The John Paul Jones Collection

by Andy Manson Custom Guitars Aug 4th, 2011

 These are the seventeen instruments I have made for John Paul Jones over the last 37 years ish. I first met John in the mid 70s when I lived in Sussex.

I went to his house and introduced myself as a guitar maker/repair man. We got on well and I did some repair work for him and ended up building him a collapsable guitar that fits into a brief case.

The triple neck seemed inevitable after attending a Zep gig and watching John swapping between three instruments, mid song, during their acoustic interlude. Went home and built it, took it to show him….he goes "wow, can’t wait to see Page’s reaction, I could gig it unannounced…hee hee…how much?"

Skipped home feeling like a millionaire, with £400 in my pocket. The following year he wanted it glamourised, so ensued my first venture into inlays.

Aeolian Harp - made in 1974/75

Ukulele made in 1977
Mahogany top with Brazilian rosewood back and sides

The next instrument was a Baritone guitar made in 1981
Spruce top / rosewood back and sides

Electric Mandola made in 1991
Flamed ash top with Mahogany body and neck

I built a pair of instruments for John in 1997, an F5 mandolin and an F Style octave mandolin. This was the start of our F style mandolin family collaboration. The F tyle mandolin below is John's main mandolin and is rarely far from his side. You can see him playing in one of the videos I posted on my profile.

The Ocatve Mandolin

This 8 string acoustic bass was made in 1995
Spruce top with Koa back and sides and a birds eye Maple neck. It is always a challenge with acoustic basses to deliver enough volume with the low frequencies, I have made one 8 string and one 4 string for John and was pleased with the tone of both.

This next instrument was a real challenge - a triple neck mandolin. I made this in 2000 and it is a mandolin, mandola and bass mandolin. You can hear John playng it in his version of down to the river to pray from the Thunderthief album.