THE NEXT STAGE

Ciaran McNally learned his craft at Lowden and helped take Atkin to greater heights. Now building guitars under his own name, he explains how he used lockdown to design a touring acoustic for Irish virtuoso Shane Hennessy

- Jamie Dickson

There are many fine acoustic luthiers out there – but you’d be hard-pressed to find many who have the breadth of contrasting experience that Armagh-based guitar maker Ciaran McNally possesses. A protegé of George Lowden and then a key member of the Atkin Guitars team, Ciaran has worked on, by his estimate, several thousand guitars over the years, most of which were finely crafted, high-end instruments. But it all started out much more simply, he recalls: “I started making kits when I was 15/16 years old, and that was just on the kitchen table at home…

“The story goes that I wrecked the kitchen table so much that my mum had to refinish it,” he continues. “She was better at finishing than I was back then [laughs]. So they were just parts casters that you put together, but that naturally progressed to where I thought, ‘Well, I’m not sure I really want to buy the parts anymore, I really want to make them.’

“So I went to a college in Belfast that did an evening course in instrument-making run by an ex-Avalon luthier. People did make various instruments there, though the vast majority of them were acoustic steel-strings. But I went with the intention of making a Les Paul copy. The tutor, Sam, told me, ‘Most people make acoustics and, if you want, you could do an acoustic and you’d probably find a lot of the skills are transferable. You could probably even make an electric at the same time or in your own time.’

“So I started on an acoustic. I was quite into Eric Clapton at the time, so I did a copy of a triple-0 Martin. And I’ve never made an electric guitar since! I really just got totally hooked.”