About Me

I've been fascinated by acoustic guitars for as long as I can remember, though my route into lutherie wasn't entirely straightforward. I originally studied Jewellery and Silversmithing at Birmingham City University, but the pull of instrument making proved too strong to ignore. In 2019 I enrolled at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, where I completed a Foundation Degree in the Historic Craft Practice of Musical Instruments under the tutelage of Shem Mackey and Dr Nick Pyall.

After graduating I set up my workshop here in Brighton, my hometown, before spending time working alongside Bristol-based luthier Alex Bishop, an experience that further shaped my approach to the craft. Hugh Barlow-Brown Guitars has been operating since 2022 and is based at the Quebec Workshops.

My building is influenced by a deep admiration for makers like Stefan Sobell and NK Forster, as well as the aesthetic elegance of 19th century Martin guitars. Those early instruments have a visual refinement that I find endlessly inspiring, even if tonally the later developments in guitar building have taken things so much further. My time at West Dean also gave me a great appreciation for Baroque-era instrument making, the craft and ornamentation of that period has quietly informed my own aesthetic sensibility. Growing up, I was often frustrated by the limitations of factory-made acoustic guitars, and that frustration is really what drives me. Every guitar I build is an attempt to make something that sounds and plays exactly as it should, with the same care given to how it looks as to how it sounds.

I'm a guitarist and banjo player myself, with a particular love of folk music, which means I approach every instrument, whether I'm building or repairing it, as a player first.