STOLEN GUITAR - STOLEN BY DAN HALEN ex. Motorhead Employee

Just to let people know about a TC Ellis Guitar that has been stolen from me by ex Motorhead employee Mr. Dan Hawcroft (?) (aka. Dan Halen) see below:

Its one of my Lemmy inspired guitars (see pic)

If anyone knows the location of the guitar please let me know.

Guitar Stolen by Dan Halen / Dan Hawcroft

This scumbag ripped me off and stole one of my Lemmy inspired guitars:

If you have the misfortune to meet him please beware - he is a coke snorting, lying piece of shit

White Flame Les Paul Style with Bare Knuckle Emeralds

Just finished this guitar for a good customer of mine - its a Les Paul style in white - all mahogany construction with a fantastic ebony fretboard with mother of pearl and abalone flames inlay.

Bare Knuckle Emeralds, CTS Pots, Orange drop Caps, and a push pull to coil tap. NIce chrome surrounds, bone nut,

All the binding on the bosy and neck was done in Abalone for a really custom look.

A really sweet guitar, and a very happy customer.

Guitar for Dave Grohl and online article about my workshop

Just finishing up building a guitar for Dave Grohl. Motorhead recently did a tour supporting the Foo Fighters in the U.S.A. and as a way of saying thank you we built him an exact replica of Phil Campbells TC Ellis Les Paul style guitar (he is a big Motorhead fan). The guitar should ship to him next week so I will post any pics I may get of him with the guitar. The guitar is one of my Series 2 Les Paul style loaded with Bare Knuckle Warpigs. Thanks very much to Tim Butcher and Lemmy for all the help with this one.

The Wales on Sunday newspaper just ran an article about my workshop - you can check it out online at this link: TC Ellis Guitars 

Lemmy's Bass's in for a Service - check out the pictures

Here is our resident shredder Tom with Lemmys two main guitars: Will be working on them for the next few weeks - click here for more information.

TC Ellis Guitars Mantis Hollowbody Review

Just got this from a happy customer:

Review:

I used to play a PRS Custom 24 that cost me £2,400. It actually took me a fair while to find that one, a guitar that really suited me, via trial and error, you know... I was in a shop one day, picked the thing up and it felt really comfortable, nice size etc. I gave it a go and sure it sounded better than anything I had at the time.


Then, years later, I happened upon Tim via the net and his shop was only a few miles down the road so I popped in. The guitar that grabbed me straight away was his Mantis hollow body, the same shape as my PRS so playing it felt natural. It's a good size, nice balance, I know it's a personal preference thing but they sure are easy to play.

Cut a long story short, I bought one for an incredibly reasonable price and took it home to use as a spare. Anyhow, and this is kind of odd if not a major point when it comes to choosing a guitar these days.

It actually took me about six to eight months to realise the obvious truth; My cheap spare was way better than my expensive guitar. And it's funny because it should have been obvious from the get go, it's just that my stupid preset brain kept getting in the way.

Yeah, it's funny how you look at something that cost a lot and tend to see what may or may not even be there. The plain fact of the matter is that for what ever reason, and I know guitar anoraks love to talk about the wood and the build, and this and that, but the plain fact is that this guitar can sing! The tone is so warm and ...err....organic... it's hard to describe.

Okay the two guitars are not like for like, one solid one hollow, but I have played hundreds of guitars and this one is the best yet. It rocks out with that cool Brit overtone but then when you slow it all down it's full of surprises as you play around with the volume and tone. It's fun and inspires you to find new progressions, but then some of the cool licks I have come up with played back on the PRS sound, well.... okay I guess.....

I got the 'Tree of Life' fret inlay and again, I have to say, I never want to go back to dots, or birds whatever. If you write your own stuff it's great because the pattern is like map, it helps you to remember what you played when you're jamming, and yet it's really clever how the pattern also easily highlights what is usually marked so you always know where you are.

And it all leaves me feeling pretty ripped off for paying so much for something that is now going to gather dust.

So, if you are thinking of buying one just plug one in, remove your logical capitalistic brain and listen, really listen......

On the QT, d'yer know what I think? No one really knows how to build a 'good' guitar, they just go at it and sometimes magic happens. Then they try to improve them via loads of money and endless brain farting, but they end up making them sound worse.

If it ain't broke don't fix it, and Tim's guitars sound great, and they are cheap.....what the....

Black Strat Heavy Relic

This started as a nearly new Mexican Strat - full relic to all hardware, neck, pickup covers, plastics etc

Just had to do the cigarette burn

R.I.P. Wurzel

Sad news this weekend - ex-Motorhead Guitarist Wurzel has died. I only met him a few times - what a nice bloke.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Esquire / Telecaster Relic

I just finished this build for a customer - Its a Bruce Springsteen Esquire / Telecaster relic. Fitted with "The Boss" Bare Knuckle Pickups. Reliced like Bruce's Esquire. CTS Pots - a vintage 1960's nos oil capacitor and treble bleed. I put a light tint on the neck to get an authentic vintage vibe. Nice setup and its a great player with perfect tone as always from the Bare Knuckles.

David Gilmour Strat Conversion

Coversion from a regular Fender Strat to a replica of David Gilmours Black Strat. The sound from the pickup combo and switching is amazing - pure Gilmour tone as well as Hendrix / Stevie Ray.

Converted to the same specs as David Gilmours Black Strat. Reliced as per the original guitar - including the filled trem route, Callaham Vintage S bridge with 4" trem arm, Fender Custom Fat 50's in the neck, Fender Custom '69 in the middle, and a Seymour Duncan SSL-5 in the bridge - custom wiring as per Dave Gilmour (note the 2 way micro switch to give neck and bridge combo in position 1) 1 ply pickguard and vintage white covers and knobs. I made use of the excellent book 'The Black Strat' written by Phil Taylor - Dave Gilmours guitar tech.

These are pics of David Gilmours actual Black Strat:

Mention on Motorheads new Album

Many thanks to Motorhead and Tim Butcher for getting a mention on the new Motorhead album: