end up getting the whole story.
After much research and putting out requets, my call
was finally answered.
Many thanks to Andy Gilbert, who slotted in the missing
piece of the jigsaw!!
Cheers mate! :)
This is Val and Ges Reeve!
Val has made contact with me and is very happy to tell
the story of Reeve Guitars.
A story that is much bigger than I ever imagined it would
ever be!!
Val, take it away!!
Hi Eric
Right here we go.
It all started in the late seventies. Mick had been raring to
make a guitar, Ges more reluctant.
One day Mick came in to us from school with a piece of beech
saying 'here's the body'.
He had retrieved the lid of a school desk that was being dumped
at the school.
They were totally inexperienced but this was a music household,
my son having his own band.
Mick having his own musical connections, able to play both lead
and bass plus being a whizz kid at electronics and Ges becoming
involved so they both knew their way round a guitar.
In actual fact it turned out brilliantly so that was it, Reeve Guitars
was born.
Both Ges and Mick in their own fields were very very talented,
each complimenting the other in their craftsmanship.
Because we were involved in the local music scene, word quickly
got round and orders started to come in.
A huge selling feature was that the customer could call in regularly
to check the progress of the instrument and also we could produce
whatever the customer wanted.
We made instruments for The Wellington Bootles, a local band
who had a certain amount of 'fame' at the time.
Obviously by this time, the garage which had become a workshop
had been extended, part soundproofed and now housed a lot of
very impressive wood working machinery.
Ges and I went to Nottingham to order one particular beast.
We found a very reliable supplier Cass Music in Eastbourne,
it was a lovely man there, Jeff Frost who ordered all our
Kent Armstrong pickups, some made to a definite specification.
The dining room was turned into a customer receiving room.
Sometimes the place was packed with would be customers or just
guitarist mates of my son, Michael (or Mike).
Michael was the most talented guitarist. Sadly he died in March 2001
I did all the ordering, correspondence, phoning etc and during 1983,
we put our heads together because we needed to project our profile
and I came up with contacting Melody Maker magazine.
I was in touch with a Mark Jenkins who ran a couple of reviews in
Melody Maker on Reeve Guitars.
Ges and I had taken one of our guitars to his home for him to try.
Mark also got Snowy White (famous guitarist then) to write a review.
The publicity sure paid off - we were away!!!
There is more to come from Val and more from the contacts
I have made along the way - owners, their Reeve Guitars and
their stories.
My headless is almost complete, so will be gettting some final
shots of that, soon.
More to come next time.
Cheers. :)
