The ProShop Builders

Nathan Sharp - ProShop Manager


 

I originally learned to play guitar as an aid to songwriting, but quickly became fascinated by the aesthetic, technical, constructional and engineering aspect of guitars generally, which led me to train for my BTECH National and Higher National Diplomas in Musical Instrument Technology. These qualifications provided the skills necessary to understand the full process of manufacturing a guitar, the knowledge required to fault find and solve the huge range of issues which can afflict a guitar.

My twenty plus years in the workshop at JHS, where I now manage the team, working on a daily basis liaising with our production departments, working on guitars for our distributors around the world, our UK and overseas dealers, end users and demanding pro players such as Paul Weller, KT Tunstall, The Blossoms, The Kooks, The Charlatans, Manic Street Preachers, Oasis, Mark Knopfler, & Stereophonics has given me solid real world knowledge and a super useful "bag of tips ‘n’ tricks" which I dip into in my work designing, building, repairing and setting up guitars.

Vintage ProShop for me is a natural extension of everything I’ve learned over twenty years of guitar “tech-ing” and a great way to express my creativity, producing outstanding, original guitars, which play, sound and look a “million dollars”.

 

Neil Robshaw


 
I have been playing guitar since I was 14 years old and always had an interest in modifying them and always loved the idea of playing around with the aesthetics of a guitar as well as its sound.


Fresh faced from completing all 3 parts of the City and Guilds 224 electronics servicing course at Kitson College in Leeds, I found myself at JHS in 1999.

As a guitar player and “scratch build” model maker I’ve found that a lot of the techniques and flexibility of that discipline, where thinking well outside the box with materials and their application to the project are key to success are equally applicable in the guitar sphere. Painting and finishing techniques particularly transfer directly to creating interesting and unique distressed guitars, where I am a perfectionist in producing viable and convincing relic finishes.

On the electronics side, I love the challenge of making the ’aged’ guitars I create in the Vintage ProShop live up to their appearance sonically.

 

Chris Sharp


A love of all things guitar led me to complete my BTECH National Diploma in Musical Instrument Technology, during which I acquired the skills and techniques required to understand the design, construction, repair and setup techniques which apply to the guitar and a host of other instruments. Over the intervening twenty-one years I have put all that training to good use on a daily basis as the longest serving tech at JHS.

I’ve worked on and set up guitars for household names in the UK and all over the world, from the smallest pub gig player, to the stars of The Grand Ole Opry.

Vintage ProShop allows me to push the boundaries of what is possible and put all my experience into experimenting with aesthetics, features, cosmetics, hardware, pickups and electronics, materials and vibe, creating superb and unique pieces; guitars which are “… all they can be …”