Over the course of the last few months, I have filmed Doug working on a variety of instruments.

These videos show Dougs incredible skill during the making of several guitars.

Click on each image to view the video on www.youtube.com.

Click here for 'old' gallery images.

Quality components

I believe Shaller are making some of the best quality instrument parts available today.

When a customer specifies a tremolo on their custom build, you can not get better than Shaller tremolos.

Doug can be seen fitting the fret wire to a custom twin neck he's been commissioned to build. Everything is made by hand. As Doug would say "Made by hand, because we don't know how to use the machines...!"

Doug Wilkes can be seen here talking about some of the customers he has had over the years. Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Tim Renwick, Big Country, Sting, Steve Vai, Wang Chung, Bananarama, Climax Blues band, Gordon Rowley from Nighthawk and Crosby Stills Nash and Young

Doug Wilkes can be seen here routing out the wood for the pearl inlay on a custom 'Rex Bogue Double Rainbow' twin neck commission.

See how Doug has cut out the inlay by hand, then glued to the fret board prior to cutting the fret board to inlay the pearl. Doug uses 'kiddie' glue to aid the precise cutting of the fret board.

The whole process of drawing the design, cutting the inlay by hand and then shaping with a file, routing the fret board ready for the pearl inlay to be glued into the fret board takes many, many, many hours of work. But the results are worth it..

Doug Wilkes can be seen here working on the neck inlay on a custom 'Rex Bogue Double Rainbow' twin neck commission.

Doug initially made a drawing of the design on tracing paper in a tree style that would be similar to Rexs original, although Dougs design is all his own work.

Next he cut the inlay pieces by hand and now can be seen carefully filing all the pieces by hand to give them the desired shape and feel. After the shape is achieved, Doug carefully sticks each piece to the neck with kiddy glue so that he can then later cut the fret board allowing him to place the inlay.

Doug Wilkes is seen here talking about a 1930s Maccaferri acoustic guitar that he has been commission to repair. The guitar was trod on and Doug has had to totally re-create the top of the guitar.

This video shows Dougs incredible understanding on how to seamlessly repair a damaged instrument to a level that is totally undetectable and sympathetic to the origin of the instrument. Quite often the repaired section of the damaged instrument is often stronger than when it was originally made.

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