Harmsworth & Willis guitars

elropo

can anyone chime in on the pros & cons of Harmworth & Willis guitars? i'm talking mainly about the D-hole model. these appear quite nice for $1K price range. they claim at their website to incorporate a pliage on the soundboard. i assume these are asian made guitars but am not sure. mike harmsworth sent me pics of new 14 fret D-holes that are not yet mentioned on their website. haven't found that much discussion on this forum concerning this maker. just curious.

thanks,
ron

Jeff Moore

Years ago I was in regular (if not often) contact with David Hodson. He often talked about H&W guitars. He seemed to be helping them get started. Hodson died a couple years ago.
At that time H&W were making the guitars completely themselves according to David. Whether they make their GJ guitars themselves, I don't know, but I would presume they do.
I wouldn't be supprised that they somehow acquired David's fixtures for their excursion into producing Selmac guitars. They're logo - layout in their labels seems to be identical (cept the names).
H&W, like Hodson, was a small and strongly independent shop, doing it their own way, and both very British.
I owned a Hodson. It was eccentric, inexpensive, and very well made. Eccentric, in that he was very frugal so as to keep the price down. He was interested in pumping out good cheap guitars. H&W's look and feel is a little more upscale but only by a bit.
Both seemed to adhere to old school values of hand made quality unfettered with much elaboration, though this was 10-15 years back when H&W were only making British style acoustics and not GJ guitars.

This is just my musings based on talking to Hodson. I bet their not shopping their work to China, but I don't really know. I looked at the site but its so scant that it doesn't give any clue.

gypsyblue

Just to say for what they are Harmsworth and Willis to me from guitars they have made in past, an i am no big expert, are good guitars for the money in many ways,from the ones i have played. and the ones i have played have been very good without being at all spectacular. But i can tell you with 100% certainty, that they used to make there own guitars but ALL of there new guitars are made in asia and sadly are very poor value for money in a GJ context. For example if you were to buy a regular steel strung guitar not a GJ model, for £400 pounds in terms of quality of woods make etc it would be a better instrument than Harmsworth and willis much more expensive guitar, by quite some margin

i have quite a few GJ guitars and there are some very good asian made guitars but they will never compete with european on US luthiers. However i own a Asian made GJ stlye guitar which i got for a bargin £110 pounds sterling. which although is not a patch on a eimers or killy nonnis i have t, i can say it is much better then a new asian made harmsworth and willis.

if you are looking for guitar at a budget, check out many other options because there are real bargins to be had, rather than paying good money for a sub standard new instrument.

thats my view anyway!!

Jeff Moore

Thanks for the update.
I guess I was just wishing they were building them, and you know, at that price, they couldn't make them, event the Hodson's (ten years ago) were a good deal at $1500.
I didn't think about the price, but its likely a give away as to whose making them.

They were actually making the folk guitars years ago, using a big variety of woods and their own designs. They didn't make GJ guitars at all at that time. Guess they still don't and they seem to have quit on the folk guitars too.

crookedpinky

I don't know where the idea that Harmsworth and Willis guitars were ever made in the Uk by the two guys themselves ( Harmsworth and Willis ) came from. I was told by Mr WIllis that they were made overseas through a family connection and imported in small batches into the UK. I have bought both my H&W guitars direct from the two guys in question, a D hole from one and an oval hole from the other.

Last year in Samois I was playing with some guys in Killy Nonis's tent in Samoureu and the guys who were sitting playing Killys and Eimers et al were well impressed with the H&W oval hole i was playing. So don't underestimate these guitars.

gypsyblue

Well i dont know much about folk guitars in terms of luthier quality but as said anything with there name on was a good guitar for good value money, in terms of what i have played and i am only 27 so have limited experience. But about a year ago i was seriously looking at there guitars for myself and the ones i had played that were a few years old at that time were as i said nice guitars, but i feel now they offer a guitar that does not justify the cost, from my experience and i may very well be wrong and i hope in many ways i am ( as a british guitar player) but i just feel that there are obiously many GJ guitars that cost £ 2500 £3500 plus that are amazing guitars and we as GJ players have many very expensive guitars which in terms of quality there is no comparison when you look at the guitars avaliable for the same price. e.g. if i were to spend £3000 on a eimers, killy nonnis or dupont etc, it would in terms of build and wood quality be far far superior to a similar costing gibson blues guitar or Martin accoustic guitar, by a very significant amount. but that does not mean that for less than £1000 you cant find a very good GJ guitar for which build and wood quality, would not be far superior as a instrument to its rivals for other types of music.

i and other GJ players i belive too often value some GJ style guitars at to high a cost, but that is only driven by the fact that top end GJ guitars are of such high quality, to the point where you are talking about very minor difference in sound/build/quality from £2000 to £5000 for which other guitar styles can not compete in terms of quality. But i belive because GJ is such a particular market, that many luthiers exploit this superioriy to the point of sickness and poor human compation, to exploit as much as possible from the player who will pay the price, more for street cred then artistic interpritation, and that makes me feel ill.

Lets not be snobs. you can make beutiful amazing music on a very cheep guitar. of course guitar quality can make a difference but it is more to do with the player and his expression and feel on a guitar no matter how much it costs.

for a example of this check out bereli lagrene with thomas dutronc playing swing 48 on youtube.

ok Bereli is a master but on the track i have mentioned i belive he is playing a Aria MD-20 which sell for around £180, and he makes it sing

gypsyblue

By way Crooked pinky, i am sure your info if you say so is prob correct in terms of there guitars being always made overseas is correct, and i take your word totally for that, because as i say i am no major expert, i just was trying to say for me, i have played very nice H + W guitars that are good value for money, just that very recent examples of there guitars i have not enjoyed as much, and feel that there are bargins to be had for less that £1000 if you look around and there are many more quality GJ guitars you can get of better quality for the same or less that H + W price, if you look around etc

Will

englishjanet

I'm a leftie and had for a short while a H&W leftie GJ 0hole guitar, I didn't much like the sound it seemed a bit thin and I sold it on, that was at the start of this year... the friend how bought it varnished the inside and changed the bridge and he's very happy with it.. considering this friend has played GJ for many years and know more about guitars I'll bow to his knowledge...I'm lucky enough to have found a 2nd hand Eimers antique and it plays like a dream,I started out qwith a richwood and have changed every time I had a bit of money!!
good luck in the search for a guitar.
Janet

crookedpinky

I agree with the thought that great music can be played on cheaper guitars and I owned a little Aria D hole which I got for £90 on Ebay, it was being sold by the Aria factorty shop as a second and it was a great guitar. I do have to say the Aria oval holes dont have as much power or tone as the Aria d holes.

There's a fantastic player in London who plays an Aria and makes it sing. He told me that when he was looking for a gypsy guitar he deliberately chose the Aria partly to buck the trend to buy a high end guitar but also because it sounded fine.

My latest purchase was a 70s Takeharu D hole made by Suzuki. It's scratched and dented and stinks but its loud, has a really good gypsy sound and it outplays my Dupont Busato in a jam setting.

There is a huge amount of kudos given to named guitars and I think we think that a better guitar will somehow make us better players and forget that what makes us better is practice, practice and practice.

Djangoslefthandman

I own two left handed H&W D holes. Both bought after having played them at festival sites. Nev Willis asked me to play the first one at Samois so he could hear how it sounded. He never got it back. After an hour or so jamming with it we did a deal. Plays great and seriously loud. I ought to add I own a couple of high end gj guitars but the H&W D holes hold their own and often get gigged. Recommended.

ukjay

Gypsy Blue I’m afraid you have some of your facts wrong I can tell you with ‘100% certainty’ Harmsworth & Willis have never built guitars in the UK they are all constructed by 1 luthier in I believe Singapore. I’m sure that they have never made any folk guitars just gyspy models . I play a H & W D Hole bought from Mike Harmsworth 2 years ago and I find it a superb guitar with a loud gypsy tone unlike the cheaper mass produced Chinese guitars with their unresponsive tops. The H & W for my money is much better than the more expensive Gitanes and with a good build quality. Of course you can’t compare it to a Le Voi or Nonnis but at £650 you can’t compare the cost either

Just my penny’s worth!