Testimonials
"The sound and feel of this bass is nothing short of phenomenal! It's got everything that you'd want in a fretless bass. I love the look of it, I love the feel of it and I love the sound of it and the more I'm getting used to it the more it's giving me. Fantastic workmanship and design! - you may bee able to tell - I like it !!!"
Adrian from Morpeth - owner of the bass
"Robin, you are a genius.
I had always thought that an old P Bass was the benchmark of perfection in a bass guitar I now know that it isn’t. My 60 year old P Bass has done sterling service over the years but your guitar is so far ahead of it. Compared to the P bass the action is so much softer and more delicate, the weight is so much lighter making it more comfortable to play, (we played for 2.5 hrs at our last gig), and the tonal quality that the Bare Knuckles pump out is far superior, it is pure genius. I have also had a closer look at the build quality, quite apart from it’s superior performance and handling, the quality of your workmanship is mind blowing, it is pure perfection. I just love wood and the mix of 3 looks fantastic.
Needless to say I am, absolutely delighted with your achievement."
Paul - Surrey
"So happy with the True Temperament Matriarch 7 string Robin built for me. The quality of the wood (beautiful Mahogany, Poplar top and Maple neck), the aesthetics of the design (lovely curves and cutaways) the attention to detail (intricate binding between wood layers), the spectacular paint job (a shimmer of blue), the quality electronics - no hisses or clicks, and the quality of execution. Simply world-class. Robin even spent late night calls with California to configure the Ilitich noise cancelling coil, and also chasing True Temperament to get me the fingerboard from Texas because of Covid supply issues. When I had the crazy idea for coloured fret markers, Robin was creative - and came up with the embedded lapidary. This is the most beautiful and playable guitar I’ve ever played and I’m so grateful to Robin! Highly recommend."
Julian - Oxforshire
"The bass has arrived... and it's fantastic!
Perfect build, perfect sound, perfect set up. I love it!
It's the first bass I've had that sounds great without any EQ, although it does respond incredibly well to a very slight touch of EQ as well. An action as comfortable as this hasn't been possible on other basses I've had (fret buzz/rattle). It balances really well on a good strap and it's so light and resonant. I'm glad we went with the standard Lindy Fralin pickups. The whole instrument is absolutely flawless.
I wish I'd done this ages ago, instead of wasting money on the s**t that other companies often throw out the factory door! It was well worth the wait."
Stephen - West Yorkshire
"Robin Manton hand built a medium scale (32 inch) Paradigm bass for me in ash with a maple neck. I was allowed to select the pieces of wood and all the specifications to make it exactly the bass of my dreams. The quality of his work is impeccable. His customer service and communications are faultless, which made the whole process a delight. All at a price less than a USA machine made standard P bass.
He build all kinds of 4/5 string basses and 6/7 string guitars, please consider him for your next instrument purchase."
John - Bath
"I ordered a bass from Robin after spending time trying to find a luthier prepared to do what I was looking for - that is, a headless bass built with local/recycled woods with as much tonal variation as possible. After a visit to his workshop to try out a couple of samples, I placed my order. The result is far more impressive than I'd hoped for. Build quality far exceeds anything I've played before, and that includes a number of custom built units - Alembic (yeh, I said it!), Wal Pro, Status bass... I could go on! The tonal quality is superb; even when not plugged in, it provides a sweet sound. Plugged in, there are over twenty different pickup/wiring combinations on this passive guitar, of which I've yet to find an unusable config. The look - it's simply flawless, from the walnut top, to the brass neck markers, to the bog oak fretboard (which has a hint of grain to it - unusual!), to the pickup covers (again walnut covering a pair of quad-coils by Aaron Armstrong), and finally the headless end of the neck. The intricacies are simply amazing. If you're looking for a custom build I could not recommend Robin highly enough. He will make you the instrument that you will fail to walk past without picking up and playing.
Everything is done by hand and with passion and meticulousness, not a CNC machine in sight, and he keeps you abreast of what's going on during the build, as well as making thoughtful suggestions to the design to improve it. The bronze frets (as opposed to nickel or Steel) were his suggestion, which added to the strikingness of the appearance as well as the sound.
I promise you will not be disappointed and will come away wondering what else he can build for you!"
Andrew - Sussex
""Robin has built a 4 string “Sylphid” headless bass for me in beautiful English Oak and I am extremely happy with the instrument and the service provided.
Nothing, and I do mean nothing, was too much trouble for Robin. I found him to be knowledgeable, likeable, very skilful and passionate about his craft, all types of wood and bass guitars in general.
His workmanship is superb and the bass just radiates the love he put into its making.
If you buy a bass from Robin, then you will be getting something really special.'"
Paul - Sussex
"Robin is a very passionate and busy luthier in Shropshire with an excellent reputation. He loves building bass guitar classics and has a special interest in avantgarde instruments pushing the boundaries.
I picked up my semi-acoustic 6 string Titan (36 inch scale with Maple/Spruce/Bog Oak) from his lovely new workshop early August 2020. This bass was entirely built by his hands and finished to perfection with a violin oil finish to show of the bear claw spruce and the flamed English Maple. Robin took his time and I played the new instrument for an hour in his workshop and show room and inspected every detail and sound of it.
This design included carvings and chambering of the body as it has a C hole as found in the Viola da Gamba instruments of the Baroque period. Furthermore, it was important to me that the sourced woods were as environmentally friendly as possible and traditional at the same time (the ebony fretboard was replaced with Bog Oak). All the hardware and pickups are German.
The attention to detail shows that Robin loves building guitars to the highest standard possible and that he is experienced and very skilled. It plays like butter and sounds extremely HIFI with the added warmth of the chambered body and hand-selected English Maple and Spruce.
This instrument is flawless in every aspect and feather-light for a bass with these specifications. The finish and build quality is en par with the big names in this business and he is very competitively priced. The fretwork and set-up was superb and exactly how I had asked him to do it for me and I am very picky when it comes to playability of custom made instruments. In fact it feels like it had been PLEKed and the frets are smooth and disappear in the fretboard how it should be.
Robin was always available for a chat about the process and sent pictures to me to find the right colour for the finish, for example. This instrument is a joy to play and it sounds awesome! In fact I am so satisfied about it that a second instrument was commissioned. I can highly recommend him. Check out his website for more information and give him a call!"
Daniel - Surrey
Lychgate
"It was almost surreal to finally play a guitar with such accurate intonation everywhere on the fretboard. I would press a key on my keyboard and find the corresponding note on the guitar, and find a very pleasing-to-the-ear relationship. There was no more tuning oscillation to be heard in the third "G" string (as is the case with most guitars) and no buzz anywhere on the fretboard; even on the first fret, bottom string. The action is exactly as I like it and I think we also couldn't have chosen our string gauge any better.
Working with Manton Customs has been a positive experience from start to finish. Nothing was ever too much trouble and all my concerns at every step of the building process were answered by the kind of luthier that really knows his job. This guitar is the model I have waited for in the back of my mind for a very long time, and it is truly given me back the passion and inspiration that I need. I'm now looking forward to pushing myself as a musician to the next level with a truly reliable and greatly engineered instrument."
“It has been a pleasure to work with Manton Customs again - top service and expertise. This is the second True Temperament guitar they have produced [for us]. At first glance, yes, it is a modern answer to the Jaguar. It also happens to have spot on intonation, and thanks to the Evertune bridge, it *really* stays in tune. I am looking forward to using this for future recording sessions because it is definitely the most accurate guitar I have ever owned."
Lychgate
"Just a quick thank-you for the excellent and professional work you did for my guitar and guiding me through the whole process. I really enjoyed working through all the choices we had to make and the final combination of neck and body woods looks so good. It is stunning to play and all aspects of the finish are superb. I had a vision in my mind as to what it would look and sound like and all those expectations have been exceeded by miles! Everyone who has seen it so far has just gone wow! For me it is the neck that stands out the most. It vibrates with life and is a perfect fit for my hand. Access to all the higher frets is slick and easy and I've found that any tension that used to build up in my wrists and elbow has pretty much gone. The slightly shorter scale length at 25" combined with the stainless steel frets makes for super smooth runs and really slick bends. Electronics are bang on and the treble-bleed circuit gives a great balance across all volume levels. At present it far exceeds my playing abilities which is great as it means I've got years to get used to it and to learn how to get the most out of it. That's a journey I'm really looking forward to.I can only apologise at all this exuberant praise but I really can't find anything but good things to say. Compared to buying a stock guitar off the shelf at the same price I've now got something special that I could never sell and that I could never outgrow."
Stefan - London
