Alister Atkin left the London School of Furniture and rented a space in Andy Crockett’s workshop in Stourmouth just outside Canterbury. At this stage Alister had built one classical and a couple of electric guitars.
Alister’s ambition was to build steel string acoustics. In the summer of 1995 he purchased the wood to build his first HD 28. With the help of Andy Crockett and Irving Sloane’s “Steel String Guitar Construction” the first Atkin Steel String was born. These early guitars were built entirely by hand using time honoured traditional methods.