John Bailey (luthier)

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John Bailey (born 1931) is a Luthier who made and repaired guitars and other stringed instruments during the 1960s revival of English folk music and beyond. John lived in London until 1972 when he moved to Dartmouth in Devon. He continued to make instruments there into the 1990s.

He wrote two textbooks on making instruments (Folk Guitar and Appalachian Dulcimer) which were published by The English Folk Dance and Song Society,Cecil Sharp House.

Bailey, John [1965]. Making a Folk Guitar, 1st, The Folk Shop Instrumental Series, The English Folk Dance and Song Society. ISBN 0854180389.
Bailey, John [1966]. Making an Appalachian Dulcimer, 1st, The Folk Shop Instrumental Series, The English Folk Dance and Song Society. ISBN 0854180397.

Illustrated with line drawings, cover designs by John's wife Maureen and a few photographs by Russ Woolnough, these scarce booklets are titles in The Folk Shop Instrumental Series; complete texts on how to make acoustic folk-style instruments.

George Lowden talks about the influence of John's book at the start of his professional career as a luthier:

"1973 - After a fair bit of prayer! (I needed all the help I could get) I decided to make guitars professionally and armed with some wood, basic woodworking tools and an excellent booklet by English Luthier John Bailey, I began the journey.”

John Bailey is credited with building the first 20th century Irish bouzouki for John Pearse, the guitarist and author,who recalls in a usenet message ^[1] on 16 January 2000

"your mention of the "Irish" bouzouki prompts me to admit responsibility for its introduction, albeit unwittingly. Back in the late fifties and early sixties I was teaching guitar at the English Folk Dance and Song Society HQ on Regents Park Road in London's Camden Town. At that time I was obsessed with Greek music and was gigging with a pretty cheap bouzouki that I'd picked up in Piraeus. One night it got thoroughly trashed during a fight at a local pub and I took it to luthier John Bailey, who was a regular at the EFDSS and had repaired it on many prior occasions. He pronounced it not repairable and offered to build me a replacement. Since he was not able to attempt a coopered bowl-back, I lent him an old Preston English cittern to use as a model for the body of the instrument. In due time the bouzouki was finished and I started gigging with it. I found the sound somewhat too sweet for rembetica and the intonation was rather suspect further up the neck, so, after I obtained a pukka Greek bouzouki the following year - a Yianacou - I hung the Bailey on the wall as a decoration. At that time, my house was the scene of constant partying. Whether or not I was in town, there always seemed to be a wild shindig taking place, judging by the constant complaints from the neighbours- and the monotonous regularity of visits from tall gentlemen, clad in blue, with firm requests to keep the noise down. On one one such evening, Johnny Moynihan, from the Irish group Sweeney's Men, took down the Bailey from the wall and started to join in the musical revelry. He liked the instrument so much that, at evening's end, I gave it to him. About a year later I heard from John Bailey that he'd had dozens of requests from other Irish musicians wanting him to build flat-back bouzoukis. This he did...and the rest, as they say...is history!"

His instruments were played by many well known musicians who continue to remember them with affection today:

Bert Jansch ( Observer interview 17/9/2006)^[2] Jansch's first instrument was a Zenith - 'marketed as the Lonnie Donegan guitar' - which he was still playing as his star rose in the Sixties. "I borrowed the guitars on my first album - Martin Carthy lent me his Martin 0028. The prestige of owning a Martin was just beginning then. Later I had a hand-built guitar from John Bailey which I loved but which was stolen. Then after I left Pentangle I had a contract with Yamaha, and the first thing they gave me was this FG1500. I first played it on LA Turnaround ; it got battered over the years, has burns on it and eventually I gave it to my son but retrieved it to get it restored." Recollections of Bert Jansch in 1966/67 - “The tools of Bert’s trade were expanding too: having owned a John Bailey acoustic for a few months (his first personally owned guitar since 1960), Bert had recently acquired an experimental Bailey electric, for use with the band (Pentangle), and a twelve-string acoustic.”^[3] That particular twelve string guitar is now owned by Soren Venema, owner of Palm Guitars in Amsterdam.

Gordon Giltrap (2006-08-11)^[4] I like their (Brook) guitars which sort of remind a little of my John Bailey that I used for SO many years on SO many albums!

Roy Harper (2000-01-07)^[5] Then there's my own man, John Bailey. I haven't seen John for years but we're in contact. He made me a guitar years ago that is still in use. He is threatening to make me another at the moment. Says he's still got some of the same wood! Wood .. Now there's a thing. Different properties. I think that Brazilian Rosewood is better than Indian for guitar making. I'm back playing my old Bailey now. It has it's faults, like it's difficult to tune the B string!, and it doesn't strum as well as it picks. Never the less, it reminds me of 'Flat Baroque & Berserk' every time I play it. So, of a night, I just settle into playing that there A minor chord that goes with 'Davey' or the D in 'East of the Sun' and I'm off and running again.

Richard Thompson (2007-11-01)^[6] On the early Fairport stuff, I would have borrowed my friend/producer Tod Lloyd's Martin D28, or used Sandy's Gibson J45. Tod then sold me his John Bailey Acoustic, which I used till 1972. To get a guitar set up, you went to your favourite West End music shop - Selmers, Macari's, Sound City... my Dad's old army buddy ran Lew Davis' in the Charing Cross Road, so I had a bit of an 'in' there. In the Fairport era, people like John Bailey and Sam Li would do refrets, and yer roadies would know who to take amps to, or blown speakers.

Marc Brierley^[7] John Bailey lived and worked in London in the mid 1960s. He was a woodwork teacher at Hendon Comprehensive School and inspired many young pupils with the idea of hand crafting acoustic guitars and other types of string instruments before the days when "Luthier" was a fashionable word. John made beautiful guitars for many grateful musicians who would not otherwise have able to afford instruments of such quality.

Anthony Phillips (formerly guitarist with the band Genesis) (Comments extracted from an interview with Jonathan Dann)^[8] Guitar Song (demo, 1973) This was experimentation with different guitars recording with two Revoxes. The guitar used on it was a John Bailey 6-string.

Colin Wilkie^[9]In 1965, John Bailey custom built me a beautiful six-string guitar which I have used constantly ever since on gordnose how many gigs, TV & radio shows and recordings. I told him exactly what I wanted, and he built it for me ( the strange shaped soundhole - which I like - is the same as the one on my old Grimshaw, it's distinctive, and I've always believed if anyone nicked me Bailey I'd know it straight away from the soundhole alone, not to mention several other little distinguishing bits and pieces. She is, naturally, a wee bit battered ( rather like me) and scratched, but the tone just gets better and better. A truly amazing instrument, and I've never felt the need for another, nor had the desire to switch; he also built me, to my specifications, a 12-string guitar and a six-string mountain dulcimer, and made my wife, Shirley a 3-string dulcimer– John was certainly a master of his art: and a hell of a nice bloke too. All his instruments are invaluable and irreplaceable. I just took a quick butcher's at me homepage, and in all the pictures apart from the one with Odetta ( third in top row ) and the one with John Pearse ( I'm hammering his Martin – don't recall why –fourth in row four ) and the banjo and drums shots, it's always the Bailey I'm playing.