THE NEXT STAGE

There are many fine acoustic luthiers out there – but you’d be hard-pressed to find many who have the breadth of contrasting experience that Armagh-based guitar maker Ciaran McNally possesses. A protegé of George Lowden and then a key member of the Atkin Guitars team, Ciaran has worked on, by his estimate, several thousand guitars over the years, most of which were finely crafted, high-end instruments. But it all started out much more simply, he recalls: “I started making kits when I was 15/16 years old, and that was just on the kitchen table at home…

“The story goes that I wrecked the kitchen table so much that my mum had to refinish it,” he continues. “She was better at finishing than I was back then [laughs]. So they were just partscasters that you put together, but that naturally progressed to where I thought, ‘Well, I’m not sure I really want to buy the parts any more, I really want to make them.’

“So I went to a college in Belfast that did an evening course in instrument-making run by an ex-Avalon luthier. People did make various instruments there, though the vast majority of them were acoustic steel-strings. But I went with the intention of making a Les Paul copy. The tutor, Sam, told me, ‘Most people