Atkin Guitars
Essential D
Listed at Folkway Music · Waterloo, ON
Tracked on Tonewood Atlas — view the full listing at Folkway Music’s site.
Photos hot-linked from Folkway Music’s site — never rehosted.
Specs
- Top
- Torrefied Adirondack
- Back / Sides
- Mahogany
- Neck
- Mahogany
- Fingerboard
- Ebony
- Body shape
- Dreadnought
- Scale length
- 24.9"
- Nut width
- 1 3/4"
- Frets to body
- 14
- Strings
- 6
- Cutaway
- No
- Condition
- New
About Atkin Guitars
Atkin Guitars are built in Canterbury, England, founded by Alister Atkin in 1995. What started as a one-man bench has grown into one of the UK's leading boutique acoustic builders — a sixteen-person shop making roughly 750 guitars a year, every one of them hand-built. Their reputation is anchored in pre-war Martin and Gibson replicas (the slope-shouldered "Nineteen" is a flagship), but the catalog spans original designs, an electric line that joined the family in 2020, and a custom shop that builds whatever a player can dream up. The signature finish is an aged nitrocellulose lacquer developed over thirty years — soft, light, designed to check and patina naturally rather than stay perfect, mirroring how a lightly-used vintage instrument ages. Tops have been baked since 2011 for stability and the kind of resin-crystallized character usually associated with old wood. The player roster reads like a UK songwriters' room: Richard Hawley, Robert Plant, Graham Coxon, Kris Drever, Eddi Reader, Elbow.
About Folkway Music
Folkway Music in Waterloo, Ontario is a repair-anchored shop — owner Mark Stutman built the store on vintage restoration work, and every instrument spends time on a Folkway bench before it goes on the wall. The boutique acoustic side carries a steady rotation of Collings, Atkin, Santa Cruz, Iris, Lakewood, and Pre-War, while the vintage Martin and Gibson inventory runs deep year-round. One of the best stops in Canada for boutique flatops, and a long-standing destination for serious vintage buyers across North America.
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