Doug Wilkes Guitars Fender Jazz redone

[funkgod]

Hello All, just thought i would give a shout out to to the amazing talents of Doug wilkes.

very little is known about dougs work by the most, but is in the more pro level shell we say, circles, doug is based in KEEL just off the M6

doug has made guitars and basses for the likes of dave gilmour and sting and is a true custom builder of guitars and basses in that he does not have a template of one or two designs with a few options, doug will build you ANYTHING no matter how bizar, want a half mandolin half strat with a harp over the top doug will make it.

He has been doing his thing for a loooong time now and has come up with some amazing designs, i remember in the late 80s a friend having a half fretted half fretless stick bass with slap plates at the begining of the neck to save the strings chewing up the wood, a great design, i was round his last night picking up a bass ( more later) where he produced one of these amazing things with a more modern john east preamp in, a really strange unique design ( its one of these i think sting has)

so, my fender jazz fotoflame has on it the most amazing slim 62 neck which i love, but always though the body was a bit light and so not giving the low notes that tight bottom end which i love in my wal and G&Ls so guessing this was down to weight when i went to pick up my G&L he had done i got doug to have a look the fotoflame is starting to peel and is badly cracked on the body so something needed to be done, he  looked at it and said wait there, he came back with a slab of flame maple he had brought back with him from the usa years ago and said iv had this sitting around for a while now just waiting for the right job, and this is it, so a very very very reasonable priced was agreed, and left the jazz with him and my goodfellow to do a laquer crack,

He is just ordering some nice wood from the usa so next in line is a flame maple jazz neck a replica of this 62 to go on the nice body he has made then i will put back together the fotoflame as original and hay presto i get a quality jazz based on the one i like,

just as a side note here when you look on ebay for these fotoflame jazz basses and strats what you will find is loads of fotoflame strat bodies as guitar players have also jumped on to how good the necks are to play and are picking them up just for the necks then getting bodies made, then selling the bodies i think also the pickups on the strats are very good so also kept.

sorry back to the story...I went to pick it up yesterday and here it is, turnaround less than 4 weeks, on the rear is heavy ASH and on the front is not just a veneer ohh no not good enough for doug, but a SLAB of flame maple bookmatched that half the thickness of the body all hand carved to get that rounded arm corner, he coulkd of split the slab into 3 and made 3 tops out of it easy, tried to show this in a pic, what you cant see is the finish its like a piece of glass 🙂 here also is my G&L L2000-E he did, before and after

im really made up with both of them thanks so much doug your a star.

Dougs site... http://wilkesguitars.co.uk/

 

 

Edited May 9, 2021 by funkgod

[oldslapper]

I had a Wilkes P bass. Fab craftsmanship. Definitely under the general populace radar.

[Doddy]

I like Doug, but I find his work can be hit and miss at time. I know guys who have beautiful instruments of his, but then he fitted a new nut to my Jazz Bass and left a gouge in the neck. 

[WAYNESWORLD]

Doug has been the go to guy for as long as I can remember and a lovely bloke to boot.

[White Cloud]

His YouTube videos with Carl are hilarious and really give a good flavour of the man and his work. His builds look fantastic.