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WATCH: Great-ar Wolverhampton family firm is 'dream'

It has been a long, tough and sometimes heartbreaking journey, but engineer Tony Wright says he is now 'living the dream' – working alongside his youngest son, crafting hand-made guitars in a small workshop in Wolverhampton.

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Like most teenagers, Tony picked up a guitar. But unlike most he kept on playing and eventually learned electric bass.

Now, 43-years on, he and son Sam are launching their own business, Lakestone Guitars, and rapidly building a strong reputation for the quality of their work and the beautiful tone produced by their guitars.

Father and son say they have been supported by their strong Christian faith and by their love for their craft as luthiers – a term dating back to the original lute makers of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Their current profession is a million miles from where Tony started, training as an apprentice fitter with Robinson Brothers in West Bromwich in 1972.

His engineering career went from strength to strength. Working for an engineering consultancy in Wolverhampton he found himself redesigning the machine at the Cadbury factory at Bournville that makes the Curly Wurly.

Tony uses engineering to make builds easy

"That was in 1982, and as far as I know it's still working today," said Tony, who lives in Gornal.

After completing a two-year degree course at the former Wolverhampton Polytechnic, Tony switched to working in education, and was rapidly head-hunted as design lecturer at Dudley College and then appointed as head of department.

Meanwhile, he had taught himself to make electric guitars. "I had been asked to play with a group of musicians who were professionals or semi-pro, and I decided I needed something better than my old Squire bass.

The guitars can sell for around £2,500 each

"I bought one in Birmingham but didn't like the tone, and when I took it back I saw one hanging on the shop wall that used to be owned by Mark King, from Level 42. It sounded fantastic, but I looked at the price and it was £3,500 – a lot of money in the 1980s. So it went back on the wall.

"I thought, I'm a design engineer, I can learn how to make one. I did it in my spare time, lunch hours in the college workshop.

Sam tunes one of their many creations

"It was pretty good – another guitarist liked it so much he asked me to make him one. And that's how it carried on, ad hoc, just making them here and there."

But in 1989 Tony suffered a massive heart attack. He tried to return to work but the stress was too great and he had to take early retirement.

He carried on with the guitar making and repairs in his garden shed, and also worked part-time as a pastor at his church. His guitars, meanwhile, were building a small but appreciative audience among skilled players.

Then, eight years ago, his wife of 30 years died from cancer. "Our faith helped get us through, but I just didn't want to make guitars any more," said Tony. "My enjoyment in it was gone. I suppose it was part of the bereavement."

Sam, the youngest son and a talented musician in his own right, was also struggling. "There were days he just didn't want to get out of bed," said Tony.

"He had made his first guitar at 13 or 14, so I said let's go and make guitars. I started making acoustics because it was something new for me, we could learn together."

Learning to make acoustic guitars well can take decades, but the Wrights had a stroke of luck.

Tony had invented a device called a universal fret slotter that could accurately fit the frets on guitar necks to within one 4,000th of an inch. They have been sold globally and led to a call from world-renowned guitar maker George Lowden, who was looking for some engineering advice.

Working on a series of projects at Lowden's factory in Northern Ireland resulted in a masterclass for Tony in the skills and intricacies of making acoustic guitars.

He's passed these skills on to Sam and to his musician friend Dan Clark, who offered the duo his garage in Wolverhampton as their workshop as the business outgrew the shed in Gornal.

After months of work, which included turning the garage into a temperature and humidity-controlled environment, father and son are launching Lakestone Guitars – hoping to make at least two guitars a month. Currently, each guitar is the result of around 200 hours of work, although they are hoping to bring that down in their new workshop.

Each one is handmade for the client, usually from rosewood but also from walnut, mahogany, spruce, cedar and rarer timbers such as lacewood from plane trees, or even Adirondack spruce.

"That can cost £200 just for enough to make the face of the guitar's body, but it produces a lovely tone," Tony adds.

A dense African hardwood called wenge is sometimes used for fingerboards, but the Wrights, father and son, are sticklers for ebony on acoustic guitar fret boards.

The use of different woods is crucial in the distinct sound each guitar will produce, with bodies made of cedar, for example, producing a warmer sound.

Even on electric guitars, the wood makes a big difference. Maple, used for Fender-style guitars, will produce a brasher sound, while the mahogany used for a Gibson style instrument will offer a warmer tone.

Alongside a craftsman's knowledge of his materials, Tony brings 21st century engineering nous. He likes making guitars with thinner necks and has come up with a way of using carbon fibre to strengthen them. He is also making guitars with a distinctive fan fret, like his mentor George Lowden, where the frets are at an angle to allow for longer bass strings and shorter trebles.

It improves the sound and is easier to play. Tony designed the jig that allowed George to put his fan fret guitars into full production.

The company name, Lakestone, comes from the old stone quarry near Tony's original shed in Gornal.

Depending on the woods used, a Lakestone Guitar will be priced at around £2,500. Tony said: "We've been told that's a very good price for the quality of guitar we will be making, but we need to build our name and reputation.

"The business hasn't made a penny yet but I hope it will provide a living for Sam and I, particularly for Sam. I am 59, so I'll have my pension soon, but Sam is only 25. I want this to be a long-running business, and hopefully we'll be able to take on a trainee in the future so we can pass our skills on."

Alongside a business they love, father and son have also had some much-deserved happiness in their home lives.

Sam has married – with his pastor father conducting the service – and Tony too has remarried, bringing home a Canadian bride Lonnie after meeting online – "She says she got me cheap on eBay," he jokes.

"She comes from British Columbia, and after we were married her sister came across a batch of rare woods being sold, bought them and sent them to me.

"What a great sister-in-law is that! I couldn't believe it when I opened the parcel. It was stuff you just can't get over here."

For more information visit www.lakestoneguitars.co.uk

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