About

Like many people who make musical instruments for a living, I didn’t start out intending to be a luthier. I was originally planning for a career in Aeronautics and for 12 days in 1982 studied Engineering at Bristol Polytechnic. It was during a 3-hour maths lecture that I realised that the concept of complex numbers was always going to elude me, so I swiftly changed course to a degree in Design. I think the Gods must have been smiling on me that day, the Design course turned out to be perfect for me, allowing and encouraging plenty of time in the workshops making and prototyping projects we were working on.

It was during my time at college that I started making a few solid body electric guitars and selling them through some of the music shops in Bristol. They soon started to give me instruments to repair and set up, which under the guidance of some of the in-house experts turned out to be the perfect apprenticeship for a career as a luthier. But it wasn’t until I started to get involved in playing traditional Irish music at the sessions in Bristol and Birmingham in the mid 80s that my connection with the bouzouki started.

Ivan Miletich with the first ever Tobin bouzouki

The first bouzouki I made was for Ivan Miletich. Ivan was one of the stalwarts of the Irish music scene in Birmingham and part of the now sadly lost band Long Acre (described by Colin Irwin of FRoots as “scandalously underfamous”). The memories are a wee bit hazy after more than 30 years, but as I remember it at the time Ivan played a 12-string guitar fitted with eight strings but tuned like a bouzouki. During a session at the Old Bull in Digbeth, someone apparently volunteered me to make him a bouzouki. My first thoughts were “what the heck’s a bouzouki” – it wasn’t the sort of thing you could pop into a music shop and buy back then. Anyway, Ivan visited me down in Bristol and using a 12“ LP as a template we designed bouzouki No. 1.

All things considered, it didn’t turn out too bad. It held together, which is always a bonus and actually sounded pretty good. Ivan loved it and it wasn’t too long before people started to get in touch asking me to make another bouzouki, and before I knew what was happening a whole unexpected career started to unfold.

Ivan still plays that same instrument today, albeit with the benefit of a few re-frets and services. That was the best part of 40 years ago, and now, very many instruments later, the thought of a career in engineering is thankfully a long distant memory! I now have my workshop here in the grounds of our smallholding in Herefordshire which I share with Annie my wife and our collie dog Bronnie.