A lifelong love of music has built an international business for craftsman Andy Solloway, who makes unique “resonator” guitars which sell as far afield as Japan.

The 46-year-old, from Skipton, takes standard electric guitars and converts them by adding steel plates and sound cones to produce hybrids that give a magical metallic sound.

Famous as the sound of Old Blues, resonators were played by greats such as Son House and Muddy Waters, who used their hall-filling volume in times when electric guitars were beyond their pockets.

“They were invented in America and were most popular in the 1920s in the days before amplification,” said Mr Solloway, who works part-time at Craven College, Skipton, as an art and media technician.

Mr Solloway discovered the blues after starting out as a teenage punk guitarist, and now gigs with local soul covers band The Zealots.

“I use one of my guitars on stage and nothing beats getting up there and using it in anger. I love playing slide on it and it brings a really different sound that blends well with everything,” said Mr Solloway.

He described the painstaking process of turning a standard Telecaster copy into one of his instruments.

“I’ll take a quality full-bodied Tele, like a Squire for example, then rout it out to take a metal sound cone and then fit whatever pick-ups the customer wants. The Tele is the best guitar ever made in my opinion."

His recipe is proving a success, with some 50 of his Sollophonic guitars sold in the last two years to resonator fans in the US and Japan.

Andy can be contacted via his website at sollophonicguitars.co.uk

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