about
Always in the making
Velasco Guitars has been in the making for more than 10 years. It all began when I started my luthier's journey on an evening class at London Met University. A working musician with roots in jazz and improvised music, I had spent years in close relationship with the guitar — performing across the UK and Europe, recording with my own ensembles, and listening deeply to the instrument's possibilities. If musicians like Bill Frisell and Charlie Hayden taught me the foundations of thoughtful music making, you could say luthier Nick Payall taught me the foundations of mindful woodworking and guitar building.
Drawn to instruments of smaller frame and design, I chose to cut my teeth on a 1900 Washburn Parlor guitar drawn by David Dyke. I relished learning to use hand tools as I crafted the guitar's top and back, but just as I started working on the neck of the guitar, life got in the way and I had to down tools.
What I had started of that Washburn waited on the shelf as I carried on collecting hand tools and repairing guitars for myself and fellow musicians. Then in October 2022, while holidaying with family, my father-in-law asked for help building a ukulele from a kit he'd purchased. This simple project was the spark that reminded me of the joy I find in working with my hands and working with organic materials to make beautiful, purposeful tools.
So, holiday over, I picked up the Washburn, dusted off my tools, transformed a corner of the dining room into a workshop and completed my first guitar. It became clear that this is not simply a hobby but an avenue to create meaningful and beautifully-warm sounding instruments that musicians connect with deeply.
Now based outside of London in Chesham, UK, I continue to craft elegant instruments from locally sourced or traditional woods. As a performer who has spent a lifetime listening for what a guitar can and cannot do, I bring a musician's ear — and a musician's demands — to every instrument I make.