The story so far

So, a few years ago I picked up a guitar again for the first time in many years and started to get back to playing.

After buying some pretty good guitars and trying many more, I found I couldn’t quite get the tone I wanted or the type of finish and look that I really liked.

I solved some of this with the purchase of a Gibson Les Paul but was still searching from something a bit different at the same time. 

Picked up a ropey old Telecaster along the way and began tinkering with it to get a sound I was happier with and to reduce the hum and unwanted noise from the pickups and the wiring in general (my background is in aerospace electronics / avionics design).

Meanwhile, walking on our beach here in Scotland I spotted an old driftwood log and wondered where it would have come from (South America?) and how it would sound if I made a guitar from it.

Many guitars later and with some aerospace knowledge applied to the design of both the guitar itself and the pickups – I find myself here.

Making about five to ten of these per year…

The bodies have all been hand-carved and then finished in a great variety of different ways. Some are simply polished or waxed, some are dyed, some are bleached and some have even been set on fire! :)

Every guitar is 100% unique - All made from sustainably sourced driftwood recovered from the beach here in Scotland.

Some folks have been asking about the tone of the driftwood. I take only hardwoods from the beach. Most of these have been in the water so long that they are bleached almost white initially. The structure of the wood is greatly changed by being in the water – once the wood dries out fully (about 6 weeks generally) the woods are usually much less dense than they were before they went in the water. I just finished an oak tele that weighed in at 7lbs dead for example - much lighter than you would expect with such a heavy wood. As a result the tone of the guitars is amazing – its seems (to me at least) that long-term submersion in saltwater and then subsequent drying has a similar effect to decades of natural ageing.

Quick note on pick-ups & electrics:

Hum and noise are a significant and continual problem on aircraft and a great deal of my aerospace experience included various noise-reduction techniques. I’ve also been building amps as a hobby on and off since I was 14 yrs old (more than 40 years ago now!) and have always been fascinated with the interplay between pickup and amp and between amp and speaker.

I noticed with many of the shop-bought guitars that I tried, the sound became ‘mushy’ as soon as there was any significant gain involved – you could no longer hear each of the strings individually. I also noticed on many guitars that once the tone control was turned below about 7, the tone was so dark & muddy that I couldn't imagine what anyone would use that whole 1-7 range for. That was the start of the hand-wound pickup and tone-control experiments for me! 

As for the name, “A_Wee_Black_Dug” was always my gamer tag (as we have a little black Scottie dog called Paddy). The first guitar I made looked strange with nothing on the headstock so I just put “A Wee Black Dug Guitars” on it so that it would look “right”.

It is with great sadness that we had to say a final good-bye to Paddy today. He was the “Wee Black Dug” – my constant companion all these years and the name behind my gamer tag. He was the head of beachcombing operations and workshop morale.

He died peacefully in my arms last night and will be sorely missed. 

Sleep well wee Fella.