About Me

Hi, I’m Doug!

I’m a classically trained violinist, and I started playing when I was four, since when I’ve also learned the viola, piano and accordion.

My whole life I have been performing and having to clean and maintain my own instruments and equipment, as well as helping others – it’s an essential part of being a musician and something that I’ve always taken a lot of pride in.

In 2020 I was working as a chef, so when lockdown hit I lost my job and was stuck in the house full time. I threw myself into my music and was practising for 6 – 8 hours a day on various instruments, which got mixed reactions from my housemates!

One of them was a bassist, and suggested that I pick up the bass guitar as it could be played through headphones…

I did as she suggested, and within days I was in love with the instrument, but something felt slightly off about it. The poor thing belonged to a stereotypical rock musician and hadn’t had a kind word in years.

The strings were unravelling, the action was high enough to drive a bus under and the hardware was rusting – this needed fixing.

Being unemployed I set about restoring the bass to its original glory, which took a lot of time and a lot of learning, but once it was refurbished to my satisfaction it was almost unrecognisable in how it played and sounded.

Since then, I’ve restored and modified dozens of instruments to prepare them for a wide range of styles, and am excited to work on many more!