The Process - Atkin Guitars

Wood Baking

We started baking our tops in 2011 with the express purpose of achieving improved stability. As we’ve grown, many of our guitars are residing in countries with extreme temperatures and humidity rates, as well as traveling the world with professional musicians.

Baking reduces the moisture content and also crystallises the resins within the grain, a process that happens naturally over many years and has long been thought of as a reason vintage guitars sound so great. We also go a little bit further and bake all of our brace wood.

Finishing

The Atkin aged gloss finish is something we’ve developed over 30 years of experience and is something we’re immensely proud of. We’ve worked hard to produce a finish that is light, and contributes to the sound of the guitar, and mirrors the finish you’d expect to see on a lightly used vintage instrument. We firmly believe that the sound of a vintage instrument is a product of its age as much as its manufacture, and the way the lacquer ages is part of that sound.

Our nitrocellulose lacquer is designed to be as close to traditional lacquer as possible, with no stabilisers, plasticizers or extra additives that might otherwise compromise the tone of our instruments. It isn’t designed to stay perfect forever, it’s designed to sound amazing forever. The checking you see on our guitars occurs naturally over time because our finish, like that of vintage instruments, is inherently unstable. This means that as your guitar ages, the finish will take on its own unique patina. This can happen over weeks, months or years. Your guitar, unlike a guitar with a modern finish, will become truly unique, and every ding, dent and imperfection will tell the story of you and your music.

Setup

The setup of a guitar is paramount to the player. All of our guitars go through an extensive setup process to make sure the playability is as good as it can be, from action to intonation. We choose to ship our guitars with Elixir strings as we feel they suit our guitars tonally and offer excellent longevity.

PLEK

Pickguards

All of our pickguards are made in-house using the best quality celluloid tortoiseshell. In our opinion there is no substitute for celluloid.

Each model of guitar we make has its own pickguard design, cut to fit it’s individual rosette. Our designs are inspired by original prewar guards. We then hand bevel and polish each guard to give our guitars a spectacularly authentic look.