About The Luthier Stephen started playing guitar at 14 and was also introduced to the mandolin by his grandfather. At 16 he went on to study instrument making at London Guildhall University from 1994-2000. While there he was taught by two classical guitar makers David Rouse and by David Whiteman as well as a host of other studies. In April 2003 he set up his workshop in Kent in the South East of England, in the town of Fawkham, which was right by Brands Hatch race track . In February 2016 he moved to Germany to share a larger workshop with electric guitar maker Daniel Schippers of DSG Custom Guitars and Dierk Dengel of Philadelphia Pa and D.D. Cases & Cabinets . Steve’s main passion is multi-stringed and unusual instruments. He works alone to create these using both modern and traditional techniques in instrument making. Some instruments have a strong input and influence by the customer. The real bespoke 'one off' instruments come from sketches, then turned into a full size drawing before the wood is crafted into a fully working instrument. Jason Carter interviewed Stephen about harp guitars in January 2010. Stephen also appears in the documentary In Search Of The Harp Guitar and more recently The Hollow Arm . Although most of his work is very customised, there are a number of established standard instruments. Steve's eye for good design, reputation, quality and price has resulted in customers having come from around the world, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Holland, Poland, Slovakia and the USA. He is also one of the musicians in the Bochum band MZR. They do quite a range of acoustic music.

Moritz Maibaum Photography