Monday 25 January 2016

Reeve Guitars and Basses. . . . .

When I bought my first Reeve, I never thought I would 
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. :) 

7 comments:

J said...

Thanx, it's really interesting !!

alalalal said...

Hi. Firstly can I say how shocked I was to read about mick reeve's passing. We were in a band together called 'Nomad' in the early 80's when I played my first ever gig. Mick with his Les Paul and me with my Strat, trying to sing because there wasn't anyone else to do it.We had so many friends attending, that the main band that we were supporting had trouble trying to get an encore. I knew Val quite well being one of Mick's mates dropping in. I don't know if she remembers me, my names Alan, and I used to visit with my Wife Sue.

Flat Eric said...

Alan, Hi. Thank you for this. I am still in touch with Val, if you wanted to contact her. I will pass this on to her. Cheers. : )

Flat Eric said...

Alan, Hi.

Please could you give me contact details. Val would like to get in touch. They won't be published on here. Cheers. : )

Romolo said...

Hi I own a reeves headless electric guitar Val knows me and I used to know the family well. I’d love to get into contact with her.
My names Romolo I was good friends with Mick Berendrecht. Im not sure if she still lives in Goosberry hill

Romolo said...

Hi I own a reeves headless electric guitar Val knows me and I used to know the family well. I’d love to get into contact with her.
My names Romolo I was good friends with Mick Berendrecht. Im not sure if she still lives in Goosberry hill

Flat Eric said...

Romolo, Hi. If you contact me on contactflateric(at)gmail dot com I will connect you with Val, Cheers. : )