February 2024.

Well, you can't say I didn't try.  But the bottom line is that in the ruins of this post-Covid world, doing one-off guitar builds using Chinese factories and Custom shop finishing is not sustainable. There is no money in that business model. 80% of the cost to make one guitar this way is 1) getting it made at the factory as a one-off, 2) the shipping to Australia, and 3) the custom shop set up. A low volume business cannot survive on 20% "profit." And if I priced them properly, perception will be that they are "too expensive." That's a No-Win Scenario. Additionally, the current costs of shipping, domestically and international have become ridiculous. The Hybrid Series is discontinued from 2024.

Gaskell Guitars goes back to being full Custom Shop. 100% made in Australia. Prices from AU$ 5000. 

It is just not the same world today as we used to live in. Post-COVID, we are living in the ashes of a deliberately collapsed Society. Thank you to Klaus Schwab and his evil, clique of perverted, psychotic billionaire accomplices, the architects of the SCAMdemic. So, whereto from here?

I will be advertising the guitars I have in stock but they will be the last of them. Webpage to go up soon. 

I sincerely want to thank everyone's support in 2023. Those of you who got themselves a guitar in 2023 got some nice guitars. It was a pleasure dealing with you all. Enjoy them.  Stay well. Stay safe. Play guitar! Communicate. Maintain your personal integrity. Do well!



19 December 2023

It's been a good year for Gaskell Guitars, hardly sustainable (hence why I have a "job" too) but still worth it, even if just emotionally. There really is NOT a lot of money to be made in guitars, especially when chances of selling one guitar is 1:200 to start with. And the other thing is that post-COVID everything is just crazy expensive, especially shipping.  Nevertheless Christmas is a little busy and (as is becoming usual) I am behind in everything. Charles was off sick for the last few days so that has put me days behind in schedule. 

I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I have done a lot of research into other guitar brands in the last 3 or 4 months and I plan to add some new Gaskell models in 2024. I might reintroduce a couple of the Legacy Series that I chose not to do again when I reopened in January of this year.  

The Relic Series is going to go. No one was interested in that.​

I am currently working out the economics of establishing a new "PRO SERIES" which will be about 70% custom shop input 30% factory input. More money, but more choices. I intend on really looking into this thoroughly. 



28 November, 2023

Effective immediately I will no longer advocate or sell Schaller products. This is the outcome of a surprisingly bad experience and unresolved dispute that ended on a very bad note. Something as simple as a one-word answer to a simple question would have resolved. Very unprofessional and very unexpected. If you want Schaller upgrades you are free to supply your own.  


22 September 2023. Update on production.

Well, I am HAPPY to say that most customer orders are in! I have preliminarily inspected them and apart from the factory putting on right handed knobs (never would have lost that bet!) they are good. We have the Custom Shop work to do on them next and I will be contacting those of you who are not in Australia and have shipping costs still to work out in the next week or two. I am quite pleased with these guitars. Having made Custom guitars fully in-house here in Australia, using the best of the best, I do need to, in my own mind, "lower expectations" in some areas. Mass produced and Custom Shop are very different operations. A $1000 guitar is not a $5000 guitar. I have used several factories to make this current run and all are excellent for the price point. I pay a third more for each guitar than any other brand that buys in quantity for the privilege of doing custom orders on a small scale. Factories don't like that. In fact, in the process of finding factories that would make left handed Gaskells, most simply said "no." Lefty guitarists are 1 in 200 and factory manufacturing is all about quantity and output. That's another thing. I had to wait a long time for these. Lefty orders are NOT their priority. I am somewhat at their mercy. Thank you for your patience.

I didn't plan on doing this initially but I also had a few Firestarters built for "stock." I have two very beautiful transparent wine guitars with gold hardware - absolutely gorgeous, and one is a wine-burst with chrome hardware. Also transparent so you can still see the very nice mahogany. Also a "spare" Pelham Blue Firestarter, a blue Allrounder FR, and a Headless in Signal Red. All guitars are very light weight which means the wood is high quality. No guitar is over 3kg. I will be in touch with you all in the next few days.