Info about Giffin Guitars

About Giffin Guitars

I started Giffin Guitars in England, where it existed in various forms from the late 60's up until the mid 80's. During those years I was fortunate enough to hook up with a lot of very good musicians. This gave me the opportunity and encouragement to design and build guitars that became widely accepted in England at that time.

The workshop

The workshop was located under a bridge by the river Thames in London, and it soon became a meeting place for many 'name' player of that time. It became the hotspot for people seeking great guitars and guitar service.

Regular customers included Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and John Entwhistle (The Who), Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits), Andy Summers (The Police) David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), and many more. Hundreds of quality, reasonably priced guitars were made at "Giffin Guitars."

(Working in the old shop in my thermal underwear.)

....and the Retail Store

The Giffin Guitar workshop was in operation at this location for about 7 years, and the retail part of the workshop, which existed for about 3 years, was an outlet for Giffin Guitars as well as for other brand name guitars.

(This is a picture from the opening day of the 'retail section of "Giffin Guitars.")

Moving to California

In the late '70s, I was designing a prototype guitar that became the
Steinberger 'M' series.

It was because of this guitar that I was offered the job to run Gibson's West Coast custom shop in Los Angeles. I needed a change at that point, and jumped at this opportunity.

(The prototype)

The Gibson Custom Shop

So, in 1988 I moved to California. Once in L.A. and , employed by Gibson, I started building Gibson Custom instruments and fronting the Gibson West Coast repair shop. During this time, I built many different Gibson custom guitars, while the "Giffin" side of things was "on a slow burner."

The client list during this time included names like Eddie Van Halen, Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton, Jimmy Page and Malcolm Young, among many others. I ran the Gibson custom shop up until Dec. '93 together with my co-worker and good friend Gene Baker. At that point it was decided that the whole Gibson operation was to be moved to Nashville.

Jimmy Page's replica Les Paul

more pictures of Gibson Custom Guitars

R&B Instrument Services

In early 94', my partner Brett Allen and I started R&B instrument Services (on Sunset Blvd.). For the next three years we were kept very busy mainly on repairs and service. Then, in the spring of '97, I branched out on my own again.

Giffin Guitars U.S.A.

I worked in Los Angeles up until June of 2004 building small quantities of hand made guitars from my home.

In July 2004, I moved once again, and am now operating from Portland, Oregon.

I continue to maintain, as always, the very highest hand built standards for my instruments. I feel that my hands-on approach to guitar building still gives me the greatest satisfaction, and it allows me to produce unique and individual instruments.

Please check through the different sections of this web site for examples of the instruments I build.