About

Nottingham City Guitars first opened its doors in 2014 as Nottingham’s only purveyor of vintage guitars, located in converted industrial premises in the historic Lace Market.

Originating in buying and selling quality used and vintage guitars, we have now evolved to design and craft our own brand of guitars: NCG Guitars.

NCG Guitars are individual designs, based on a common bespoke footprint and 25.5” scale length. Each NCG guitar is unique, being hand-carved, sanded and machined. No two are ever exactly the same. Body contours, cavities, neck profiles and body thickness all vary. Some are solid, some semi-hollow and some fully hollow. Maybe arched top or flat top.

There is often no set plan on the day the wood is first selected. It just evolves.

We make guitars from luthier-grade timber or reclaimed woods, often of considerable age and interest. We have also successfully experimented with aluminium bodies. None of this is to do with tone wood. If you are looking for a real tone wood electric guitar, go seek out a wizard in a field. But read this first https://www.nottinghamcityguitars.com/dont-believe-a-word/

If you don’t believe me, or can’t be bothered to read the link, have a think on Brian May’s fireplace-grade Red Special. It’s done the job quite nicely for decades.

Wood is selected for its seasoned quality, density, machinability, stability and its looks or paintability. No tapping involved.

Then we have our obsession with detail. Binding, F holes, hardware, switch rings, pick guards, ageing, layout and lines. Every piece has to be located and positioned for a reason. It has to feel right. Have the right degree of lacquer, patina or maybe none. We make our own NCG hardware, just because we can and it is all made here, in the UK.

Obsession is defined as a persistent, disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; broadly, compelling motivation. A fascination, preoccupation, fixation, fetish, mania, enthusiasm, thirst. Maybe associated with compulsive mental disorders.

Yep, that figures, sounds just about right on all counts. That’s why we make NCG guitars. We obsess over design and detail, the tiny bits. Detail makes all the difference. It generally has nothing to do with sound quality. It’s an aesthetic. And maybe the reason why you like the look of something but are not really aware why you do. It’s not just applicable to guitars.

Nobody primarily buys a guitar because of how it sounds. Walk into a big store. A USA Guitar Centre- sized store. Overwhelming. Colour is a big deciding factor, maybe the first. Probably decided upon before you left the safety of home. Or maybe a field. Then pickup type. The flock always runs with single coils or humbuckers, nearly always two. Then we progress to feel and weight, these both have to be right and it’s mainly a very personal thing. No idea why anybody wants to sling anything more than about 8lb around their neck. Heading for trouble that way, further down the line. When you’re old. It happens.

Then there’s the much lauded unplugged acoustic properties, those tiny nuances, overtones and resonance. Feeling the timber breathe and sigh. All complete bollocks with regard to an electric guitar. But maybe a slight factor if you just sit and play unplugged, in the dead of night, sounding like a gnat in a bottle. Unplugged guitars do vibrate, ever so slightly. Then finally one asks the salesman if you may plug the instrument into an amp – but not too loud. At this point, before striking your first electrified note, you have probably already decided to buy.

A guitar needs to make you feel good before you hear it. Really good. The ritual of unlatching the case. Feeling the weight and balance. It makes you want to practice, play and not put it down.

So you can run with the flock and buy a very mainstream branded guitar. Or stand out, carve your own path and have something that is original and unique, something that’s been obsessed over, top quality, with maybe pickups of your choice. If you need a choice. It may be honed from reclaimed timber with a long history, or be just a regular slab of seasoned mahogany. But it will be different. Handmade and obsessed over in the UK. An NCG Guitar.

Be different & bold, make a statement. Cut your own path.