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I am here for Dating, Serious Relationships, Friends and Networking

About Me

Violin making in the Doyle family started in 1890 by pauls grandfather Frank Doyle snr. No information exists as to what quantity he might have made, his son frank junior and 4 of his brothers followed in his footsteps, however Pauls fine instrument making did not come from anywhere,this musical genius recieved some knowledge from his predecessors.Paul was the only son to take up the instrument Making but only after he had successfully studied architecture in Bolton Street College of Technology Dublin and later in the London college of Furniture in Aldgate East. He had dabbled a bit in Electric Guitar making from the age of fifteen and had become quite an accomplished guitarist and while in London played in various groups and did session work in the Olympic Sound Studio in Barnes near Hammersmith. The Studio was the starting point in Pauls interest in Instruments. During the daytime he worked in various Architects Practices, while at night he went to the Olympic Sound Studio and spent long hours with Phil Chapman a sound engineer from Manchester. He used to go to the Studio at around ten o clock at night and lay down all kinds of tracks both for Phil's own use and also for the studio. When asked what his most memorable time from then was, he tells us: "the most memorable moment was when Phil gave me my first single called "Get your dance hall shoes on" by Micky Anthony". I had spent long hours doing the backing guitar parts for this single and knew it backwards. However, all attempts to come to grips with my inferior hofner electric and plywood arch top for acoustic work led me to engage in major surgery of instruments and also prompted me to examine all the fine instruments lying around the studio."That was when he come in contact with a Martin Acoustic guitar, the first solid wood top he had played. The sound seemed to go on forever and soon he enrolled in an evening class in Tufnell Park making a classical guitar. The next nine months were spent making his first classical guitar. Between that and the late night studio work his day job on the drawing board became so tedious that he had to use the excuse that his eyesight was getting bad when he was caught snoozing on his drawings. By the end of 1976 as he was nearing completion of my first guitar he saw a mandolin player accompanied by a guitarist busking in Amsterdam. So That then started Paul out seeking information on mandolin construction and he finished both the guitar and mandolin in June of 1977. The end of 1977 saw three more instruments completed, 2 Appalachian Dulcimers, and a 12-string guitar. On the 29th of November 1977 while driving home in London on his motorbike he was in collision with a car that was to alter the course of his life forever.His only companion in Whips Cross hospital was an old Italian mandola made in 1857 it was on the back of his motorbike when he crashed. Two weeks later he knew every piece of wood in it and had decided to make a career of building instruments.I have had 10 different workshops so far and have been at my current shop for 15 years now, its a bit small and cluttered but i managed to build many a fine instrument here, from 1976 to 1983 i spent designing my own model of everything i make, i have kept up the same style since then but in the fire of 1986 a lot of my patterns were destroyed so new ones were made after that, now i keep with the times by checking out new pickups and alternative woods that save the heavy use on standard guitar woods, The rest as they say is HISTORY.

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

Amaty, Stradavari, all equaly amazing Lutiers and people in need of a good intellectual banter or conversation,Paul Doyle Instruments website,, www.pauldoyleinstruments.com38A Dominick Street, Galway,IrelandPh/Fax: 00 353 (0)91 566948E-mail [email protected] [email protected] is,, [email protected]..
Cool Slideshows

My Blog

The Passing of John Martyn

Sad to hear of the passing away of John Martyn recently, I saw him a few times in Roisin Dubh in Galway, my favourite gig was about 10 years ago when a German girl working in my shop took me to the gi...
Posted by on Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:33:00 GMT

old instruments

I decided to make a new folder of my antique instruments,  they are wonderfull to look at and great fun restoring back to playing condition. the oldest instrument i looked into was an old lute dated 1...
Posted by on Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:36:00 GMT

the late Tommy Makem

Tommy Makem walked in to my shop one morning and asked to look at my instruments, he focused on a bouzouki which he said was a present for his son Rory, during the informal chat in walked that famous ...
Posted by on Fri, 26 Oct 2007 08:19:00 GMT

Recent visitor

on the 14 th of august 2007 Andy Irvine dropped in for a routine pickup installation, he visits my shop about twice a year to get repairs and install sunrise pickups in his many mandolins and bouzouki...
Posted by on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:57:00 GMT