Essential D Pre-War Torrefied Adirondack Spruce and Mahogany with Pickup Used (2024)

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.