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John Birch - English Luthier

John Birch was an English luthier mainly known for his electric guitars. Some of his customers included Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, Brian May of Queen, Dave Hill of Slade, Gary Glitter, and Roy Orbison.

The Company's Beginnings

John Birch was born in Nottingham, West Bridgford in 1926. He first got involved in guitar building as a young RAF officer based in the South Pacific Islands in WW2. While stationed there, he formed a band called "The Wykki Islanders," and as supplies of instruments were hard to find, they built them out of RAF parts.

After the war was over, he came back to Nottingham and started a business modifying existing guitars. Beginning in earnest in the 1960's, he mostly worked with Gibsons, an example of which is the white Gibson SG Junior Leslie West of Mountain gave to Tony Iommi (the guitar is currently owned by Greg Dorsett of Rock Stars Guitars). After seeing the problems with guitars that were coming through his shop, such as broken necks, limited sustain, low powered yet high noise pickups and the like, he decided to start making his own guitars and guitar parts.

Birch started to advertise his parts, pickups, and guitar customization in a magazine called Beat International in the late 1960's. John Diggins saw one of these ads and showed one of his custom guitars to John Birch. Diggins was offered a job and became part of Birch's workshop. Arthur Baker came in as a production manager, breaking down the various jobs around the shop to create an assembly line like process. Birch was mainly in charge of electronics and pickup making while Diggins mostly took care of woodworking.

The very first guitars that were made completely in shop were SG or Les Paul shaped, featured 24 fret fingerboards, and a black or white finish. At first, the fingerboards were Brazilian Rosewood, but eventually the expenisive and rare Brazilian Rosewood was replaced with more plentiful and cheap Maple fingerboards.

Customers

Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath came to Birch's shop after having his ideas rejected by the major guitar manufacturers of the time, such as Gibson and Fender. Iommi was looking for someone to make him a guitar with a 24 fret fingerboard and high power/low noise pickups. Iommi's red Gibson SG Special received some modification in the form of a re-covered Gibson P-90 in the bridge position and John Birch's own Simplux in the neck position. This guitar is in the Times Square Hard Rock Cafe. In 1975, Birch built Iommi his black 24-fret, cross inlay SG Special. This was the main guitar used on the albums Technical Ecstasy, Never Say Die, Heaven and Hell, and Mob Rules. This guitar is now in the Miami Hard Rock Cafe. Around the same time Birch's SG was built, John Diggins also built Iommi's Jaydee SG, which features a custom wound pickup by Diggins in the bridge position and a standard Biflux in the neck position. The guitar also has peeled and cracked paint due to a rushed finish job. During the Cross Purposes tour, the guitar was left in a hot car on a date in Brazil, and the finish bubbled and cracked due to the heat. This guitar was first used for some overdubbing on Heaven and Hell, but quickly became Iommi's main guitar. Birch also built for Tony a guitar which featured the ability to remove and replace pickups for more tonal options. The pickups plugged through the back into the normal slots but had quick connectors that allowed them to be pulled and replaced easily, thus not requiring any soldering. This made it convenient so that one guitar could be used that produced many different sounds. Geezer Butler also had some basses made by Birch, one of which can be seen in the music video for "A Hard Road."

Another of Birch's famous customers was Brian May of Queen. Brian wanted a copy of his Red Special to use as a backup guitar, so he asked John to make him what would come to be referred to as the "Yellow Special." This is the guitar that was used on several videos from the album News of the World and the video for "We Will Rock You." May never liked the Yellow Special's sound or feel. The construction of the Birch guitar and his original Red Special are very different. May's Red Special is constructed of mahogany and oak with a frictionless roller bridge, whereas the Birch guitar used all maple construction with an ebony fingerboard, as well as a non-roller bridge which meant tuning was unstable. At a Chicago gig in the early eighties, he broke some strings on the Red Special. After using the Birch guitar for a few minutes, he tossed it offstage out of frustration, but no one was there to catch it. The guitar was smashed to pieces. Fortunately, all the pieces were saved, and the remains can be seen at Brian May's site (link at bottom). Until a few years ago, John Birch still offered a copy of the guitar featuring Dimarzio's Brian May pickups, but the model has been discontinued.

Roy Orbison also ordered a guitar from Birch. In 1975, Orbison's guitarist, Allen Panter was having problems with his Les Paul. Orbison was also having difficulty with his Ovation, and needed it to be repaired. Orbison was satisfied with the work done, and decided to have a custom guitar built. Orbison, Birch, and Birch employee John Diggins all had discussions on what Roy would like to have built. The Eagle guitar was born, and it can be seen at Jaydee's website (link at bottom).

Dave Hill of Slade has used John Birch guitars since the mid seventies. Among the many modified Gibsons and John Birch originals Hill used throughout the 1970's and 1980's were a J2 style maple guitar featuring Magnum pickups and, of course, the famous Super Yob guitar, which is styled after a Sci-Fi ray gun. Hill has said he didn't really like using the Super Yob due to its neck heavy nature, it's poor sound, and terribly high action. Hill then had a copy built for him by Framus. Recently, the new John Birch company released a 50 guitar run of the new version that features LED lights in the neck inlays.

The Glitter Band's glitter covered star shaped guitar was built, according to Gerry Shephard, by John Birch in mid-1975 for the release of the Glitter Band's "Love in the Sun. He also repaired Glitter's old gold colored star guitar, which had been damaged at a show by some overzealous fans, while being used by Shephard. The cost of the new guitar, again, according to Shephard, cost £400. The guitar received more damage over the years, but was fully repaired in 1996 by Ray Cooper. The guitar was used mostly by Gerry Shephard, and retired with him in 2002.

Birch also built the Rook guitar for Rook Music, which can be seen, along with Framus's copy of the Super Yob, in Tony Bacon's The Ultimate Guitar Book.

The Guitars

John Birch built many styles such as Flying V's, SG's, J1's and J2's, Strats and Les Pauls. He even built Rickenbacker 4000 style basses and doublenecks. Also available was a teardrop shaped guitar, much like the Vox teardrop guitar. Also available, of course, were custom shapes that could go as wild as the customer's imagination.

The guitars also had features that were uncommon for the time, but are now nearly universal, such as all maple neck-through construction, as well as his high gain, low noise pickups and stainless steel bridges. His truss rods went into a tube-like channel, and steel rods went down to the seventh fret for extra security from headstock breakage.

The Pickups

John Birch's guitar pickups had a unique construction compared to other pickups of the time. Normally, pickups use Alnico or Ceramic magnets, occasionally Samarium-Cobalt, as in Bill Lawrence's Fender SCN pickups, or even Neodymium, as in Q-Tuner's bass pickups. Birch used Cobalt Steel magnets, oversized to make up for their relative weakness as compared to Alnico. He also used much finer copper wire than most other pickups because finer wire has more resistance, which results in a more powerful sound. Finer than normal wire also accentuates high frequencies, though fine wire can have a "thin" sound if not compensated for in other ways, such as higher resistance, shorter coils, or more metal in the magnetic field to raise inductance. Also, he potted the pickups in black epoxy to fight microphonic feedback, which results from the copper wire in the pickup vibrating. The epoxy keeps the wire from moving. The covers to the pickups were stainless steel, which is non-magnetic and therefore won't cause eddy currents. Eddy currents will oppose the magnetic field of a pickup, causing it to sound weaker. Finally, Birch used a row of balance screws as polepieces to create a broader area for the pickup to sense the vibrating field. With Fender single coils or Gibson humbuckers, the strings each have an individual pole for sensing the string. However, if the player bends a string, that string can move over an area where there is no pole, and the sound will get weaker.

Here's a list of the pickups from the John Birch catalog in the late 1970's:

SIMPLUX-Single coil intended to replace the old black covered Gibson type fitted to Juniors and some SG’s, but having the continuous row of balance screws centrally. 30 Hz-14,000 Hz. Standard Impedance.

HYPERFLUX-Double row of balance screws to accept impulses from string vibration over a wider area. 30 Hz-13,500 Hz. Standard impedance and long sustain due to high sensitivity.

SUPERFLUX “G”-Single row of balance screws to accept impulses from string vibration over a narrow area to emphasize either treble or bass depending on location. 30 Hz-13,500 Hz. Standard impedance with long sustain due to high sensitivity.

SUPERFLUX “B”-Single row of balance screws to accept impulses from string vibration over a narrow area to emphasize either treble or bass depending on location. 30 Hz-25,000 Hz. Approximately half standard impedance with long sustain due to high sensitivity.

SUPERFLUX “L”-Single row of balance screws to accept impulses from string vibration over a narrow area to emphasize either treble or bass depending on location. 30 Hz-15,000 Hz. Standard impedance with long sustain due to high sensitivity.

SUPERFLUX “M”-Single row of balance screws to accept impulses from string vibration over a narrow area to emphasize either treble or bass depending on location. Double the number of turns compared with the Hyperflux and Superflux, therefore it has double the output and double the impedance frequency response is slightly lower, 30 Hz-8,000 Hz tailing off.

BIFLUX-Double wound parallel connected coils to reduce impedance while retaining long sustain due to high sensitivity. 30 Hz-20,000 Hz. Approximately half standard impedance.

MAGNUM-Double row of balance screws to accept impulses from string vibration over a wide area. Double the number of turns compared with the Hyperflux and Superflux, therefore it has double the output and double the impedance. Frequency response is slightly lower, 30 Hz-8,000 Hz tailing off. This is the most powerful pickup ever made to really clobber the amplifier.

MAGNUM “L”-Approximately half the impedance of Magnum to extend the frequency range to 15,000 Hz.

MULTIFLUX-The most revolutionary pickup ever devised. It contains FOUR coils forming a STEREO unit within a standard case, all four ends of the coils being brought out to provide the maximum combinations. Two of these pickups when linked with the complex switching will give up to TWENTY-SIX different tones in Stereo, Mono, Anti-phase or QUADRAPHONIC. Such a range of effects is of infinite benefit for studio work where tonal changes can be made without changing over instruments. The number of combinations can be limited by individual requirements to avoid over-complication.

The guitars also featured unique switching options, having up to seven control knobs for a single neck guitar. With two Multiflux pickups, there were 22 switching options available, including stereo, in and out of phase, mono, and with the pickups acting as single units. The Multiflux pickups were the first commercial pickups to use two humbucking pickups in one case. Dimarzio's Multibucker is a more recent take on this idea. The Multibucker has four side by side coils, as opposed to the Multiflux's two stacked coils. The Multiflux is a rather rare pickup, with not too many people having ordered it. It carried a higher price tag than the other pickups in the range and the switching options could become rather confusing.

If the Multiflux pickups did not offer enough flexibility, one could pay an extra £600 and get a guitar with removable pickups to offer an even greater range of tonal options. This was originally designed in collaboration with Tony Iommi for studio use.

John Diggins recalls the beginning of the interchangeable pickup system, "The interchangeable pick-up idea came from Tony [Iommi]. The pick-up routes went all the way through the body, with copper contact points along one edge of the pick-up route situated near the back of the instrument. The pick-ups were assembled on a plinth, pre adjusted for height. The pick-up surrounds were fitted to the front of the instrument so that when the modules were slotted in from the back they engaged into the surround at the correct height. The pick-ups were held in place with sprung loaded clips that located into a vee slot routed into the side of the pick-up cavity. When in place, the pick-up housing was flush with the back of the instrument. Contacts on the pick-ups were also sprung loaded and made contact with the adjacent copper points in the pick-up cavity."

In an interview, Tony Iommi was asked if he still had the patent to the interchangeable pickup system he helped to develop: "I did years ago, but I probably lost it now. That was about 28 years ago. I had just done it for my own interest. If it was successful I knew people would rip it off."

Several guitar manufacturers now make guitars with interchangeable pickup systems, such as Mercurio Guitars and Ramtrak Guitars.

There are only two John Birch interchangeable pickup guitars known to exist. One is currently owned by Greg Dorset of Rock Stars Guitars, the other is owned by Nicky Panicci of David Bowie and USA Band Girls School. The one in possession of Panicci is the one featured in the original John Birch catalog.

The End and Rebirth of John Birch Guitars

In the late 1970's, copies from Japan and Korea began to sell well in Britain and America. Some were very high quality for a low price, such as Yamaha's SG2000. Since the average person could have just about any guitar style he could want, and for a lower price than Birch's hand made guitars, Birch's guitar sales had begun to drop significantly by the early 1980's. Birch decided in the late 80's to get out of directly building guitars. John Diggins took over in his place.

In 1993, John Carling approached John Birch with intentions to buy Birch's last remaining J1. Instead, he and Birch became partners in restarting the company. They released new products, such as the Full Range pickups and the MIDI guitar controllers, new versions of the old pickups in standard humbucker size, and a range of guitars that used the most popular body styles of the 70's and 80's.

John Birch died on November 6, 2000 at the age of 74. John Carling decided to continue with the company.

The New John Birch Company

John Birch Guitars continues to make guitars under the direction of Birch's business partner, John Carling. Their new line line includes J1's, J2's, Strats, Les Pauls, and SG's. They also make a new version of the SG Special based on the original as played by Tony Iommi, complete with cross inlays and Magnum 2 pickups. There is a range of basses as well, in SG and Rickenbacker 4000 styles. Birch's lower end import Eaton range of guitars was started after John Birch died and was designed, in John Carling's words, to "offer a wider range of products and retain the JB Professional line." Many guitar companies have taken this route, such as Paul Reed Smith guitars, in order to fund the higher quality but lower volume custom guitars. There is also a high end metal front Eaton range, much like Tony Zemaitis' guitars, that include Les Paul and Telecaster styles.

Several models are available with LED lights in the fingerboard inlays. The LED system as used in the SY2 and SG 2002 runs from fibre optic feeds from a single light source in the base of the neck.

John Carling had this to say about the new John Birch Guitars, "The 1993 to 2000 period put the guitar business on the map, and it was a period of looking to improve on the original guitars and pickups. This was well underway when John died. His request was for me to carry on the business as by now [I] had learned everything about [the] guitars. As an ex pro musician and technician I have continued to improve the present products and services," and, "we have in the planning stage a John Birch Centre which will include Archive exhibition area, workshop and retail sections."

Jaydee

John Diggins also continues to make guitars. He has made several more for Tony Iommi, including two seven string SG's. Diggins is also well known for his Supernatural basses as used by Mark King. He has a wide variety of styles, including his Iommi model SG, the Hooligan superstrat, several jazz guitars, multi-string basses, as well as custom work to the customer's specifications.

Right now, Diggins is making a new copy of Tony Iommi's "Old Boy," the original SG made for Iommi in the mid seventies. This will be an exact copy for Tony, including the P-90 sized humbuckers made by John Birch until the 1990's, when the new standard humbucker sized line was released.