HAYNES DEMEANOUR
With some three decades of guitar-making experience behind him, Neil Haynes finally gets around to making his own-brand electrics. Worth the wait? Definitely
Headed by Neil Haynes in Banbury, Oxfordshire, Haynes Guitars is an extension of the long-running Guitar & Bass Builds, which makes necks, bodies and pickups, that Neil established in 2012 after his previous life as a cabinet maker. “I’ve been building guitars for about 30 years, since I was 21,” reflects Neil today. Work started on the new range around two years ago, and with the S-style Inflection, T-inspired Fidelity and the new SC22 (a 22-fret single-cut), our offset Demeanour makes up a pretty impressive four-guitar range.
These might use shapes based on those we’ve seen countless times before, but the Haynes menu includes a sevenstrong choice of metallic colours – along with other limited-run hues such as our Ultraviolet. “I use a modern polyurethane on the body,” says Neil. “It’s really thin and very different from what I was using back in the day; it’s faster to apply, too. The neck is an acid-catalysed lacquer, which we call a modern cellulose finish.”
The necks across all the Haynes models are one-piece mahogany and have dual graphite rod reinforcement – which is a big change from the ubiquitous maple. “I always liked Gibson’s necks and like to fade the finish from a lighter neck back into a darker headstock,” says Neil. “That doesn’t work so well over maple. So, yes, there are tonal considerations, but I like the wood, it stains really well and it’s readily available here in the UK. And it’s a bit different; it’s mixing up the styles a bit. Also, we’ve just launched our first gluedin ‐neck guitar and I never think maple on that style looks right.”
The classic-feeling neck and simplified drive create a juicy, rock-ready offset that we’d take on a gig without a thought
An opaque finish hides the American alder body, which is not only chambered (the cavities are small ‘pockets’ as opposed to being large chambers) but also shows off a larger forearm chamfer and deep vintage-like ribcage contouring. The heel is heavily contoured, too. There’s a lot of detail here, not least the aluminium back and neckplates, the scratchplate in an aged ‘black Japan’ finish,
