Roger Giffin, one of the best known British guitar makers, is moving to the United States to work for Gibson. Giffin Guitars will remain at their Richmond, Surrey address, but Roger will no longer be involved — running the UK Giffin business will be Stuart Monks, who's been working with Roger for the last four months.

Roger's made guitars for all the big names — recently Eric Clapton, Genesis, Pink Floyd, The Cult and Tears For Fears have all benefited from Giffin fretwork, as have most other stars you care to mention.

"But I've been toying with the idea of working in the States for four years," Roger told Making Music. Why? "Mainly because I'm fed up with banging my head against the wall in this country. A good reputation doesn't pay the bills. Being mercenary about it, I want to make money out of making guitars.

"Despite what they might tell you, there's no guitar maker working in this country who's making money out of the custom-built instrument side of their business. It's just a limited market, and I've had enough," said the evidently bitter Mr Giffin.

Roger met with Gibson's special projects people at a US trade show in the summer "and they more or less offered me a job on the spot. I know Gibson have been through some bad patches, but now they seem better, and I think they need some new blood and new designs. That's what I'll be doing."

Gibson USA is based in Nashville and Los Angeles — Roger will be installed at new, larger premises in LA where Gibson will set up a 'custom workshop' for the building of one-off guitars, working prototypes, limited runs, and special instruments for endorsees. "I'll be in charge of that workshop," Roger said, "and if it works out as well as I hope, I'll be very happy. All I've got to do now is convince Gibson to change their name," he laughed.