Testimonials
Conqustidor
"The sound and feel of this bass is nothing short of phenomenal! It's got everything that you'd want in a fretless bass. I love the look of it, I love the feel of it and I love the sound of it and the more I'm getting used to it the more it's giving me. Fantastic workmanship and design! - you may bee able to tell - I like it !!!"
Adrian from Morpeth - owner of the bass
Matriarch 7 string
"So happy with the True Temperament Matriarch 7 string Robin built for me. The quality of the wood (beautiful Mahogany, Poplar top and Maple neck), the aesthetics of the design (lovely curves and cutaways) the attention to detail (intricate binding between wood layers), the spectacular paint job (a shimmer of blue), the quality electronics - no hisses or clicks, and the quality of execution. Simply world-class. Robin even spent late night calls with California to configure the Ilitich noise cancelling coil, and also chasing True Temperament to get me the fingerboard from Texas because of Covid supply issues. When I had the crazy idea for coloured fret markers, Robin was creative - and came up with the embedded lapidary. This is the most beautiful and playable guitar I’ve ever played and I’m so grateful to Robin! Highly recommend."
Julian - Oxforshire
Paradigm (Alder)
"The bass has arrived... and it's fantastic!
Perfect build, perfect sound, perfect set up. I love it!
It's the first bass I've had that sounds great without any EQ, although it does respond incredibly well to a very slight touch of EQ as well. An action as comfortable as this hasn't been possible on other basses I've had (fret buzz/rattle). It balances really well on a good strap and it's so light and resonant. I'm glad we went with the standard Lindy Fralin pickups. The whole instrument is absolutely flawless.
I wish I'd done this ages ago, instead of wasting money on the s**t that other companies often throw out the factory door! It was well worth the wait."
Stephen - West Yorkshire
Paradigm (Ash)
"Robin Manton hand built a medium scale (32 inch) Paradigm bass for me in ash with a maple neck. I was allowed to select the pieces of wood and all the specifications to make it exactly the bass of my dreams. The quality of his work is impeccable. His customer service and communications are faultless, which made the whole process a delight. All at a price less than a USA machine made standard P bass.
He build all kinds of 4/5 string basses and 6/7 string guitars, please consider him for your next instrument purchase."
John - Bath
Titan
"Robin is a very passionate and busy luthier in Shropshire with an excellent reputation. He loves building bass guitar classics and has a special interest in avantgarde instruments pushing the boundaries.
I picked up my semi-acoustic 6 string Titan (36 inch scale with Maple/Spruce/Bog Oak) from his lovely new workshop early August 2020. This bass was entirely built by his hands and finished to perfection with a violin oil finish to show of the bear claw spruce and the flamed English Maple. Robin took his time and I played the new instrument for an hour in his workshop and show room and inspected every detail and sound of it.
This design included carvings and chambering of the body as it has a C hole as found in the Viola da Gamba instruments of the Baroque period. Furthermore, it was important to me that the sourced woods were as environmentally friendly as possible and traditional at the same time (the ebony fretboard was replaced with Bog Oak). All the hardware and pickups are German.
The attention to detail shows that Robin loves building guitars to the highest standard possible and that he is experienced and very skilled. It plays like butter and sounds extremely HIFI with the added warmth of the chambered body and hand-selected English Maple and Spruce.
This instrument is flawless in every aspect and feather-light for a bass with these specifications. The finish and build quality is en par with the big names in this business and he is very competitively priced. The fretwork and set-up was superb and exactly how I had asked him to do it for me and I am very picky when it comes to playability of custom made instruments. In fact it feels like it had been PLEKed and the frets are smooth and disappear in the fretboard how it should be.
Robin was always available for a chat about the process and sent pictures to me to find the right colour for the finish, for example. This instrument is a joy to play and it sounds awesome! In fact I am so satisfied about it that a second instrument was commissioned. I can highly recommend him. Check out his website for more information and give him a call!"
Daniel - Surrey
Matriarch 8 string
Lychgate
"It was almost surreal to finally play a guitar with such accurate intonation everywhere on the fretboard. I would press a key on my keyboard and find the corresponding note on the guitar, and find a very pleasing-to-the-ear relationship. There was no more tuning oscillation to be heard in the third "G" string (as is the case with most guitars) and no buzz anywhere on the fretboard; even on the first fret, bottom string. The action is exactly as I like it and I think we also couldn't have chosen our string gauge any better.
Working with Manton Customs has been a positive experience from start to finish. Nothing was ever too much trouble and all my concerns at every step of the building process were answered by the kind of luthier that really knows his job. This guitar is the model I have waited for in the back of my mind for a very long time, and it is truly given me back the passion and inspiration that I need. I'm now looking forward to pushing myself as a musician to the next level with a truly reliable and greatly engineered instrument."
Coalescence
“It has been a pleasure to work with Manton Customs again - top service and expertise. This is the second True Temperament guitar they have produced [for us]. At first glance, yes, it is a modern answer to the Jaguar. It also happens to have spot on intonation, and thanks to the Evertune bridge, it *really* stays in tune. I am looking forward to using this for future recording sessions because it is definitely the most accurate guitar I have ever owned."
Lychgate
Echo MK II Guitar
"Just a quick thank-you for the excellent and professional work you did for my guitar and guiding me through the whole process. I really enjoyed working through all the choices we had to make and the final combination of neck and body woods looks so good. It is stunning to play and all aspects of the finish are superb. I had a vision in my mind as to what it would look and sound like and all those expectations have been exceeded by miles! Everyone who has seen it so far has just gone wow! For me it is the neck that stands out the most. It vibrates with life and is a perfect fit for my hand. Access to all the higher frets is slick and easy and I've found that any tension that used to build up in my wrists and elbow has pretty much gone. The slightly shorter scale length at 25" combined with the stainless steel frets makes for super smooth runs and really slick bends. Electronics are bang on and the treble-bleed circuit gives a great balance across all volume levels. At present it far exceeds my playing abilities which is great as it means I've got years to get used to it and to learn how to get the most out of it. That's a journey I'm really looking forward to.I can only apologise at all this exuberant praise but I really can't find anything but good things to say. Compared to buying a stock guitar off the shelf at the same price I've now got something special that I could never sell and that I could never outgrow."
Stefan - London
