Rob “Chappers” Chapman affectionately known as “The Monkey Lord” (his band is called Monkey Lord) is an interesting fella, I wasn’t aware of him until he ran a YouTube solo contest that sparked a lot of interest so I subscribed to his YouTube channel to see what else he was up to. Now Rob is much more than just a YouTube personality Rob is a very talented guitarist and clinician who has been endorsed by ESP Guitar and Orange Amps in the past but he cleverly used his internet presence to build up a loyal following initially from his students and their friends and now on a global scale.

Last year Rob announced that he was going to start his own guitar company called Chapman Guitars, a bold venture in the current financial climate, and enlisted the services of UK Luthier Jaden Rose to build guitars for Chapman Guitars. The most interesting thing about the ML1 and the recently designed ML2 is that they are a collaborative design, every part of the design process was carried out as an online voting process on the Chapman Guitars website and every detail was included from body shape, neck joint, headstock shape and of course the finish. The final voting led to the ML2 which you can see in the video above, as with the ML1 the voters decided on the price category which obviously led to certain decisions about hardware. Rob’s philosophy is that the ML1 and ML2 are high quality base guitars which you can then upgrade to make into something a little more on the epic side of guitar town. The ML1 is available for £299, the ML2 will be available from £350 for the Standard model, however there will be Custom and Private Stock models available too but only 250 will be made so get your order in fast. If you are looking for something a little more high end and pointy then the 2nd collaboratively designed guitar was the Ghost Fret, a Korina Explorer that is built for speed and available in a number of different colour options.

I think this business model is very interesting and quite revolutionary in the guitar industry and I think Chappers is onto a winner!

For more information about the guitars visit – http://www.chapmanguitars.co.uk
For more information on the Simian overlord visit – http://www.monkeylord.co.uk