Legendary craftsman with strings attached
While his peers were learning to play the guitar, Peter Madill was busy teaching himself to make the instruments. That was more than 50 years ago, and he's now, writes Rachel Moore, a legend in his field.
Down a gravel driveway in small-town Levin there’s an unassuming shed. But instead of old tools or car parts, you’ll find Peter Madill carving one-of-a-kind instruments. His world-class guitars, mandolins, and violins each take about a month to make. If you own a Madill guitar, you can trust there is no other like it. ‘‘I know from the feel that it’s one of mine, but other people can hear that it is one of mine.’’
Madill, 76, started making guitars more than 50 years ago in Dunedin. Through trial and error he developed a distinctive sound and style.
But compared to many musicians, his love for the instrument was a late bloom. When he was 18 and working as an apprentice for a furniture-maker, he was eager to learn saxophone in a rock band, but couldn’t afford to buy one.
It all changed at a Peter, Paul, and Mary concert in Dunedin in 1964, at the height of the folk revival. Madill fell in love with the way Paul Stookey and Peter Yarrow played guitar, and decided that was the instrument for him.
He learnt a few chords and taught himself from there. He wanted a 12-string guitar, but they were pricey, so he decided to make one.
The guitar was horrible, Madill says. ‘‘It kind of looked like a guitar, but it was all wrong.’’
Eventually he cut it up and used it to fuel the home fire, but a challenge had been set.
‘‘It became an obsession really. I was on a quest to make a better one than the one before.’’
The craft of building a guitar was a step up from making furniture.Without books or the internet, it was a constant process of trial and error.
Madill bought a commercial guitar and used a mirror to study every inch of the interior. How was the bracing done? How was the soundboard made?
He kept plodding along; building, refining and improving, and through experience he learned how to brace and shape the wood to achieve a desired sound.
The first time a friend asked to buy one of his guitars felt like a breakthrough: Madill realised he was making guitars people wanted to play.
He moved from Dunedin to Auckland in 1973, and joined a violin repair business. It later became his own business, and people would buy his guitars. ‘‘For a long time I just made them and off they went.’’
He gave them away, with no records, and has no idea how many guitars he has made; likely hundreds. Madill quit the music business after 16 years, going back to furniture to get a ‘‘real job’’, but returned to his guitar-making passion in 2008.
Madill and his wife Dianne now live in Levin to be closer to their children, and he’s become recognised in the area for his musical creations.
Half are made to order, and the others are whatever he feels like making. Madill says people tend to find him when they can’t find a commercial guitar that serves their needs.
He usually asks customers to play for him, and from their sound and how they play, he knows how their new instrument should be built.
Madill says the best feeling is going to a concert, and looking up on stage to see one of his guitars.
He has made guitars for the original Split Enz: a 12-string acoustic for Phil Judd, and electric guitars for Mike Chunn and Wally Wilkinson.
Harvey Mann and Eddie Hansen from Living
Force have Madill electric guitars, and Bruce Woodley from The Seekers uses a Madill mandolin.
Back in Manawatu¯ , musician Dusty Burnell says he owns a lot of instruments, but only one standard acoustic guitar. His Madill can do it all. ‘‘They are right up there with the best instruments that you will find, made by anyone in the world.’’
He plays a lot of styles, and says Madill instruments are known for their dynamic ability.
‘‘I knew Peter by reputation. Particularly because I’d seen a lot of musicians around New Zealand and internationally, who I really respected, who were playing Madills.
‘‘I eventually met Peter at some festivals and when I played gigs down in Dunedin. Peter came up to me one day and said, ‘you need to be playing one of my mandolins’.’’
Madill went along to a few of Burnell’s gigs, and planned how to personalise the instrument.
Burnell says when you buy an instrument from someone like Madill, the day you get it is the worst it is going to sound. It will only improve from there.
‘‘I take the view that you are a custodian, because this is going to be around a lot longer than I am, and be used much longer. In 100 years’ time, there is no reason for this guitar not to be played by someone else. The wood will only get better with time, as it mellows in.’’
Alistair’s Music on Cuba St in Wellington is one of the few outlets to sell Madill instruments. Alistair Cuthill bought his first Madill mandolin in 1978; one of the first Madill made. But the memory is bittersweet, and he regrets selling it.
Wife Catriona Cuthill says she pleaded with him not to sell it, and as soon as Madill started making guitars again after his hiatus, they were able to grab another.
‘‘I absolutely insisted,’’ she says.
She says the way Alistair plays is matched with the sound of a Madill guitar. It was the voice, the soul, spirit and look they wanted.
‘‘It’s really interesting because mandolins can be zingy, ear-wittingly high and just very, very forceful. But these mandolins have a beautiful mellow, kindon-the-ear gorgeousness.’’