Profiles

Tucked away in the picturesque village of Great Bardfield Rudi Egger must have the patience of a saint to hand make his guitars to such precision.

In his garden shed he has a stash of finely crafted wood, and at the moment a flamenco guitar, which so far he has spent around 60 hours working on.

This is his sixth guitar, and even though he has only been making them for around three years, his love of the stringed instrument goes back to when he was just 16.

The lastest flamenco guitar in progress

It was then, whilst in the South of France, he saw a famous flamenco guitar player in a local restaurant. 

He was so inspired by the act he began to play:

"What you need is a lot of patience to build a classical or flamenco guitar, it can take you in excess of 150 hours to build.

"You could build 1000 guitars and you would never be able to make one exactly the same as the other, because the wood is different, the grain of the wood - where the wood comes from."

Rudi's passion for his hobby is obvious, however to put a price on one of his guitars is a tricky business:

Rudi's shed - where it all happens....

"I've exhibited three of my guitars at the local barn here, and I was too shy to put a price on them, because when you work 150 hours and charge the minimum wage it would cost a lot.

"There were two professional makers there and they put their labels up and they were all around £2000. 

"I didn't put a price up and this man comes to me and says 'that is a nice guitar do you mind if I play it?' 

"He said to me - 'that is the nicest sounding guitar I have ever played.  How much are you selling it for?'

Rudi's been making guitars for 3 years

"I said well I thought £1000, and he said to me - 'if you sell it for a penny less than £4000 you're mad.'

"You can build as good-a-guitar as a well known man, but if you haven't got a name then who is going to pay £2000 for a guitar made in a garden shed?"

Rudi won't be put off his hobby by the price of the materials.  Next he is toying with the idea of building a violin for his friend in Holland!

Listen to Rudi talking to BBC Essex reporter Felicity Simper about his hobby by clicking on the link below.