Green guitar benefits Ayrshire schools

Aug 8 2008 by Edwin Lawrence

YOU won’t get a greener guitar than this.

For South Ayrshire-based Mark Bailey made it using renewable energy.

What’s more he did in a tent over a weekend at the Wickerman Festival.

Mark said: “It was great to be invited to have a stand at the Wickerman.

“They wanted to have something different, so I decided to make a guitar.

“It was done using a portable wind turbine and a solar panel to generate electricity for my power tools.”

Festival organisers were so impressed, it was arranged for performers to autograph his beautiful Wickerman Special guitar.

Names on its scratchplate include Scotland’s own K T Tunstall, 80s icon Gary Numan, and Stranglers’ frontman Hugh Cornwell.

The gorgeous mahogany guitar was raffled at the festival, raising £700 for the Guitars For Schools charity.

And the money will be spent on supplies of new strings for guitar-playing kids.

Mark’s Wickerman Special was won by14-year-old James Smyth from Gatehouse of Fleet.

James plays in a band, and intends using the guitar.

So Mark will fit a new scratchplate, so James can keep the one with the signatures on it.

“They would come off through time, with sweat,” said Mark.

“But James can always put the signed scratchplate back on to impress people.

“And I’m sure those signatures will give the guitar extra value in years to come.”

Mark points out that the wood he used to make the guitar came from a sustainable source.

And Bailey Guitars can lay claim to being among the most eco-friendly guitar makers on the planet.

This is the 10th anniversary year of a firm launched in Coventry by Mark and partner Carol Davies.

The couple were regular visitors to the late lamented Kirkmichael International Guitar Festival.

And in 2003, they decided to make Ayrshire their home, moving to a cottage near Maybole.

“Our long-term aim is to become totally self-sufficient in power,” said Carol.

Bailey has won a great plaudit in its anniversary year – being invited to exhibit in a Fifty Years of British Guitar Making show.

And its Build Your Own Guitar courses have never been more popular.