It was a cool, overcast morning in Dublin as I boarded the Enterprise train to Belfast on the first stage of my trip to Antrim, county Antrim, Northern Ireland - home of McIlroy Guitars. The journey went well, and as I got off the train in the tiny, two-track railway station I looked around for a phone booth. Dermot was only a phone call away, and he showed up in a blue Rover a few minutes after I rang him at the shop.

So there he was, a tall, slim man with big carpenter's hands and a warm smile, welcoming me to his land and, eventually, his shop. The McIlroy workshop is conveniently located in Unit 24 of Antrim's main industrial area, a place Dermot chose for its security and its relative calm. The shop itself is well thought out and laid down, consisting of two main building areas and an office.

We started the tour right away, as I was growing impatient of learning as much as I could of the place where these much-praised guitars first see the light of day. Dermot guided me through a step-by-step review of the building process, starting with the shaping of the sides. The tools Dermot uses for this step were designed and built by the man himself, as are most of the jigs you can find throughout the shop another example of his awesome talent, if you ask me. The sides-bending device is extremely clever, as it allows for a rough bending of the wood which will suit all three of McIlroy's main body styles. The two sides are then joined together via the neck- and tail-block, and put in a wood mold specific for the body size.

Next to the sides' working bench lies some of the shop's wood supply. McIlroy buys pre-sawn boards of timber of the highest possible quality, because they simply don't have a saw big enough for buying bigger logs in the workshop. At the time of my visit there was some lovely figured English Walnut along with some tight-grained East Indian Rosewood two of the most popular woods overall. Dermot also showed me some flamboyant slabs of Claro Walnut (which goes for almost 5x the price of the "regular" one), and some exotic-smelling figured Mahogany. We spent a few moments pondering how come this affordable, high-quality wood ended up being one of the least popular choices... maybe we'll just have to wait for a shortage of sorts to see demand skyrocket...

We then moved to inspect the top woods section. Each slab of wood is hand split into two bookmatched halves, for maximum stability and sound quality. Dermot showed me a piece of high grade Sitka: "See that slight line of discoloration?" he said, pointing at a faint line running parallel to the grain, "We're gonna cut a smaller-bodied top out of this piece, so that the flaw gets discarded. I know it sounds nitpicking, but I just don't feel like having it end up on one of my instruments." Oh well... his choice! He likes the strength of his current sets of Sitka, which he says leads to very good bracing strouts. The Western Red Cedar was extremely nice, and it smelled wonderful. Dermot said he has a reliable source for both his Western Red Cedar and his Sitka. The English Walnut is also really consistent. With the other woods, he always has to ensure he's getting the best possible he ends up rejecting quite a lot of the wood he receives from his suppliers. The "Kiln" pictured is the place used for seasoning the wood - the sign on its door shows what damage a Northern Irishman and a marker can do.

As you can see in the picture, there were five assembled soundboxes in the shop. Dermot proceeded to tap each one to let me appreciate the obvious difference in voicing between his cedar-topped guitars and his sitka-topped ones. The cedar ones had a very musical, warm, "booming" response to the taps, almost similar to those of a floor drum. Spruce-topped boxes had a hint less bass and more focus, a character which would turn most useful on 12 strings and Jumbo models.

The neck-shaping procedure is once again very smartly though-out. Necks are five-piece laminates of mahogany, ebony and whatever the back and sides wood is. The fingerboard gets glued to the neck once they are cut from the big laminate block (each block leads two), so that most of the stress is already past. Dermot then uses a jig that allows for complete neck-width customization, once again his own design. Fret slots are cut with custom-made high-precision blades, then the necks are hand carved for the most comfortabe shape.

Body and neck are then dovetail-jointed, a procedure that Dermot finds critical in the whole builing process. During his years at Lowden, he worked on an improvement on the neck angle (which he then wasn't allowed to introduce), leading to lower action and improved saddle height (an essential condition to allow for further adjsutments).

The assembled guitar is then sanded and finished, once again a step of which Dermot takes personal care of, firmly believing that a thin finish is the key to a great sounding guitar to the point of recalculating all wood thickness when he decided for a slight increase of nitrocellulose lacquering last year. It is still notable how the lacquer used isn't even enough to fill all of the wood grain.

Production at McIlroy guitars is organized in batches, which allows Dermot and his only assistant (a former apprentice during the Lowden years) to put out six guitars every three weeks (note - this might well be outdated. the article was written in 2003). Dermot plans to expand his productive output by doubling the workshop's dimensions and hiring two more luthiers, going to twenty guitars a month.

As of today, Dermot takes care of the shaping and finishing procedures, while his assistant meticulously assembles the parts. Dermot has been working with wood for 25 years this September, with the last 13 spent as a luthier, and states he knows almost instinctively what is going to happen with the wood he's handling. Of his years at Lowden guitars, several were spent as production manager. His decision to try and find his own way came when he started developing too many designing ideas that were clashing with George Lowden's steadfast guitar vision. "I think I just had to move on my own", he says, and the acclaim his guitars are getting in Ireland (and beyond) seems to prove he may have been right...

While I was sipping my second cup of tea, Dermot unveiled a special surprise he had for me: two finished guitars for me to play. I spent a good deal of time sampling a nylon string AS30n, which impressed me as a brilliant crossover guitar (Dermot defines it as an attempt to create the "ultimate modern flamenco guitar"), very responsive to a light touch yet capable of taking heavy strumming without being overdriven. On a side note, I'm not particularly fond of nylon string hybrids (14 frets to the body, slimmer, steel-string like neck), but I have to say this one hit the mark. The showstopper was the cutaway Walnut and Cedar A25c, McIlroy's most popular model and it is so with a cause. The one I played could have well been one of the five greatest sounding guitars I've had the pleasure to hold in my arms. It sported the absolute perfect blend of richness and clarity, and it filled the whole room with a glorious sound - were it not scheduled for shipping that very same afternoon, I could have well made a last-minute offer on the spot.

As I scribble this notes on the train to Belfast to set my thoughts on this experience down, I can't but appreciate the passion and lore that Dermot puts in his work. Once in Dublin, I had a chance to try out another couple of McIlroys at Perfect Pitch, Exchequer St: the Rosewood/Sitka A30 I put my greedy fingers on was incredibly impressive: warm beyond belief, complex and lush with overtones, with a nice powerful bass. A fingerpicker's midsummer dream. The other was a Mahogany/Cedar A25, somewhat cleaner and drier than its Rosewood and Walnut "sisters." The tone was still very distinct and pleasing, but it spoke to me to a lesser degree than the other two steel-strings I had played.

I can't quite find the words to sum this all up. I can only suggest that you keep on the lookout for this incredibly talented, extra nice and hospitable builder ­ and did I mention his prices? Hop on his website or EU Distributor Celtic Sounds, and be surprised.