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January 2012 Well we're back to work after our holiday break. Good time had by all! Our Showroom and Workshop now back open normal hours. Updates to our website are underway so keep an eye out for new photos.
December 2011 We're now starting to gear up for our Christmas holidays. The workshop will be closed from the 23rd, we are back January 2nd. All custom pickguard orders taken after December 14th will be sent out first thing in the new year, and we aim to get all custom bodies and necks out as soon as possible. What a busy year! Thanks to everyone whos been apart of it all, we'll see you in the new year! November 2011 This month has seen us working on many projects, from November's 'Star Guitar' to guitars with on board fuzz factories and unusual finishes! We are also working on a project for the new 'Anyone Can Play Guitar' Movie. The movie is a documentary about the music scene of Oxford with bands like Radiohead and The Foals telling thier stories, along with the scene's gig-goers, record label owners, journalists, managers and promoters. Alongside the release of the film, Fender asked us to produce a custom strat featuring the official artwork of the film. Below is a picture of the guitar, which will be up on the ACPG website with more details soon!
Also this month we have customized a tele style guitar for a customer who originally bought the guitar with a matte black finish. He asked us to spray a red multiflake finish to the body and headstock. We also fitted a Kaoss XY Pad alongside a sustainer and a Bare Knuckle Nailbomb pickup. With all these changes, the guitar really does look amazing! Check it out below!
More pictures of this guitar and others can be found on our Facebook page! October 2011 Another busy month gone! This month sees us doing more work for Mcfly. This time we were asked to respray Tom's Flying V guitar in a green metal flake finish, we then completed the look with a chrome polished mirror pickgaurd and matching truss rod cover. The finished guitar can be seen below, but be sure to keep an eye out for Mcfly on future performances and videos to see this and other custom work we have done for the guys!
This month also sees our team working in conjunction with Nordof Robbins, a music charity who help transform the lives of vulnerable children and adults across the uk. Nordof Robbins will soon be auctioning a guitar signed by the Foo Fighters and have asked us to encapsulate the signatures with a lacquer finish to protect them. Check back soon for more details! Also this month, we fitted a set of blue L.E.D.s to Steve Stevens' Les Paul guitar. Steve is longterm guitarist for Billy Idol, and has also worked alongside many others such as Michael Jackson and Vince Neil of Motley Crue! Steve is currently on tour in the states with Billy Idol and below you can see the guitar is action!
September 2011 This month we celebrate the first anniversary of the SimS Guitar Lounge. This first year has seen many people walk through the door to check out an impressive selection of instruments as custom made by the SimS team. A small party will take place soon to celebrate, and we will have some pictures of the event up on the site soon! Thanks to everyone for your continuous support! August 2011 Our annual shutdown takes place from the 1st August. The workshop will be open again from 15th August. Please feel free to contact via email over the next 2 weeks. All emails and messages will be replied to as soon as we are back. July 2011 So far this month we've been busy with body and neck orders, aswell as recently being asked to lacquer over some artwork on a strat which will be going to charity. The guitar was specially hand painted by Ian Emes and features Pink Floyd's 'Time' live segment. Click here for the auction. Also this month, we've been featured in both Guitar And Bass magazine and Bass Guitar magazine. These are out now in your local shops, the full reviews will be up soon!
June 2011 This last month has been a busy one! We were asked to do some special work on a few different instruments this month, this includes an electric violin, in which we installed green leds and lasers for Alexandra Parker, a young female electric violinist.
We also installed 300 green leds into Harry Judd's (McFly) new drum kit. This was especially customised for thier new 2011 tour and is a huge part of thier green and white themed set. The kit was also featured on McFly's new t.v. programme 'McFly On The Wall' Click the picture below to see a short clip of the drum kit being used.
Also this month, Dave swift of The Jools Holland Band dropped in for a visit. Since 1991 Dave has been the bass player for the Jools Holland Band and has played and recorded with some of the greatest musicians in the world. Dave has also been a SimS customer for a long time and couldn't resist showing us his Fiesta Red P Bass, as finished by us over 5 years ago.
We've had some feedback from Amy Winehouse, she's very happy with her new leopard skin strat which we customised for her, below is a picture.
Also, below is a picture of the latest strats we customised for the new Rayban Rooms promotion.
May 2011 The start of this month sees the finish of another great Guitar Of The month. Pictures of the spectacular guitar can be found here! We also have a special video which follows the customer as he checks out the progress of his custom build as we make it here at the SimS workshop! April 2011 Another busy month here at SCS! This month we took on some corporate work for RayBan Sunglasses, pictures of which will be up soon. We have also been working on some great new prototype guitars. One prototype iis a special 'Fan Fret' guitar, which incorporates 2 scale lengths into one guitar. Again, pictures will be up very soon, so keep an eye out! Also, check out this month's Guitar Of The Month. We feature 2 Precision basses, made to original spec by us. The cleverly named 'Studio' bass is based on an original '62 thats been lightly used throughout the years, but never gigged. This feels and plays like an original and has minor wear. We also have the 'Festival' bass which is loosely based on a '64 P.This bass is the workhorse and has seen years of heavy gigging and customising, hence the added Bartolini Jazz Bridge Pickup and Badass Bridge. These are just 2 examples of our aged finishes and show both ends of the spectrum, although we also offer anything inbetween and beyond!
March 2011 Well its been a busy month again! Orders are flying through the door for bodies, necks and pickguards, and we are currently working on a few special paintjobs and full builds. One of which we specially made for our very own Rob Fleet. Check out his new doubleneck strat here! We were asked to carry out a new paintjob on Peter Frampton's own personal strat, which had been badly damaged as a result of a flood in Nashville last year. Peter is back out on tour early this year, so look out for the fiesta red strat! We also customised a strat for Amy Winehouse which we applied leopard skin artwork to the body, and also a custom pickguard for her new Gretch White Falcon guitar. Amy is making a comeback very shortly, so keep an eye out for these custom guitars! Pictures coming very soon! February 2011 Well we started the year with a bang. January was very strong with new projects being planned and discussed with many customers, new and exsisting. The twin double carves shown in our GOTM is an example where we went out on a limb and made a mix of Tele scale length, L.P. furniture and 335 hollowed out body, with carved back and front. You may also notice the use of quarter sawn Black Walnut for the neck which was a first for us, but it worked really well. Super lightweight but with incredible sustain and spank because of the Walnut's rigidity. As soon as the first one was made (for the Guitar Lounge) a customer wandered in and immediately ordered a duplicate. We still have the original here so feel free to drop in, try it out and see what you think! Also, we ae now able to offer SimS Conversion necks! These necks are direct replacements for your old guitar and ables you to change the scale length. Click here for more information! Until next time, Speak soon, Martin.
January 2011 We are now all back from our Christmas break and ready to go again for the new year ahead. We have a new Guitar Of The Month, a special double neck guitar which features our first ever bookmatched Hondurous Rosewood Fingerboards, and a graphic of the customers children, Isla and Molly. This is the 4th guitar we've made for The Superheroes band, this particular one was made for John. Also, check out our reviews
page. We have a review on the Leo Lyons Jazz basses we made! Click here to visit our pricing page. December 2010 We would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, we are now closed for the festive period and will be back on Tuesday 4th January 2011.
So, we're coming to the end of 2010, and what a year its been so far! We've been woking hard this month, and have updates on the galleries to show the work we have produced, from the custom spray jobs, to those cool L.E.D.s, as well as a new 'Guitar Of The Month'. Last month we installed a set of blue L.E.D.s on a rather fetching Taylor electric guitar for Charlie Savigar. Charlie is an up and coming singer/songwriter who is taking a fresh look at the country music scene. You can check out her music at www.charliesavigar.com
We plan to get all current orders out before christmas, and any new orders will be worked on before the christmas holidays, and into the new year, depending on the order. Please note, last pickguards orders need to be placed before Friday 17th December if you wish to have them before christmas. Lastly, our annual christmas break is from the 24th December, and we're back on the 4th January. We hope you all have a great christmas!
November 2010 This month has been a busy one! We have a few full builds in the making, so pics will be up on the site shortly. We are also now able to offer replacement strat necks, but with Gibson scale lengths! We have a couple of prototypes ready, and pics will be up on the site very soon. Also, its great to see the Sims Guitar Lounge busy as well, with people making use of the saturday opening times... 10am-3pm October 2010 Theres lots going on! We're very busy as usual with some special paint jobs, bodies, necks and pickgaurds being made for customers. Also, we have had some great feedback from Ten Years After bass player, Leo Lyons after producing 2 replicas of his original 1962 Jazz Bass through The Bass Centre.. Leo now uses these replicas on the road. Check out what he has to say on his website... Click here
September 2010 Well, were back from our annual shutdown and are now in the process of answering all of your emails, and getting your custom orders made. Also, a huge thankyou to everyone who came to see us on the 4th and 5th, for the official opening and launch on the SimS Guitar Lounge. We're looking forward to seeing everyone who would like to come down to the Guitar Lounge and try out a range of guitars in a relaxed atmosphere. Pics will be up on the site very shortly! In the meantime, we have a few pictures of the building, and the guitars, on our facebook page. We're also excited to see Mcfly's newly released video for 'Party Girl' Which features Dougie using a Musicman Bass, as customized by the SimS Team! The bass has also been spotted on a few tv appearances including GMTV's last ever show, and the Allan Carr show. Also, USA's premier online bass magazine 'Bass Frontiers' have featured our sister company, Enfield Guitars, on thier website with a video showing the pickup options! Click here for information. We now have a new landline phone number (01233 822522) and ask for you to now direct enquiries to this number. Last but not least, we are now open every Saturday from 10:00am- 3:00pm, so feel free to pop down and drop in to SimS Guitar Lounge.
August 2010 It's been a busy month! were almost ready for the opening of the SimS Guitar Lounge which is just around the corner! We've also been busy as usual with all of your orders and have a new guitar of the month. Also, we are now closed due to our annual summer shutdown from the 2nd August and are back Monday 16th August. All emails will be answered as soon as possible. Thanks in advance for your patience.
July 2010 We're
very pleased to announce the countdown to the opening of the SimS
Guitar Lounge! When opened, anyone is able to come along and try
out up to 60 of our own custom made guitars in a comfortable, relaxing
environment. We are very excited about this and look forward to
seeing as many people as possible once opened in September 4th. June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 Happy new year to everyone! Back from the Christmas break, refreshed and ready for 2010. We're looking forward this next
year and hoping it will be just as good, if not better than last
year with plenty of work to be produced. November 2009 Wow! What a great show its been this year. We are now back from a hectic 4 days in Birmingham attending the NEC Music Live Show. A big thank you goes out to everybody who came along to say hello. Rob, Andy, Mike and Gwydion were all rushed off their feet trying to keep up with the inquiries and requests from everyone checking out the stand. We are now all busy trying to get all the orders out to those that bought bodies, necks and scratchplates from us at the show. So please be patient, we plan to have everything shipped out by the end of the week. Heres a quick pic to show what the stand looked like:
Our plans are to be at the same place at the same time next year, so hopefully see you there.
September 2009 This month sees us getting ready for the Birmingham music live show due to take place over the 6th, 7th and 8th of November. We will be displaying a wide range of our works, including necks, bodies, pickguards etc along with some new complete custom jobs aswell as lacquer examples. We will also be showing a selection of new Enfield basses. So if you have any requests to see something particular please let us know or if you've got a project you'd like to chat through feel free to pay us a visit. One last thing, I'd like to welcome Gwydion Westwood to the workforce. Gwydion has started with us on a 2 year apprenticeship and we all look forward to see how he progresses over the next 2 years.
August 2009 We are now back from our 2 week shut down and back into full production. Thanks for all your patience and we look forward to your calls soon. Also we have just updated another guitar of the month for you to view, this time a Jazz body gets the relic treatment.. Click here to visit the Guitar Of The Month gallery. July 2009 We are now closed for production due to our annual holiday. The workshop will be back open from Monday 17th August. Any email's sent will be replied to as soon as possible. Thank you in advance for your patience. We have recently uploaded a new Guitar of the month for you to view and also updated some photos to our neck gallery page. We have been very busy this year and would just to say many thanks to all our customers for your support. Martin February 2009 Busy, busy, busy. That seems to be the way of things so far this year. We are now introducing some shiftwork so we can increase our output without compromising the quality. This will really help us keep up with the workload. We have been working on an exciting project with RayBan sunglasses called “Colorize” The project involved 10 Mexican Strats that we created in 10 different designs from 10 different bands. The exhibition is currently at Selfridges in Oxford street London & is there until the 22nd of March so go along, have a look & soak up experience. Looks like our Nelson Mandella Les Paul has been getting some special attention. Check out some of the people getting behind this very worthy charity.
For more information go to http://www.46664.com/ I would also like to introduce you to Robby Jefferson who has joined us in the workshop. I have known Robby for over 12 years & I couldn’t be happier to see him here. Robby has been working with guitars for over 15 years & is an accomplished guitar & bass player as well as writing his own music. He has just spent the last 2 years on the road with 70s punk band Sham 69 but is now home & available for me to snap him up. We have a new guitar of the month. This one is a personal project for our main man Rob Fleet who saw a piece of spalted maple in the woodstore & couldn't resist turning into a new Strat style for his personal collection. Click here to visit the Guitar Of The Month gallery. I’m working hard to keep up with the e-mails but please be patient with me, I do sometimes get behind but try to answer them as soon as I can. Speak soon, Martin. January 2009 NAMM proved very worth wile this year with new tonewood suppliers established as well as furthering good relations with all our other suppliers and customers alike. So now we're all ready to move on into the spring. The start of 09 has been one of the busiest we have ever know with all our departments working flat taps to get the orders finished and dispatched on time. Congratulations are rightly due to Tim Scott for his impressive new album “Guitar Mashing.” Tim is a great guitarist & I hope this venture sees him pushed to the front of the pack where he rightly deserves to be. You can check out his music on line www.timscott.co.uk and sample Tim’s wares.
With everything moving so fast, it’s probably best to give us as much notice as possible so we can schedule you orders in & keep everything on time. May I take this opportunity to thank all our customers for there support & patience & please keep in touch with your comments & photos. December 2008 Is 2008 really at an end? Just to let you know we are having our annual Christmas break from December 24th to January the 5th. Mike has been really busy with pickguards this year & has now taken over the complete operation as pickguard production manager, so please direct all pickguard enquiries to Mike. Andy has continued to complete some great artwork as you have been commenting with some very flattering emails. Rob as always has been busy with all the body & neck production as well as bringing his lovely new baby girl Brooke into the world, so congratulations to Rob & Stacey. It’s good to see so many of you leaving your comments on the guestbook page. Please do keep this up as it really helps us & any future customers know if we’re on the right track. I would also like to extend a big thank you to all our 08 customers as we all look forward to an exciting if not challenging new year.
L to R Thank you & speak soon. November 2008 Thanks to everyone who came over to see us at the show this year. We had a great time showing of some examples of what we can do. Thanks to Aziz Ibrahim who couldn’t resist our “Scull” guitar & had to take it home with him.
Just to let you know that we are now going to be exhibiting at Music Live at the NEC. 7th, 8th, & 9th of November. So feel free to visit us on stand A94 it would be great to see you in person and show you what we've been doing over the last few months. October 2008 October starts off with a big thank you to everyone who sent words of encouragement towards our Enfield Guitars. We’ll have some amazing new stock ready soon. The guitar of the month is now showing a 7 string lefty that we recently made for a customer who couldn’t find what he wanted in a shop so he came to us and after 12 weeks we handed over the guitar he had been looking for. Click here to visit the Guitar Of The Month gallery. We are going to be showing a small selection of Enfield’s at the Music Live show at the NEC on November the 7th 8th & 9th. We are on our South east dealers stand BASS MERCHANT so feel free to come over and have a look and a try. August 2008 This is an extremely exiting month for us here at the Custom Shop as we are VERY proud to announce the launch of Enfield Guitars. Enfield Guitars are the result of a 2 years development plan to produce a new bass guitar brand, aimed at the pro player market. We couldn’t be happier with the result & would like to draw your attention to the new web-site www.enfieldguitars.com Enfield was launched at the London International Music Show in June & have just had there first review in Guitar Buyer magazine.
So please feel free to have a look around & let us know what you think. July 2008 We were pleased to be asked to participate with the Nelson Mandella birthday celebrations back in July and resprayed a Gibson Les Paul guitar with artwork which Mr. Mandella himself signed.
We would also like to keep our customers informed on our annual summer break which we have every year. The workshop will be closed for two weeks from the 4th August to the 18th August. June 2008 Another great weekend at the London Guitar Show, many thanks for all of you who stopped to say hello including bassist Billy Sheehan among others. We had some great feedback from past customers which is always very much appreciated.
We have now also moved into our new extension doubling the capacity in our spray booth and doubling the size of our rubbing down and polishing room meaning we can now press ahead with production and speed up our turn around times. All good things so far for 2008.. March 2008 Watch out for the June edition of Q-Magazine and win yourself a Strat customized here at SCS!
Also here at SCS we are now making a lot of complete builds including a wide range of left handed models. Our neck range now includes bass models, photos on the site will be updated shortly.
January 2008 Happy New Year to everybody! We have some great things happening
here at the Custom Shop. Remember, you dont have to have the same as everybody else, if you want a one off custom design or want an aged relic or just a straight forward standard design we can help after all we are a Custom Shop! December 2007 Our first custom necks have been rolling off the production line here at SCS! If anybody wants any information on the necks, feel free to drop us a line with your needs. We are also upgrading our internet website server, so you will have to bear with us for a few weeks as we do some changes, but hopefully everything should be up and running as normal in the new year. May we take this opportunity to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and we all look forward to a rockin' new year.
September 2007 It's back to full speed ahead at the Custom Shop after our two week summer vacation. We would like to thank everybody for your patience. We have many new projects on the go so keep an eye out in the photo galleries.
July 2007 We are very pleased to have
worked on a Fender Telecaster that was auctioned for The Nordoff-Robbins
Music Therapy. © www.fender.co.uk Click here for the full review June 2007 New for summer 2007 - SimS Custom Guestbook
Feel free to sign the guestbook and to leave your comments, or tell us what you think of the custom jobs that you have had done, or even tell us what you would like to see in a custom guitar. May 2007 Airbrush Andy with the Sims
Custom Paintwork gets a review in the second edition of this great
all new british mag.
© pandkg.com, May/June 2007 Click here for the full review April 2007 We would like to say thanks to everyone that came to see us for a chat at the London Guitar Show at the ExCel. It was another busy one and as loud as ever! It was a good chance for us to show off some of our custom bodies and artwork that we have been working on.
Martin and Rob with the new range of SimS Custom bodies. Spot the CNC machine film footage on the big screen in the background. February 2007 We are very please to have been involved in the current Harrods show which is taking place until the 3rd March. We worked on a large number of guitars for the show which has kept us very busy for many months.
www.bigtime.tv November 2006 For those of you who haven't rushed out to get this months copy of Guitaist magazine, well rush out and get one! We are very pleased to have a full 4 page review in this months issue giving some insight into the company and bring you up to date on how the company is expanding.
We have in conjunction with the review made a big change to the website showcasing our own bodies which we are now pleased to offer. July 2006 We have just had news of the charity auction that was held for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. One of the lots was the Fender Strat which we painted with the Pink Floyd album cover 'Dark Side Of The Moon ' on it. The guitar was signed by David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright and sold for £33,000 !!
We would just like to take the opportunity to send our thanks to Pink Floyd for their support and especially David Gimour for allowing us to use the photograph above. To read the full review from the Fender website, click the link below : May 2006 Thanks to everyone that came to see us at the London Guitar Show at the beginning of the month. It was another busy one and as loud as ever! Thanks to Jamie Humphries for his support and showing off the mirror top guitar we customized last year. To view his amazing guitar view Decembers guitar of the month.
Also we have just posted a new gallery of guitars that we did for Fender Europe for the Stratocaster 60th birthday tour, click the guitar of the month section to view. Click here to visit the Guitar Of The Month gallery. March 2006 Our first bodies have rolled off the production line here at SCS! Also yet another stunning guitar of the month for your visual enjoyment! Click here to visit the Guitar Of The Month gallery. Jan/Feb 2006 Well we are now in full swing working our new CNC machine and have already started making scratchplates for a number of companies and shops in the UK. We are currently working on a webpage to include on the site to show prices and examples of what we offer but for now just get in contact and we would be more than happy to quote you. We are also able to scan in and make a scratchplate from a drawing or tracing. Click here to visit the Guitar Of The Month gallery. December 2005 Exciting times here at SCS ! We have just taken delivery of our new CNC machine and are now able to offer custom made scratchplates and guitar bodies made here on site. We will soon have a dedicated page here on the website to view different options available so check back soon. We have just posted a 'guitar of the month' for December. To say it's a bit special is a huge understatement! London guitar teacher and 'Braund Reynolds' guitarist Jamie Humphries commissioned us to give one of his Music Man guitars the 'Chrome' treatment including a mirrored fingerboard complete with red L.e.d's !! Click here to visit the Guitar Of The Month gallery. October 2005 This month we have a fantastic purple metal flake 'guitar of the month' for you using our new Flakebuster gun! We have also updated the galleries with yet more great photos including the Burton Strat we have just done for Fender. We have also just got back from the Steve Vai concert in London on Wednesday (19th) and have got a short clip of Mr. Vai himself tapping away on his Jem lit up with SimS L.E.D's. Click the image below. If your computer doesn't run the video clip straight from the site, right click the photo and select the 'Save target as' and save to your computer. Many thanks Steve for your hospitality.
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