A & P Richardson was started on the 31/10/1988 by Alan and Paul Richardson, any business takes time to get established and gain a good reputation and after two years Alan moved onto a job that paid money. After 20 years I’m still here making guitars but it goes back to when I was 11 years old, this is when I made my first bass guitar with my Dad (Bill Richardson) in a shed, the bass was like a Gibson Explorer and had no frets. The next Bass I made was a copy of a B.C. Rich Bitch which I like the shape of, I made this one when I was 14 years old at School when everyone else was making sea grass stools, Needless to say they all though I was mad (picture 1).

From there on it was just repairing broken guitars for my friends, then someone asked me if I could make a left handed through neck strat, not something you can buy of the shelf (picture 2). At the age of 16 I made my first 8 string bass the first of my own designs (picture 3). Then at the age of 20 I made some Brian May copies

(Picture 4).

At the age of 24 I was starting to be seen in the guitar magazines and then came the review. In 1994 at the age of 25 I made The Wildhearts logo guitar for Ginger which was seen on the TOTP, The Chart show and the North east news. More recently I have made a number of guitars and basses for The Music.

So there you have it! The end of 20 years of A & P Richardson guitar making, but that isn’t really the end it’s just the beginning of PRguitars which is the same but under a  different name and a nice new logo.

I would like you to look back on some of the guitars and basses I have made in the past, and to do so just click on the gallery button to enter into the A & P Richardson guitar gallery.

Best Wishes

Paul Richardson