He may only have gone out on his own in 2004, but Paul Hancox has wasted no time establishing Ethos guitars as a custom build 'brand'. Indeed only last May Guitarist magazine, when comparing an Ethos Washington (pictured left), one of Paul's standard hand crafted 'off-the-peg' numbers, with more expensive guitars, gave a very favourable review of the model, which retails at around £1550 and can be further customised at the buyer's request.

What prompted Paul to build guitars was his passion for the instrument, but a chance meeting with American singer/songwriter Christene Ledoux, who was looking for someone to build her a guitar, was the catalyst to launching Ethos in its own right. And so the 'Pumpkin' series was born.

Paul with an 'Aphrodite' model and on the right, the 'Pumpkin'

Paul uses a range of woods for the neck and body of his guitars, dependent on what sound the customer is looking for, but as you would expect they range from the favourite maples and mahoganys, to walnut and exotic timbers from around the world.