INTRODUCING: Honey Tea & Maplewood

May 01, 2018

INTRODUCING: Honey Tea & Maplewood

STEPHEN BURNETT. GUITARS. RESTORATION. CUSTOM MADE. AUSTRALIAN MADE.

I recently had a chat with Stephen from Sydney Australia about his business, Honey tea & Maplewood.

I had my custom made Warmoth Tely 51 bass painted by Stephen in a nitro Blonde, he is one of the only companies I have found within Australia that do the nitro finish at a decent price.

I've also had the pleasure of meeting Stephen in person a few years ago when my band played Frankie Pizza in Newtown Sydney, Australia.

I decided to ask Stephen some questions about his business.

QUESTIONS:

How long ago did your business Honey Tea & Maplewood start?

I started about five years ago, I had been a graphic designer for about twenty years and wanted a career change, I got made redundant at my last job and got a tidy pay out so I took some time off, bought some tools and some timber and taught myself. I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way and many other, better luthiers would shake their heads in wonder at the way I actually work but I enjoy what I do, it certainly beats working in an office.

What or who got you interested in fixing, restoring & making guitars?

I watched a short documentary film on an American luthier called Randy Parsons, he makes a lot of Jack White’s guitars and his ideas and methods were like nothing I’d seen before, he’s definitely next level when it comes to guitar building. There are so many different aspects to instrument building that appeal to me and a lot of what I do is problem solving as I often have an idea or a design that I like and then I have to figure out how to make it work, it’s a lot of trial and error.

What has been the biggest and unique job that you've done?

The biggest was definitely Kat Ayala’s (Rackett) purple and gold guitar called “Waterfall”. It’s build on a solid body design but Kat wanted a super light guitar so it’s actually built like a hollowbody to keep the weight down, even the neck and headstock are chambered. I did a fair bit of mother of pearl inlay work in the fretboard and body and gold leaf on the neck and sides. I design everything in Adobe Illustrator first (from my design days) and then apply it to the timber, I kinda took Kat’s guitar too far with the design but she loved it so it became this over the top, quilted maple, gold leaf, gold hardware monster… I was very happy with how it turned out.

How did you come up with the name Honey Tea & Maplewood

I never wanted Burnett Guitars or anything, I wanted something that was interesting and summed up myself so I thought about the things I like; I like honey in my tea and I like using maple due to its different visual configuring. I like two part names that kind of run off the tongue so Honey Tea & Maplewood was born.

You have helped fixed and restore a lot of band gear, who is your favourite band, who’s guitar's you have worked on?

I’d say my favourite Australian band is Gay Paris. I had the wonderful experience of working with their guitarist, Lachlan Marks, who I also made a Honey Tea SG style guitar for a few years ago. I’ve also worked with Stevie and Clint from The Dead Love, Jason Higson from Yanomamo, the boys from Interim and Between you & me and God knows how many others.

If you weren’t doing Honey Tea & Maplewood, what do you think you would be doing instead?

I would probably still be designing I guess, it’s always been something I’ve fallen back on.

Do you have your own unique style and tricks when working with guitars?

I don’t know that I do much differently from other guitar repair guys but I do tend to work a lot on properly setting up the neck and fret levelling. Every guitar is different and so I just keep adjusting and tweaking til it feels right.

What type of guitar work do you specialise in?

I’ve found I like building hollowbodies and archtops, there’s a lot of delicate work that needs to be thought out and taken into consideration with acoustic and semi-acoustic guitars, it makes things a lot more interesting when feedback, dynamic range and the use of different timbers comes into play.

Do you have anything you would like to add?

Hit me up if you’d like something made!

Thanks Stephen xx

Stephen Burnett

If you are looking after quality, custom, beautiful guitar work. Whether it be a paint job, custom made guitar, or any other guitar services, then look no further than Honey Tea & Maplewood. You will not regret it!! Not only is Stephen a great guy to do business with, his work is also on point!!!

If you want to know further details please see below:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honeyteaandmaplewood/

Website: http://www.honeyteaandmaplewood.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeytea_custom_guitars/