Montgomery - Amazing handmade Northern Ireland luthier

[GBaldwin]

Hi there,

I'm a new user to this forum and by no means am I associated with Andreas Montgomery, but as he's a relatively unknown luthier from Northern Ireland I felt a need to let you all know that he's more than well worth looking into if you're after a great sounding, really great looking, custom handmade acoustic guitar.

I picked up one of his Jumbo models recently and as a user of Avalons and Lowdens generally, I wanted to just let you know that the craftsmanship of Andreas's work is of comparable quality to both of these great companies with the sound of it sitting up there with them too. Not to take anything away from Avalon as I'm a massive fan of their guitars too.

My guitar is a Jumbo with a cutaway and a bevel, (of the Lowden type). With a satin finish, it has an underplayed quality to it and aside from the amazingly executed smooth as silk ebony bevel, which feels incredible on the underside of your picking arm, this guitar is fairly frills free. It's only when you look closely that you notice the quality of the man's work. It has a Sitka Spruce top and an Indian Rosewood back and sides. The Sitka almost seems aged already as it has a beautiful orangey browning to it going on, slightly light cedar esque and the rosewood has lovely figuring and colour. Purflings wise it has ebony, sycamore, mahogany, sycamore & ebony up to the surrounding ebony binding blending beautifully into the ebony arm bevel. It has a thin ebony back strip hiding subtly between the chocolatey brown Rosewood and has some amazing details round the soundhole too.

Sound hole purflings wise is sycamore, ebony, sycamore, mahogany, sycamore, ebony and it also has a snakewood surround with ebony binding too. it's these little details which make the guitar look really amazing.

The fretboard is ebony with a curved fretboard end up to the soundhole and has sycamore edging on both the fretboard side and on the neck under the ebony board. This sycamore fretboard edging runs up and carries on under the Macassar ebony headstock facing and the headstock has a great design with recessed silvery black Gotoh tuners. There's no headstock logo and a note to the luthier is only found on an almost hidden sticker inlay inside the guitar showing the classy Montgomery logo, year of production and body type.

The neck is a Three piece mahogany and sycamore neck with a dovetail neck join and feels solid as you like. It's a little thicker than an Avalon one, but not by much and with the action almost as good as some of my electric guitars, it's plays very well indeed.

The bridge is a Macassar Ebony one with bridge pins like the Avalons and a single saddle piece.

The guitar can be seen in some of the gallery photos on Andreas's website.....http://www.montgomeryguitars.co.uk/ and is also the first one on his Instagram page.....http://www.instagram.com/montgomeryguitars/ , but if you require any more photos just message me on here.

I did own an experimental fan fret build of Andreas's previously and whilst that was a very good guitar in itself, this commissioned build is a step above. Andreas himself said to me that some of his experimental builds have been that and are not necessarily fully indicative of the true quality of his work, but as a result have helped him hone his craft and improve on his tried and tested designs. I like that he's pushing himself to incorporate some more unique ideas in his builds.

Sorry for my rambling, but I just wanted to pass on that I'm very happy with this guitar and hope that Andreas can keep building guitars of this quality for many years to come. He's got some great artistic designs which look very classy and are just a slight change to your standard acoustic body shapes, but enough to make them quirky and cool, to my eyes.

For the craftsmanship and sound and general customer service from Andreas, you'd definitely be doing yourself a favour to consider him for your next custom build or guitar purchase.

Thanks for reading.

Graeme

[murrmac123]

He may well be a superb luthier, but he should make it a priority to have a professional web designer take a look at his website with a view to a total overhaul.

It is one of the worst luthier websites I have ever encountered.

[Brucebubs]

Originally Posted by murrmac123

He may well be a superb luthier, but he should make it a priority to have a professional web designer take a look at his website with a view to a total overhaul.

It is one of the worst luthier websites I have ever encountered.

I must admit I gave up on it too.
Pity, I'm a jumbo fan and your guitar sounds excellent so I was interested to see his work.

Welcome to the AGF.

[gitarro]

Thanks for introducing us to a hitherto unheard of luthier, at least to me. Fro his bio on his website, it looks like he is a self taught luthier without any connection with the avalon or lowden factories. Is that true? How long has he been building? And does he do individual voicing like tap tuning techniques?

I didnt have any issues navigating on this luthier's website. I have visited the websites of quite a few other luthiers who had worse presentations.

[TBman]

Actually I thought the website was fine. Interesting work.

[Dakotabison]

I thought the website was pretty well done. Lots of high quality photos of beautiful guitars, background history, and specifics on the available body shapes, tonewoods, pricing etc. He even discusses the build process after an order is made. What more do you need?

[Brucebubs]

Originally Posted by Dakotabison

I thought the website was pretty well done. Lots of high quality photos of beautiful guitars, background history, and specifics on the available body shapes, tonewoods, pricing etc. He even discusses the build process after an order is made. What more do you need?

Just some simple typed headers would be better than 3 horizontal bars.
I had no idea what they were until I clicked on them out of frustration.
Keep it simple for simple folk like me.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

Just some simple typed headers would be better than 3 horizontal bars.
I had no idea what they were until I clicked on them out of frustration.
Keep it simple for simple folk like me.

Bruce, it might be like that to make it easier to use from a smart phone. I didn't try it yet though with my phone.

[Dakotabison]

Originally Posted by TBman

Bruce, it might be like that to make it easier to use from a smart phone. I didn't try it yet though with my phone.

That could be it, I viewed the site on my smartphone.

[Wade Hampton]

Thanks for posting, Graeme - it’s always interesting to learn about previously unknown luthiers who are making excellent guitars.

I also have some ancestral ties to Ulster, specifically to County Down, so I’m especially alert when I read about guitar builders in the North of Ireland.


Wade Hampton Miller

[colins]

Welcome Greame, nice first post!

Glad you are enjoying the guitar and thanks for the website link. I found the website a bit clunky, but having just bought a stellar guitar from a fantastic luthier who has let his website go completely, I would encourage everyone to look beyond the websites!

[GBaldwin]

Originally Posted by Brucebubs

I must admit I gave up on it too.
Pity, I'm a jumbo fan and your guitar sounds excellent so I was interested to see his work.

Welcome to the AGF.

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the welcome. If you go onto his Instagram page, it’s the first guitar shown there. The one with the ebony arm bevel. Otherwise if you email me at [email protected] I can send some pictures along for you.

Regarding his website, I didn’t find it too bad myself, but perhaps the more arty black and white shots don’t show the quality of the work immediately is the only thing I would say. I did like the gallery showing the build processes though.

Cheers,

Graeme

[GBaldwin]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Thanks for posting, Graeme - it’s always interesting to learn about previously unknown luthiers who are making excellent guitars.

I also have some ancestral ties to Ulster, specifically to County Down, so I’m especially alert when I read about guitar builders in the North of Ireland.


Wade Hampton Miller

Hi Wade,

Yeah, there’s definitely a strong pedigree to live up to with some big players around those parts.

[GBaldwin]

Originally Posted by gitarro

Thanks for introducing us to a hitherto unheard of luthier, at least to me. Fro his bio on his website, it looks like he is a self taught luthier without any connection with the avalon or lowden factories. Is that true? How long has he been building? And does he do individual voicing like tap tuning techniques?

I didnt have any issues navigating on this luthier's website. I have visited the websites of quite a few other luthiers who had worse presentations.

Hi,

I think he must have learnt his craft at the Avalon lutherie school as Carrickfergus isn’t that far from Newtownards. I could be wrong though, but he does mention a lutherie school at some point on his about me page I believe.

Regarding the individual voicing stuff, I’m not sure really. I’m sure if you drop him an email he’ll let you know, he’s a friendly guy.

Graeme

[CharlieC1959]

Hi all
I am lucky to own two Montgomery experimental builds and am really pleased with both of them. Both are concert sized 12 fretters, one is all mahogany the other cedar and santos rosewood.
The build quality of both instruments is fabulous and they are a joy to play.
The “experimental “ feature of the mahogany guitar includes a wide neck and string spacing which suits my sausage shaped fingers, Andreas describes the cedar as set up to allow for greater attack.

I like my guitars to be unfussy, these instruments fall into that category but they are beautiful instruments to look at. The mahogany guitar is finished with blackwood binding and a figured ebony fretboard, the cedar also with an ebony board.

Most importantly though is that they both sound tremendous, I love the clarity and from both, the warmth of the mahogany and the brightness of the cedar in comparison.

Andreas Montgomery is certainly a luthier worth checking out.

Charlie