“I am not really pushing it as a big business,”
Robinson says, “I want to get [the guitars] absolutely dead right, so I have a lot of patience.”
Robinson makes six instruments, guitars and
www.premierguitar.com
basses, per year on specific commissions for
clients. From the headstock to body work, fingerboard, frets, inlay and even pickguard, each
piece is handmade by Robinson, except for the
neck blank, which he buys from a specialist. His
background in high-end furniture is evident in
the instruments’ high polish and attention to
detail, from the smooth curves to the meticulous
inlay. Robinson credits his intricate inlay to three
places: his experience as a cabinet maker, a
book by “the awesome” Larry Robinson (no relation) and inspiration by Grit Laskin. “[Grit] uses
the neck as a window looking out at a snippet of
life, and I love this concept,” Robinson explains.
This guitar is a six-string mahogany solid
body built with reclaimed Cuban mahogany, a
maple neck, ebony fingerboard, and Karelian
birch pickguard and headstock. It features
Bare Knuckle Apache single-coil pickups,
7-way switching, Sperzel locking machine
heads and a Fender LSR roller nut. He says of
the guitar, “I wanted to concentrate on the
most basic of principles, and that is a won-
derful piece of wood with simple single coils
to try and get the very purest sound from
the combination of all those materials.” The
result is a guitar based in the Strat-style with
influences from Rickenbacker, Mosrite, “and
a lifetime of looking at various shapes, forms
colors and textures.” He adds, “There is no
such thing as an original thought.”
The inlay on the guitar came from a Japanese
print of two Samurai in a duel. “I have always
loved Japanese art, so it was a natural pro-
gression from there,” says Robinson. The inlay
is composed of mother-of-pearl, abalone, briar,
end-grain oak, aluminum, brass, reclaimed
ivory and tortoiseshell, bone, bamboo, red and
oyster buttons and birdseye maple.
lindsaywilsonguitars.co.uk
