{"id":6423,"date":"2015-10-25T07:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-10-25T07:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=6423"},"modified":"2015-10-25T07:00:24","modified_gmt":"2015-10-25T07:00:24","slug":"a-tuneful-new-addition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/uncategorised\/a-tuneful-new-addition\/","title":{"rendered":"A tuneful new addition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a>
This is no ordinary guitar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

We have a new addition to the family\u2026 a lovely guitar \u2013 but not just any old guitar. This one was custom made and is very very special.<\/p>\n

It all started when webmaster John went to a folk festival without me. (That is always a mistake, she says, smiling.)<\/p>\n

John\u00a0met a man who makes guitars out of\u2026 wait for it \u2013 hardboard.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all the brainchild of Felix Byrne \u2013 a musician and designer who wanted guitars that combined his ecological ideals with his musical needs.<\/p>\n

He couldn\u2019t buy one \u2013 so he built one. Now he\u2019s making them for other people as\u00a0The Hardboard Guitar Company<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He uses low impact sustainable materials \u2013 for example he achieves the lovely finish on his wood by using an eco-friendly stains and oils \u2013 not a smelly high gloss varnish. The face of the guitar is Leylandii wood, which is very common and so easy to grow it’s almost like a weed at times.\u00a0It can become a terrible \u00a0nuisance, but the timber makes for a very pretty guitar.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Felix<\/a>
Felix signs every guitar – inside the body before he puts it together<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The neck of the guitar is detachable and the head fits inside the body so that the whole thing can travel on a plane as carry-on luggage,\u00a0which makes webmaster John very happy. It gets expensive keeping guitars in multiple countries.<\/p>\n

\"Ready<\/a>
Ready to travel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, when you set out to make an entirely new guitar, you need tools. Felix didn\u2019t buy them \u2013 he made them out of hardboard and plywood, recycled lawnmower and washing machine parts and with the same attention to detail and aesthetics that he puts into his guitars.<\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/a>
Inside the workshop – hand made tools for making guitars by hand.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was wonderful to spend some time in the workshop understanding how John\u2019s new guitar was made.<\/p>\n

And the entire business of building the guitar resulted in just one bucket of rubbish \u2013 all of which can be composted or used in a fireplace.<\/p>\n

\"So<\/a>
So little waste – even when the tea-bags are included<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So now John is spending his evenings getting to know his new guitar. It has a lovely sound.<\/p>\n

And it looks so pretty sitting next to the bookshelves. I can\u2019t play guitar, but I don\u2019t need to in order to enjoy having something so wonderful in the family.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
John plays the first few notes. Felix resisted the temptation to play it… John was the very first person to do that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  We have a new addition to the family\u2026 a lovely guitar \u2013 but not just any old guitar. This one was custom made and is very very special. It all started…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}