not much chance of that!

TimmyO

sweepy said:

They do sound very sweet, but I wish that the headstock underwent a re-design, not that I'd ever buy one, but the aesthetics are sometimes the factor that  sway a decision 

Interesting - I loved the headstock, particularly the way the little outline eats in to the top line

sweepy

I can see the idea in using a strong angle at the nut, eschewing the conventional straight path of the string over the nut to tuner in order t generate more energy in the string, but it is resoundingly ugly imho

TimmyO

video review 

ArchtopDave

/\ 
 That particular guitar is still causing me sleep disturbance - it had so much of what I like both cosmetically and in terms of sound. It was so easy to play as well. The review above by Tom Quayle is amusing in that he plainly runs out of words to describe how good he thinks it is.

VimFuego

aesthetically that does little for me, but holy fuck that guitar sounds big. I recall playing a few "banjo killer" guitars which managed the big sound ok, but lacked finesse. That thing manages to sound big but also sweet and complex. If I had 2 brass pennies to run togther I'd certainly use one as a down payment on that.

Evilmags

That is lovely, amazing note resolution. I was way down tuned (I think B, but don´t trust by ears) and still sounded great. 

Moominpapa

Goodness that's nice! Wish I could afford one of those :-(