MAL Guitars

08/10/2025

Good morning everyone...

I'm going to get straight to the point here. After much consideration I have decided to cease my operations as MAL Guitars.

So I am no longer registered as a trader.

Therefore I am also no longer taking on any work, ie. Custom builds, repairs, set ups. Anything.

I am however going to keep this page active, and I have still got some ongoing builds in the workshop that are self funded. I will share pictures of these when complete, and some of them will probably be for sale so I can recover the cost of materials only.... so keep an eye out for some bargains!

I'm not saying that I'll never ever build again, I enjoy making a guitar so I probably will very occasionally but I won't be running it as a business, just a hobby from time to time.

Thanks to you all for your support, you have been truly awesome.

✌️ & ❤️

08/04/2025

How dooos people on this fine Tuesday afternoon?

Following up from my last post, this Jazz / T style inspired crossover with a touch of the MAL treatment is finished and looking for a loving owner to take good care of it!

It is a one-off kind of prototype for a model that I have wanted to do for a while now, with this one I have prototyped the control and scratch plates. It's a T-master inspired build but I wanted the switch in the usual JM positioning rather than the TC position on the control plate. This model is going to be called the 'MAL Newton'

Again like the last prototype I am letting this one go for an absolute steal!!!! But the specs are higher on this build so not as much as a steal as the last one.

A quick run through of the specs....

*Alder body
*Maple neck
*Rosewood control plate
*Vintage style tuners
*3 saddle ashtray bridge
*Irongear pickups, P90 neck / switchable T-style bridge
*3 way toggle selector switch
*2 way mini switch to select from vintage and modern output for the bridge pickup
*Master volume
*Bridge tone control.. not contected to neck pickup, this allows you to dial in your tone on the amp to suit the neck pickup and adjust the tone as you see fit on the bridge pickup through the guitar.
*25.5" scale length
*9.5" fingerboard radius
*Vintage C neck profile
*Sonic blue
*Nitrocellulose satin finish.

As this is a prototype the finish has some very minor imperfections
that aren't really that noticeable at all, but it is a prototype so it is a quick job.... but still a real nice guitar that sounds and plays great.

Only after £650 for this one... grab this bargain because the non prototype production builds are going to be over twice this price.

Give me a holler if you want to take this beauty home!

**I prefer buyers to collect, but postage can be arranged but you'll need to purchase a hardcase (£95) from myself to send it securely in, and postage in the UK is roughly £30 - £40... To be honest we are a small island and it would probably just be cheaper for you to take a trip over to collect in person.

***Potential buyers are welcome to visit me to try out the guitar before they commit to a purchase.

All sales are final.

02/04/2025

Just finished wiring up this stunner, still on the bench ready to be strung and set up.

It's looking for a home, hit me up if you're interested... After around £650 for this one.

Jazz/Tele inspired guitar with my own touch.

*Alder body
*Maple neck
*Rosewood control plate
*25" scale length
*9.5" fingerboard radius
*vintage slim style rounded C neck profile.
*Bone nut
*Nickel alloy fretwire, medium gauge
*Irongear pickups
*Master volume
*Bridge pickup tone control
*3-way pickup selector toggle switch
*2-way switch connected to bridge pickup to switch from vintage to modern (hotter) voicing.
*Satin finish (Nitrocellulose)
Colour: Sonic blue

28/03/2025

****NOW SOLD, NOW SOLD*****

Morning all you wonderous peepz.......... how's this wonderful Friday treating ya'll....

Finished this little beauty recently.

This is a prototype, even though I have done this T-style guitar before under the name 'Salopian'... I thought that I should try a prototype that features a 3x3 headstock design.

I am currently naming this particular model the 'Floresiensis'

This is what I came up with, although I think that future non prototype builds the scratchplate will be a different take, and the control will be different too with the switch placed up top in similar positioning to LP guitars.

The main purpose of this prototype was to try out the 3x3 headstock, and experiment with a very lightweight body wood... for which I used Paulownia.. which is extremely lightweight... similar too Basswood or Obeche.

The neck and fretboard are regular good old Maple.

Hardwrare and electronics are as follows...

*Vintage ashtray six saddle bridge
*Modern large buttoned machine heads
*Standard T-style scratchplate
*Artec T-style single coil pickup (modern voicing)
*Standard T-style control plate
*Bell shape black speed k***s
*Alpha 250k pots

Finished in my 'Midnight blue burst' satin mist nitrocellulose.

Set up in standard tuning using Rotosound Yellows (10s)

And it is up for grabs too, at the very reasonable price of only £360... yes £360 that's not a typing error £360 only... why such a low price?? Because it is a prototype and some of the parts are from other guitars... but the neck and body.. that's all made by myself so you are getting one of my guitars.

The first one to come to me with £360 bags it!

I would prefer collection from the buyer, but if you want postage we will have to work out postage and packaging costs as well as the purchase of a suitable hardcase from me to send it in... if you drive it would probably just be less money for you to take a trip out to collect it though.

Finally it is a super lightweight guitar, so if you do buy this and you spend time playing standing, I would recommend a strap that has some texture like a suede strap so that it grips over your shoulder to reduce any neck dive.

23/03/2025

Hey all you legends.....

Custom MAL Darwin.

This was one that I built last year, and the customer was very happy with the result. The challenge with this one was to make it suitable for choppy riffs for Soul / Funk /RnB styles, so the pickups needed to be quite jangly and Strat like, whilst retaining the look of a humbucker guitar.
The exceptionally talented Matt from House Of Tone Pickups did an absolutely immense job with these.
The bridge pickup is House Of Tones hybrid bucker, which is I think essentially a humbucker but the one coil/bobbin use individual magnetic slugs like a typical single uses, and the other coil uses bolts for the pole pieces which are magnetised with the usual bar magnet which is the typical method for a humbucker pickup. So it is literally half and half. The idea is that it works as a humbucker yet when in split mode it is quite literally a single coil true to Fender type pickups. This particular Hybrid bucker has been voiced to sound jangly like a single coil but with the noise reduction of a humbucker when in humbucker mode, but voiced like a 60s single coil bridge pickup when in single coil mode.
The neck pickup, is House of Tones Red house P94 pickup voiced to sound like a 60s single coil neck pickup to give nice Hendrixy bluesy yet jangly vibes.

Here are the overall specs:

*Body: Poplar with Ash top
*Neck: Roasted AA grade maple
*Fingerboard: Pau Ferro with ebony binding
*Headstock facia: African Ebony
*Control plate: African Ebony
*Construction: Bolt-on neck
*Scale length: 25"
*Fingerboard radius: 9.5" - 12" compound radius
*Fretwire: Jescar NIS 47095 medium/jumbo gauge
*Nut: GraphTech Tusq XL
*Inlays: 4mm Gold MOP dots
*Bridge: Schaller GmbH 3D top loading hardtail
*Tuners: Schaller GmbH M6 locking with ebony buttons
*Strap buttons: Schaller GmbH strap locks
*Pickups: House Of Tone Pickups Custom voiced (60s strat) Hybrid bucker bridge / Red house Neck
*Electronics: CTS pots, Orange drop capacitor, vintage cloth and wax .22awg wiring, fully grounded and shielded control cavity
*Finish: Tomato Orange burst, Satin mist nitrocellulose.

23/03/2025

Hey everyone how's things?

So... I know it has been while, I am sorry for that but in my defence I have had quite a bit to deal with in my personal life. I am however slowly getting back to it.

Anyway I did build a few guitars last year (2024) and thought that it is high time that I shared a couple of pictures of them.

Individual posts on each guitar to follow with specs.

Guitar #1 Classic type double cut, bespoke request for a long standing client

Guitar #2 Custom ordered MAL Darwin (I love it when someone wants a Darwin)

18/01/2024

Just had a charming fellow from Ireland call me up. I admit I did struggle with the accent a little and I politely told him that. Turns out he wanted me to give him instructions over the phone for how he would make a guitar body with a Dewalt router. I politely informed him that I haven't really got the time to give someone tuition over the phone, at which point he told me 'F@*k off'... I was going to offer to send him links to some useful online resources if would send me an email.. but no he told be to 'F@*k off' before I got chance to finish. Well at least now I can tick being told to F@*k off by an Irish man off of my bucket list!
I'm a glass half full kinda guy! 😎

14/07/2023