The focus of my website has been rather single-minded in the last couple of weeks, centring on the guitar that I built (well, nearly!). Today, though, it’s back to my regular(ish) feature about UK luthiers, and I’m looking at Jaydee Custom Guitars from Birmingham.
Jaydee is John Diggins, who started the firm in 1977 after working for another luthier, John Birch (the company still exists although Birch passed away in 2000). His son also currently works with him, and they make lead guitars and bass guitars. Jaydee has made guitars for some very big names, including Tony Iommi, Mark King and Roy Orbison, and toured with Black Sabbath as Iommi’s guitar tech in 1975.
Jaydee Custom Guitars tends to specialise in bass guitars, partly because of the association with Mark King. They sell Tony Iommi SG models as well as other SG-type guitars and two main series of bass guitar models.
