News Section

This section of the site will have some links to other web sites, bits of news, or a series of pictures that might be of interest, and also comments that people have made about the instruments.

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Comments about Tobin Instruments
Who plays Tobin Instruments

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December 2011

I often get people coming to visit me in the workshop, for a variety of reasons. They might have a guitar or other stringed instrument that they want set up or repaired, they might want to talk about having a new instrument built and want to chat about the different options that will suit them best, or sometimes people are just a bit curious and want to have a bit of a nose around a 'workshop'. You'll know when their eyes start to wander around the room and they'll say something like "I thought you'd have a lot more machines than this" or "how many chisels have you got" or "what do you use that lathe for?" Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy it when people come and visit, it's a great excuse for a chat about wood, kit and workshops, and of course a cup of tea and a hobnob biscuit.

But I guess that there's a whole discussion here about hand tools as opposed to machines and what people think about how their instrument is built. Now, I really like using hand tools. There's something quite special about the way a sharp well adjusted hand plane cuts a piece of wood. I don't go to the extreme of making my own wooden planes as some people I know do, and fair play to them.

I have three planes, a nice old Clifton 4 1/2 smoothing plane which I've had for a good 25 years. I replaced the iron in it a number of years ago with a hand made specially hardened one which can be honed to an incredibly sharp edge. This is my workhorse and is used for countless jobs. A more specialised tool is the Stanley 60 1/2 low angle block plane. Again this has a hardened replacement blade in it and is used for more fine delicate work. I bought this from a tool shop in Bristol many years ago and it must have been a good 30 or 40 years old then, and it still works as well as it did when it was brand new. And the other plane I use is a very small squirrel tail palm plane. This has a curved sole and is used for carving concave areas as in archtop guitars and violins. Some people might have a dozen different planes but I find that these three do me absolutely fine.

I don't have masses of chisels either, well I do have masses of them but I find that I only use about 4 or 5 of them. But when you see a nice chisel in a second hand tool shop with that old steel and a nicely balanced and well used boxwood handle, well, you've just got to get it haven't you.

But there are some jobs that power tools or heavier machines can do a lot more accurately and save a huge amount of time and effort. What is the point in spending an hour with a long panel saw ripping a section of wood to make a neck when a bandsaw will do the job in a minute? And squaring that ripped piece of wood on the jointer again will only take a few seconds rather than half an hour and a lot of sweat with a triplane. I could cut the purfling and binding rebates by hand, but you know what, life is too short. A hand router will do the job much more accurately and so much quicker, leaving more time to sit with a cup of tea and hobnob and contemplate the next job.

And the lathe, well I use that to make the soundhole rosettes. Now I could buy these in ready made, I'm sure that there are hundreds of patterns available, but I like the one that I make, it suits the style of my instruments well, and I know it takes the best part of a morning to make, but it's just somehow better.

Here are some photos detailing the stages in making the soundhole rosettes.......

Here are some Indian Rosewood offcuts....	which get sawn into small rough squares...	and then into more accurate wedge pieces.
These are glues together to form the basis of the rosette...	which is then turned on the lathe into....	this.
A single straight section of purfling is bent on the iron....	and glued onto the turned roewood to make the finished rosette.	And here it is fitted in a bouzouki.

October 2011

I've just finished building a new instrument for Ed Boyd and he came over to the workshop early last week to collect it. It's a 10 string Large Body with a 650mm scale length and a Headway HE4 pickup fitted. Ed first got in touch towards the end of last year as he had bought one of my instruments from someone in Bath and was wondering if I'd be interested in giving it a slightly overdue MOT. I was quite keen to find out which instrument it was, and rather shockingly it turned out to be a very early one, actually only the second one that I had built. I like to keep in touch with all of my old instruments but had lost touch with this one at least 20 years ago, although I remember it well, and remember building it too. It was (is) a short scale small body 10 string cittern, and it was quite a surprise seeing it again after all these years. It was in a very neglected sorry state and needed a fair bit doing to it to get it going again. But I really liked it when it was all finished, a nice bright and mature tone and suprisingly well balanced given the small body size, and with its reshaped neck and recut and fretted fingerboard, very comfortable and easy to play too. It has a Sitka spruce top with mahogany back and sides and here's a picture of it opposite......
	It looks very different from the instruments I build these days though, and a huge amount has changed in the construction and build methods. I suppose the biggest difference you'll notice straightaway is the fixed pin bridge and the dovetailed neck join, neither of which I do now. I make the neck and integral neck block from one piece of quartersawn wood and it is the first piece that goes into the building jig, with the top block and bent sides following. Using an integral one piece neck and neck block has distinct tonal advantages and greatly improves sustain too. It's a wee bit trickier to build them this way, but the tonal advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages. So, here are a few pictures of the new one. It has a European Spruce top with Indian Rosewood back and sides, ebony fingerboard and bridge with bone saddle and nut. The machine heads are Gotoh SG301 and it is tuned DGDAD. It's also fitted with one of the new Headway HE4 pickups. This is easily the best sounding Headway I've heard, beautifully balanced with a rich and authentic acoustic tone.

9th May 2011

Last month I completed a mandolin for Gerry Barry, a customer who lives near Dublin. The instrument is one of my standard mandolins with a 36cm scale length and a big deep body. It also has a Headway mandolin pickup installed. Gerry was very clear that he wanted a tailpiece that takes loop end strings. The tailpiece that I make for my instruments are designed to take ball end strings though, so I had to adapt it to take the D'Addario J74 loop end strings. After settling on a design, I set to work with the pillar drill and needle files, but just couldn't get the clean and accurate finish that I wanted. So I phoned a very nice chap called Trevor at PRB Fabrications in Weston Super Mare. They do laser cutting and Trevor said that it would be a strightforward process to get the tailpiece cut using this method. So a few days later I picked up the laser cut tailpiece, and I was amazed at the crispness and accuracy of the cutting, and after folding it to the correct angle and a wee bit of polishing, it was ready to fit.
	As a demonstration piece, Trevor showed me this laser cut bicycle. This is cut from 3mm stainless steel. The laser cuts incredibly quickly, the bicycle here took about 30 seconds to do, and as a laser beam has no mass (unlike water jet cutting) the piece doesn't need clamping in any way.
	Here's a photo of the finished tailpiece.

May 2011

Nothing to do with instruments this, but one job I really hate is cutting the grass. We've got quite a big garden here and every week through the Spring Summer and Autumn it's got to be cut - so, last week we went down to the Taunton market and bought a couple of weaned orphaned lambs. They've turned out to be the perfect lawnmowers we always wanted, and they got well and truly stuck in as soon as we got them out of the back of the car. (Getting them in the car is another whole story !!) Here's a photo of them from my workshop window.

April 2011

Spring is really under way now here in the Mendip hills, the primroses are just about done now, but the daffs and wild violets are out in forcce and the bluebells are just starting to show. Here's a picture of Crook Peak and the wild ponies that live up on the hills abouve our village. They're losing their winter coats now and that glossy sheen of their summer coats is just starting to show through. There is some great walking here and we're up here for a good hour or two every day with Ruby.

Links

Comments about Tobin Instruments

Steve Byrne - Bouzouki

I'd first heard about Andy's instruments from the late Davy Steele, and had been impressed by the number of players I came across who also played a Tobin, such as Quico Comesaña from Berrogüetto and Manus Lunny of Capercaillie.

I'd been after a really typical Irish bouzouki sound, when that tight, punchy, Lunny-esque sound is sometimes what's needed! With the work with Fred Morrison beginning to take off, I took the plunge and plumped for the Tobin and I've been thrilled to bits with it since it arrived.

Bob Dougherty - Tenor Mandola

The instrument is absolutely beautiful. You are quite the artist. The bottom end is exactly what I was looking for and the overall balance of sound and resonance is just phenomenal and I'm sure it's only going to become warmer as time goes by.

Niall Anderson - 10 string Cittern

It has arrived completely unscathed and intact, looks great, sounds wonderful and plays brilliantly. I am extremely happy with it!

Ross Ainslie - Cittern

Thank you very much man the cittern is feckin lovely, been playing it all the time totally perfect, can't wait to do a gig with it! so no problems at all, an excellent job altogether.

Karl Nesbitt - Bouzouki

The bouzouki Andy made for me is a well balanced, clear yet round-sounding instrument. Its pick- up system is excellent also, and gives me what I need for live gigs. It has a rich acoustic sound, ideal for playing in a session, to recording in the studio.

Mark Woodrow - Octave Mandola

The Mandola has just arrived....it is...absolutely beautiful. The tone and clarity is really amazing, unbelievable. The details and finish are great. It is much better than I expected. I can truthfully say my search is over.

Jean Pierre Sieczkarek - Mandolin

Sound -exactly as I asked deep and rounded with plenty power.

Looks - great I love the finish and the balance, the Gotoh pegs make tuning fun.

Accuracy is perfect and general feel great.

Overall I am delighted, well done and thank you.

Jean Pierre Sieczkarek's wife

On playing a new mandolin for the first time after delivery - "I thought you were buying a mandolin - that sounds really nice"!

Russ Davidson - Standard and Large Body Bouzouki

I have been playing Andys bouzoukis for as long as memory permits. Yes I have picked up and played other fine bouzoukis, but I have always been glad that its a Tobin in my flight case. The tonal quality, sustain, projection and build of a Tobin instrument just delivers everything a player needs for live performance, recording and especially session playing.

I often throw a capo up and down the neck during tune sets and the Tobin bouzouki holds the intonation and tuning remarkably well.
Andys reputation as a luthier is well deserved...Oh, and he's one of the good guys too!

Paul McKenna - Standard Bouzouki

Bouzouki has arrived! Excellent, going to spend the next couple of hours getting to know it. It sounds fantastic! Thank you

Who plays Tobin Instruments

Manus Lunny - Capercaillie - LB Bouzouki and Semi Acoustic bouzouki
The late Davy Steel - Battlefield Band - Standard Bouzouki

Steve Byrne - Malinky - Standard Bouzouki
Ross Ainslie - Salsa Celtica - 10 string Cittern
Russ Davidson - Standard and LB Bouzouki

Benji Kirkpatrick - Bellowhead, Faustus and many others - Standard and LB Bouzouki
Quico Comesaña - Berrogüetto - Standard Bouzouki

Pancho Alvarez - Carlos Nunez Band - Standard Bouzouki
Pat O'Reilly - Standard Bouzouki
Karl Nesbitt - Standard Bouzouki

Dominique Riviere - LB Bouzouki
Jean Pierre Sieczkarek - Octave Mandola and Mandolin
Andy Morgan - Cittern and LB Bouzouki
Paul McKenna of the Paul McKenna Band - Standard Bouzouki

.....and many more