Hi, I'm Josh

I started building guitars in 2018 after spending my twenties working in music and my thirties working as a carpenter. I remember realising one day that joining these skills together lead to one outcome - a had to be a guitar builder! Once I built my first instrument, I was completely hooked.

Like most builders, I spent several years making mistakes, learning new skills and gradually figuring out what makes a great guitar. In 2021, I joined Crimson Guitars, Europe's largest guitar building school, where I trained as a guitar building instructor. During my time there I helped students build countless instruments and discovered just how much I enjoyed teaching.

It was also during this period that I developed my first original model, the Indiana. Inspired by the elegant electric guitars of the 1950s, the Indiana brought together everything I'd learned about comfort, resonance, reliability and playability. It remains the flagship of the West Valley range today.

In 2023 I left Crimson and set out on my own. Since then I've divided my time between building guitars, winding pickups, repairing instruments and teaching one-to-one courses in guitar building, maintenance and repair. It's a balance I genuinely love. Some days I'm building a custom guitar, some days I'm repairing a well-loved workhorse, and some days I'm helping somebody build their very first instrument.

Over the years I've built guitars for artists including IDLES, The Vaccines and Alberta Cross, and have worked on instruments for The Stranglers, Gaz Coombes and many others. I've also had the privilege of teaching more than 100 students, from complete beginners to professional guitar technicians.

At the heart of it all is a simple goal: to build beautiful tools for making music. Instruments that inspire their owners, improve with age and become old friends over time.

If you'd like to talk about a guitar, a repair, a course, or just guitars in general, I'd love to hear from you.