Gillett Guitars

I'm in contact with TOB and he has got all the info he needs from the FWS doc. As it happens, a link to the same FWS doc is exactly the help that NAMM provide on their show website plus a NAMM management contact name for those who need more.

Just for the sake of clarity, CITES governs the movement of listed endangered species across borders and so applies whether stuff is for sale or not.

Correct, although it appears that lots of stuff gets sold covertly and the organisers allegedly turn a blind eye to it.

Meant to add that there's been some heavyweight lobbying by the global music industry to obtain an exemption from CITES for all musical instruments. This has been very effective and chances are that it would have been in place now if the last CITES meeting (scheduled for May in Malaysia IIRC) hadn't been cancelled due to a terrorist incident!

Here is a link to an amazingly useful document published by the Fish and Wildlife Service in the US. Put together in a 'question and answer' format, it is easy to understand and addresses pretty much everything that individuals, companies and organisations need to know about moving rosewood and other CITES-listed materials between the UK/EU and the USA. Having seen the picture from the American perspective, you can export with a high degree of confidence that your goods will clear customs at the other side. It has also given me a far better general understanding of CITES than I have been able to derive from online research and repeated contact with APHA, who administer CITES in the UK. FWS CITES Q&A scrumpymike

👍 Super job Andy! There are now 2 basses in the world made from the last tree felled by my old mate Merv, the 'Wharfedale wood-cutter'. The owd rascal would truly have been proud to know that. Pictured below: Merv aged 17, a couple of years in to his career as an axe-man (1948), and as I knew him in 2008. http:// http:// Edit: Sorry guys, forgot I was still signed in on the Gillett Guitars account! It's scrumpymike here - in case you hadn't guessed 😉

Wendysday belongs in the middle of the week surely?! ("Stop calling me Shirley!" 🤐)

HEADS-UP: Ex-demo sale!! As is our policy at Gillett Guitars, we are initially offering the following ex-demo instruments exclusively to Basschat forum members for a limited period! We will also be listing them with full details and pic's in the forum 'shop' as commercial items for sale in the next couple of days. Gillett Contour 5-string fretless Contour Standard (i.e. full-bodied) electro-acoustic bass Sale price - £2150 (RRP £2650) Gillett Contour S 4-string fretted Contour Slimline (i.e. shallow-bodied) electro-acoustic bass Sale price - £1550 (RRP £2200) Gillett Contour S 4-string fretted Contour Slimline (i.e. shallow-bodied) electro-acoustic bass Sale price - £1850 (RRP £2200) Mike Batsch (aka 'scrumpymike') Sales & Marketing Manager GILLETT GUITARS Tel. +44 (0)1823 272376 / (0)7770 946135

I think fleabag will be the first to shoot that one down... I'll get me coat 😐 (scrumpymike with Gillett hat on)

Thanks guys! The really exciting bit is that so far most players prefer the sound of the Rocklite instrument. Re cost, it's currently slightly more expensive than natural tone-wood. All credit to Andy for having the courage to specify his guitar in this hi-tech material! Fyi, we're just finishing a second Rocklite 6-string guitar for another member of this forum. Could this be the future for our (currently Indian Rosewood) Contour S bass? I'll give Andy his topic back now 😉 - any more questions to me via pm/phone please or follow our sponsored Gillett Guitars topic. scrumpymike aka Sales & Marketing Manager GILLETT GUITARS Tel. +44 (0)1823 272376/(0)7770 946135 … and now it’s a ‘perfect 10’ for Quality In BGM’s September 2018 review!!

And if further proof of ownership is needed, here's Bernard with bass and band in action. (He recently took it from Tokyo to Towcester - not sure which gig this is 😎)

Thanks all for the positive comments. If you think the front looks good, the back ain't half bad either!! http://

We certainly were - my friend Michael G in person no less - he loves it!!

Bernard is now the proud owner of the lovely bass in the pic, and about to upgrade to 'ST' spec (under-bridge piezos as well as mag pick-up at neck). That's what I now play in my Americana band - fitted with the lovely Newtone Acoustic strings that Bernard also loves - and it's an absolute belter (I would say that, wouldn't I 😉)

Thanks Andy - you beat me to it by a matter of seconds - your guitar's famous 🙂

As already reported, we're at the London International Guitar Show (Kempton Park Racecourse Exhibition Centre, Sunbury on Thames, this Sunday 28th from 10am to 4:30pm) with our new Contour S six-string guitar. Our friend Ben Fletcher, who will be running our demo room at the show, popped in to our workshops recently and made a short video. It's a kind of shoot-out between 2 very different guitars from our first production batch - one made from traditional tone-woods and the other from a man-made alternative. I love Ben's video and think you'll like it too. Follow the link to find out which guitar Ben prefers! Ben Fletcher CGS6 shoot-out If you're going to the show, don't forget to come and say hi!

Not sure whether our Contour 'look' qualifies as organic but here's our darkest offering (rosewood). http:// Lots more pic's on our sponsored Basschat topic. scrumpymike aka Gillett Guitars Sales & Marketing Manager

Don't worry Andy, we'll clean the slobber off before you get it back 😊 The show is a week tomorrow for those who are interested - Sunday 28th (see details in my earlier post on this topic). We'll be bringing stuff with the correct number of strings too 👍

I was relieved to see that AndyJr was one of the 'likes' for the Rocklite guitar pic's above - because it's his!! Now that he's visited our workshops and played it, he likes likes it even more. We offer all our customers a handover in our workshops near Bristol and Andy was particularly keen to see how we build our Contour guitar and basses. Selling one of our first batch of new guitars to an accomplished luthier like Andy ("I've never even paid half this much for a guitar before") is a real source of pride for us. And here he is giving the set-up a final tweak. http://

One of the first orders for our new guitar was placed by a high-profile member of this forum, who specified it to be built using Rocklite. This innovative material is a very recent development that's already being used for fret-boards as a rosewood replacement. As far as we know, we're the first to use it to use it for the body as well. As these pics grabbed in our workshop show, it's turning out rather well. http:// http:// http://

OK, so this is a bit of an experiment. I've put together a short newsletter and I'm going to see what happens if I try to copy and paste some of it here: Q: When is a Gillett Contour not a bass? A: When it’s our new six-string guitar! http:// Michael Gillett (ABOVE, right) discusses the new Contour six-string guitar prototype in an interview with Britain’s Rare Guitars at a recent recording session at Summerfield Studios in Birmingham (see p2). BELOW: Workshop shot of the mahogany-bodied prototype showing the nifty hatch set into the back of the guitar to access the battery compartment and solid-brass string-retaining block. http:// The design development phase is done and dusted, the feedback from the many UK guitarists who played the prototype has been incorporated into the final design — and now it’s finally here!! The very first production batch of our new six-string guitar addition to the Contour family is being built in our workshops and the customers who have paid their deposits know the wait is nearly over. As with our basses, we set out to make the Contour guitar much more than another ‘me-too’ instrument. Its ergonomically-sculpted body, through-stringing, proprietary internal bracing structure and custom-designed electronics — all of these features combine to create a really playable instrument with a uniquely versatile tonal palette… Read on for your first chance to play it! >>>>>> http:// We’ll be at LIGS with the new Contour guitar and a selection of Contour basses. This is an American-style ‘table-top’ exhibition but we will also have a private demo room for you to hear – and play – our instruments in a more controlled environment. A new addition to our bass range Up to now, our popular Contour ‘S’ (for ‘Slimline’) has only been available with a single mag pickup at the neck but we are pleased to announce that it is now available with the additional under-bridge piezo installation for that extra tonal versatility. This very model got a most favourable review in the September issue of Bass Guitar — including a ‘perfect 10’ for build quality. This follows the citation below based on the magazine’s review of a fretted Standard 5. http:// Gilletto al fresco If the above conjures-up images of sipping Chianti and nibbling antipasti on a veranda overlooking the sun-soaked Adriatic coast – forget it! Soaked we were, but not by the sun on our last two outdoor events; and we haven’t even mentioned the wind. The events in question were the Towersey and Shrewsbury Folk Festivals, which coincided on the last weekend in August when the lovely Summer weather decided to take a sharp turn for the worse. We decided to do them and the massive Sidmouth fest (thankfully at the drier start of the month) in order to promote our new guitar at grass-roots level — literally. Here’s a pic of our Shrewsbury pitch before the show started and the monsoon rain-clouds finally let go. ‘Glamping’ this definitely was not!

...and here's the staged payment info referred to in my last post: Manufacturing Agreement Payment Schedule NOTE: The following abstract from the full and formal Gillett Guitars ‘Manufacturing Agreement’ is intended purely to illustrate the financial structure of our staged-payment arrangement: The Instruments CONTOUR 4-STRING BASSES Fretless Poplar @£2,400 - 3 payments of £480 + final £960 Fretted Poplar – as above Fretless Rosewood – as above Fretted Rosewood – as above “S” Type Fretless Rosewood @£2,200 - 3 payments of £440 + final £880 “S” Type Fretted – as above “ST” Type Fretless Rosewood @£2,450 - 3 payments of £490 + final £980 “ST” Type Fretted – as above CONTOUR 5-STRING BASSES Fretless Poplar @£2,650 - 3 payments of £530 + final £1060 Fretted Poplar – as above Fretless Rosewood – as above Fretted Rosewood – as above “ST” Type Fretless Rosewood – as above “ST” Type Fretted Rosewood – as above NEW!! Contour 6-string electro-acoustic guitar @£2,795 – 1 payment of £795 + 4 payments of £500 All the above instruments will be provided with a purpose designed hard case at no additional charge.

Pleased to say that those nice folks at BRG did their thing sooner than expected - so here's the link with a bit more stuff wrapped round it: We were recently invited to Summerfield Studios in Birmingham for a video recording session with Britain's Rare Guitars. Click on the link below to see them interviewing Michael and playing our new Contour six-string guitar and Contour S bass. BRG's Gillett Interview and demo ****** As you will see from my 'official' Gillett sign-off (if you didn't know already), Bass Guitar Magazine cited the Gillett Contour as best electro-acoustic bass in the premium £1500-plus price category in their Gear of the Year round-up for 2017. This was based on their review of a 5-string fretted Contour - and in this month's issue (in the shops from tomorrow) you'll find their follow-up review of our best-selling slim-bodied S. This time they opted for a fretless 4 and, once again, they appear to have liked it (we wouldn't be telling you if they hadn't). ****** Premium guitars and basses like ours come at a premium price, and we understand the implications of that. In order to reduce (or at least spread) the financial pain, we offer a staged-payment arrangement. On receipt of a signed agreement with the initial payment from our customer, we will start the chain of events that ends (subject to payment of the outstanding balance) with the delivery of their finished instrument some weeks later*. This scheme is not a loan, so no interest charges apply. I've attached the figures for our range of instruments to give you an idea of the financial commitment. If you are interested, we will send you a copy of our staged-purchase agreement containing all the relevant terms and conditions. *Current build time is around 12 weeks Mike Batsch (aka Scrumpymike) Sales & Marketing Manager GILLETT GUITARS Tel. +44 (0)1823 272376 / (0)7770 946135

Had a nice day out at Summerfield Studios yesterday, where Britain's Rare Guitars were making a video about Gillett Guitars for their online tv channel. The format was an interview with Michael G talking about the company and its products followed by Becky Baldwin and Gareth Cirket playing our Contour ST and six-string prototype in a live band recording. http:// The programme will be edited in the next few weeks and should be on YouTube at the end of August. In the meantime, here's an idea of what they're about: https://www.youtube.com/britainsrareguitars

And then there was the pub gig in the evening at the Cobden in Woolton village featuring local 6-piece covers band Paperjam, of which Jim, Pete and Andy are regular members. (5-part vocal harmonies? Yes please!) For the 5 of us who had been on duty at Haydock Park, this felt like a bit of a post-show party. The pub was full of music, laughter and applause, and the banter was top-notch. It seems to me that the live music scene in Liverpool is better than anywhere else in the land and I'm sure that's down to the heritage of the 'Mersey Beat' bands. Indeed, many of the long-serving musicians from the '60s and '70s are still in harness - including my mate Jim. As I watched the gig, I almost found myself wishing I lived there! It was also a real buzz for me that two of the three head-stocks on stage carried the Gillett logo - just like it was the most natural thing in the world! Couldn't help imagining that must be how Leo once felt the first time he saw a Fender bass and guitar on the same stage https://youtu.be/O_yJ2X-sRIc