Brit maker Jason Snelling aims to turn some reclaimed wood, parts and pickups into a viable and vibey guitar
Earlier this year, in issue 497, we were pleasantly impressed by Maybury’s Cholla, a unique slice of original British-made craft and powered by a set of superb Sunbear pickups, also UK-made. Maybury is the name chosen by sole luthier Jason Snelling for his small range of models, but aside from these, his start-up models are coined Upscalers. The concept is simple: by using reclaimed wood for the body, preloved necks and parts, Jason can offer a handmade UK build at a much lower price point than his standard models.
As you can see, the Fish Hook S is loosely based on the Stratocaster, those hooked horns and slightly offset waist adding plenty of originality. But it’s the rusticlooking teal chalk-paint finish over a vividly grained spruce body (floor joists from a 1930s house that was being renovated) that’s the immediate talking point. It’s a 44mm thick two-piece body, though that’s not immediately obvious thanks to quite a few splits and nail holes, not to mention the far from flat grain ridges. Fans of pristinely joined, planed and smooth woodwork, please look away.
Expecting to be told that the neck is made from a reclaimed fence post, we’re a little surprised to learn it’s actually from a cheapo 2006 Squier Affinity that has been stripped and refinished. But, somehow, Jason has transformed the ordinary into the exceptional: it has a reshaped and slightly hooked headstock shape, the ‘bare wood’ feel is actually oil-and-wax finished, while the rosewood fingerboard is a vibrant red-ish brown and peppered with Jason’s hallmark brass-ringed resin inlays.
But it’s not all hand-me-downs. That vibrantly coloured scratchplate, for example, is a “translucent acrylic amber tortoiseshell that I made from an off-cut I had from a previous build”, Jason tells us, and to our eye it’s the element that ties the design together.
Jason Snelling has turned a collection of unwanted parts into a vibey, great-playing and juicysounding musical instrument
Aside from a (thankfully) new control circuit (see Under The Hood, opposite), the tuners are a generic die-cast style, while Jason admits he has no idea of the origin of the simple bridge. The
