I’ve lived in Oswestry for about four years, and during that time I’ve met four people who make guitars. It seems to me that this is a disproportionately large number for a town with a population of eighteen thousand people. In search of statistics to back up my theory, I found the “4allMusic Worldwide Luthier Directory”, which lists 339 guitar makers in the UK (only one of the four I’ve met appears on the list). This means that, according to my research, my poor grasp of maths, and some hastily scribbled figures on a beer mat, one percent of the UK’s total guitar makers are based in Oswestry.

My interest was piqued, but poorly researched, dubious statistics are no substitute for first-hand experience. So I decided to visit Velozo Guitars based in the knee part of Oswestry’s wonderfully named Leg Street, where Alessandro makes, repairs, and sells guitars.

Alessandro kindly agreed to take time out of his busy schedule to be interviewed for Invest in Oswestry.

On entering the shop, I felt reassured by the comfort of Velozo Guitars. The dark walls are hung with electric and acoustic guitars, and the perimeter of the rug-covered floor is lined with amplifiers and mysterious-looking gadgets. Either side of the counter, every available space seems to have a guitar in it, whilst music filters down from Alessandro’s workshop upstairs.

Alessandro tells me that he started playing guitar at twelve years old. As a fan of the band The Ramones, he wanted a Mosrite guitar like the one played by Johnny Ramone, but it was impossible to find one. So, he decided, with his dad’s help, to make one. Having no prior knowledge of how to build guitars or what the difficulties might be, he made his first instrument from the customised neck of an existing guitar and a body he made himself. He sounds surprised and pleased, describing the guitar: “…it worked for a bit”. His first success inspired him to make another guitar, and then he started approaching workshops like the one he now owns, “annoying” the guitar makers with questions about how to improve his skills. He describes how the learning process is never-ending and how his curiosity and desire to improve his methods have continued to grow.

Alessandro has been making guitars for twenty-six years and has run workshops in São Paulo (Brazil) and Lisbon (Portugal). I asked him what he likes about Oswestry; he said that he appreciates the less intense environment here and that his workshop in São Paulo, where he had several employees, was “crazy” as he’d be working late into the evening to satisfy customers who relied on their instruments for work and expected a rapid turnaround. Despite the relative size of Oswestry, Alessandro was surprised by how many people seem to have been waiting for a business like his, and he has had a continual flow of repairs ever since, aside from his guitar making.

I asked Alessandro if he has any rituals or habits when he’s building. He says he never works in silence, listening instead to music or podcasts about his native Brazil featuring football or current affairs. He said he finds it hard to switch between the demands of a continual flow of repairs and his guitar making. He’d rather be focused on making guitars and plans to grow his business so that he can devote himself to guitar making and train someone to take on repairs.

When he’s not making guitars, Alessandro is playing them. He mentions that when he’s doing a repair job, he often plays a guitar to make sure it works and finds that fifteen minutes later he’s still “testing” it. Alessandro can be seen performing both solo and with his band The Upbeats at various venues around Shropshire.

For more information on Velozo Guitars, visit the website here: https://www.velozoguitars.com/