Hi, I'm Matt

Hi I'm Matt,

Firstly let me thankyou for taking the time to visit my website. If you are here then you are clearly interested in my work and what I do. 

I love what I do, I love guitars and I love working with wood.

I started playing the guitar when I was 10 years old and I just couldn't wait until the next time that I got the opportunity to play one of the schools guitars. A love and passion was born.

It wasn't long after that I got into bands like Nirvana which was the gateway drug to my passion for Metal music. These days of course I don't just listen to Metal.. well mostly I do.. yeah but I like other stuff too, like Pink Floyd, ELO, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Counting Crows, The Levellers etc... 

I was 12 when I owned my first electric guitar it was a Hohner Rockwood Strat style guitar. It was a good first guitar, but one day sadly in my naivety I leant it against the wall where it proceeded to fall over and break the headstock clean off! So I helped my dad to repair it and it played again but was never quite the same. It's probably fair to say that this is what first got me into the idea of building a guitar for myself, and ultimately do this for a living. 

When I was about 14, I would sometimes help my dad with custom built gunstocks that he made from his home workshop for his clients. This was when I first started to develop an interest in woodwork, and two years later I would leave school and pursue an apprenticeship in bench joinery.

In my late teens and early twenties I played in several bands being either a bass player or lead guitarist, but something wasn't quite right for me. I was very unhappy at work, and every day feared the abuse that I would get from my then employer, this unhappiness led to many years of depression which in turn led me to think, "fuck it I'm going to do what I've always wanted to do" so I turned my attention and skill sets towards luthiery, the craft of building stringed instruments or more specifically in my case guitar building. It is something that I find great balance from and it serves me well. 

I have owned I think about 40 guitars, some reasonable quality, some high end quality and some real horrible tacky ones too! So I know the qualities that make a fine guitar and I know what makes a bad guitar!

I am now 38 years old and married with two trying but fantastic daughters and a baby boy on the way.

Apart from supporting my family and doing what is right by them, my main mission is to become a builder of the finest quality guitars that can be played, gigged, toured, loved, cherished and even passed on. It is my goal to become one of the very best in my craft, and when you buy a guitar from you can be assured that I will give it just as much care, love and attention as I would give to my children... so you will get the very best that I can give you.

All the best and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards 

Matt. MAL Guitars.