TAKING OFF

With new staff, in-house pickups and the continuing success of the Dakota, there's plenty to discuss. We grab Neil Ivison for a quick chat

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We last caught up with Neil just over 18 months ago and quite a lot has changed and evolved since then. Fundamentally, Ivison is now making its own pickups in-house, quite an undertaking for such a small operation. Neil explains: “Basically, I took on Paul Cross to help me build the guitars and he wound his own pickups, so it made sense – if we now had someone on staff who can wind pickups – to make our own.

“For most guitar makers, if you buy in a pickup set, they cost so they'll go on the guitar. But now we have this little rehearsal room right next to the workshop where we have my touring gear all set up, so we can take a guitar in there and put some pickups in, and if we feel for that piece of wood the pickup needs a bit more zing or maybe the opposite, this one's a little top heavy, we can swap them for another set. Paul can literally go and wind a new set to more suit the guitar. It does make it a bit more long-winded, but we just feel the guitars are going out sounding their optimum, really.”