Local musician strikes the right chord
Dougie working on a Fender bass guitar.
Uppermill musician Dougie Wibberley, is hoping to turn his hobby of building custom electric guitars and repairing them into a full time business and is looking for help from the local community.
Dougie, who started playing the guitar at a very young age, has always dreamed of one day building his own custom guitars and recently started building a few prototypes from home.
Although no more than a home based hobby, he now feels there is scope to expand things a little further and would like to purchase some essential equipment required for the manufacture of the guitars, but the equipment would require a much larger work space.
As a result he is now making an appeal for anyone to get in touch with him who might have a small unit, or even a space within a unit, available to rent at a low rate.
He has been a member of many Oldham bands over the last 20 years and has always helped other guitarists with small repairs and advice whenever possible.
He knows that starting a business in the current economic climate will be quite risky, but he also believes that there is still a gap in the market for quality custom built guitars. And a requirement by local musicians for a good quality repair service.
Dougie said: “I have always admired and been influenced by Paul Reed Smith, an American custom guitar manufacturer who started his work not for money but to show off the natural beauty of the wood in his guitars. I think I try to aspire to his ideology of using and presenting the wood in its natural form.
“If I could achieve just a fraction of his success I would be more than happy, I am also keen to promote British skills and hope to produce a guitar made from all British components.”
He hopes one day to exhibit his guitars in his own showroom or even better to have a few rock stars purchasing them.
For the last few months he’s been concentrating on his guitar “setting up” and repair service known as “Dobcross Guitar Doctor” which has proven very successful.
One of his clients Rick Lees, former bassist with the band “Twisted Wheel” said: “Having toured all over the world with my band, and with some of the best guitar techs out there, whilst supporting Oasis and Paul Weller, I couldn’t believe I could find a tech so talented locally. I’ve had Dougie fitting new necks, re-fretting and setting up and servicing, all with fantastic results.”
If anyone can help with offers of free or cheap space for his new venture he can be contacted by emailing him at youngdougie@googlemail.com.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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Editors note: this comment has been slightly edited for legal reasons.
When Roger Devy (Churchill Playing Fields Action Group) invested a large amount of personal time and effort into providing a solution to the demand for four full sized pitches on Churchill, as well as retaining the track, we were told that this wasn’t feasible as it would mean losing the copse of mature trees in the centre of the fields, next to the skate park. Guess what? They’ve ripped the track up, then hacked the trees down anyway. If anyone tries to say that they were diseased, think carefully, I’ve already had a tree surgeon have a look and only one of the six chopped down showed even the slightest level of decay. In due course I will dig out the final report released by the District Partnership, and cross-reference it with the statements made previously by members of the anti-track campaign.
This will prove once and for all that removing the track was not necessary in order to carry out the drainage.
I bet the people of Saddleworth are going to get a bit of a shock when they see a whacking great fence go up, and realise that they are going to have to pay extra to use something that they already pay for through their council tax, and should have been maintained both from that pot and from the £2.5 million clawed in from housing developers (section 106) over the years. I am glad that the efforts of the action group were rewarded by some alterations, such as a sprint track, long jump pit and distance-marked trail etc.
Another concern is that, from my memory, part of the funding achieved seems to have been ear-marked for maintenance. I would like more clarity on what exactly that means. Is it referring to the mowing/sewing of the grass when necessary, for example, or is it suggesting that the current works, that we were led to believe were a permanent solution, actually require ongoing and repeated drainage? If this is the case then again the public have been sold a myth.
Please note, this comment was intended for the last Churchill article. I’m not sure why it is on here but I would like to stress that it is completely unconnected to the above article and I would like to wish Mr Wibberley every success with his highly skilled business.A friend of mine has a similar business in Leeds and I never cease to be amazed by the skill involved. What a gift! I really hope that Mr Wibberley gets the support he needs 🙂
Hello Helen, I would just like to say Thank you for your comments relating to myself.:-)
I am also upset to hear that the mature trees in the middle of Churchill playing fields have been felled. They were an great feature and surely demand some kind of explanation as to why they were felled??????
Mint this Dougie! Good luck mate!