I made this guitar in 1976 at Brockenhurst 6th form college. I attended the college from 1975 to 1977. One of my art teachers, Mr Watkins, made guitars in his spare time, so he ran a guitar making recreational course at the college. It was fairly popular with guitar-mad teenagers like me, and around a dozen lads joined the course. All the woodwork was done from first principles.

We all made solid bodied electric guitars, because they are easier than acoustic guitars. The fretboard was made from a lovely dark piece of ebony, and the neck has a curved steel truss-rod inside it, which I fabricated. I spent a lot of time working on the neck, and it was pretty good. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the rear of the neck. Everyone else started work on their bodies before me, and were rather generous in their use of the mahogany planks that were bought. This left me with just enough to make only a stubby short body. I hadn't given much thought to the body shape, other than not wanting to just copy a Stratocaster or Les Paul, but possibilities were now constrained. Undaunted, I pondered on how I might make this work, and after much thought, hit upon this unusual design. You can just about see in the picture, the wide bevelling along the top and bottom of the body, suggesting sharp edges. If the remaining plank had been a bit longer, my guitar would have been some other shape.

I believe mine was the only guitar from the group to be completed, and able to be played. As work progressed, I had ideas for a MK2 version, including making the body thinner (It was thicker than a telecaster). I was more concerned with not leaving it unfinished, so toned down ambitious ideas. One thing I did regret, was discarding a few inches of surplus fretboard ebony, as I could have made it stick out of the other end of the body. Carving and sanding the cut-aways (by hand) was hard work, being end of grain.

I applied to join a course on making musical instruments, at the London College Of Furniture, which was THE place to study the subject. There were only a few places available there, with stiff competition, and I was invited for an interview in early 1977. On the day, there was some snow on the ground, and whisps of snow in the air, which was a little worrying. I was required to take an example of my work, so I took this guitar to the interview. Waiting at the interview, I met a couple of other candidates, one of whom was a much older 24 year old, and he took a beautifully made guitar, with intricate inlays. By comparison, mine was crude, and embarrassingly, the strings were held behind the bridge, by a sawn off section of aluminium curtain rail (which you can see at an angle in the picture), as I was just a lad and had no money. They told us it was the London College Of Furniture's policy to photograph items brought to interviews, and I wonder if that photograph still exists. Unfortunately for the world, I was not offered a place at the college. I kept the guitar for decades, but as my home was drowning under junk, I had a massive clearout, and threw out the guitar.