Master Maker

While international trade is causing concerns, we look to the York-based guitar maker to cut to the chase. Maybe the best guitars out there are under our noses...

- Dave Burrluck

If you think you've seen this guitar before, you're almost right! The style goes back to 2020 and was called the Carey Standard - a more utilitarian take on PJD’s then top-line Carey Elite and the 10th Anniversary Carey Custom. As we've documented in previous reviews, it’s been a rocky ride since then for the now 15-year-old brand, not least battling through the pandemic and a failed guitarmaking hub, UKGB.

But since 2023's reboot, a more stable course has emerged with a new factory and the very production-aimed Standard Series (which includes the Carey, St John offset, original T-style York, classic S-style Woodford and original offset Valhalla models), as well as the newly formed Custom Shop, which produces the higher-end Elite models, customer one-offs and our Carey Classic.

This new model is based on that early Carey Standard we reviewed back in issue 465; PJD co-owner Leigh Dovey believes it was the first one he made. That guitar has been on a bit of a long Longtermers test here at Guitarist. It was this writer’s lockdown buddy that I eventually got to gig and I’ve barely used anything else since (slide guitars excepted) for a fair number of 'no idea what we're going to play' pub gigs, the occasional street party and plenty of recordings and practice.

Pulling the new guitar out of its PJD-logo'd Hiscox case it's clearly a close cousin but not exactly a 'reissue'. That's not the point. Instead, the original-style Carey has grown up a bit and employs many of the tweaks and subtle improvements that PJD used at both its Standard and Custom Shop levels. As PJD's Custom Shop luthier, Josh Parkin, comments: “We tried to keep the essence of the guitar the same as the old specs but with all the niceties and details we've been improving on over the last few years.”