What AV Guitars offer?

4, 5, 6, 7, 8 stringed or atypical multistringed musical instruments.

Fretted or fretless version of bassguitars.

Left hand version at no extra charge.

11 shapes of bassguitars and guitars or possibility to creating your own shape, based on your specification.

Consultation of your future instrument and its equipment.

Hardware, pickups, electronics of finest world manufacturers.

Quality gigbags and hards shell cases for safe transport of your instrument.

Repairs or modification of your current instrument

Pictures of instruments at AV Guitars site are for your reference only. Only instruments for sale are in "Shop" section of this site.

History AV Guitars

In 1999 I was an active musician playing bass in a band from Zlin in the Czech Republic. My instrument was one of those inexpensive imitations based on the concept of a “starter instrument”, and thus it soon wasn’t enough for me...This was when my search for the dream instrument began, an instrument that would better express my idea of great tone and a beautiful shape.

After trying and testing a few of the mass produced pieces, I went to see a couple of luthiers Mr Vacha and Mr Porizka. I gave them my own simple drafts of how I wanted my dream bass guitar to look and Mr Porizka agreed to build me an instrument based on my drawings. I had to wait a little longer than originally expected, but in the end I was very happy with the result. The body design was professionally carved with features including a contoured back of the body. This gave me easy access to the upper parts of the neck all the way to the 26th fret as well as a more symmetrical shape. My search wasn’t over though... After realising the potential, I placed an order for another instrument, this time a six string bass. Mr Porizka suggested that I obtain the material and hardware myself to ensure my specifications were perfectly met. I managed to get a beautiful piece of maple for the body and neck and the brass bridge I was able to make myself. I began to frequent his workshop, helping take part in creating my instrument which led me to eventually deciding to build one completely on my own. That was where the history of AV Basses really started.

For several years following, I built bass guitars in my “garage environment”, lacking proper professional tools. To build an instrument took me about three months. Nevertheless, I persevered and had the chance to try different combinations, colours and varnish finishes etc. I built a neck-through-body bass guitar and a single cut-away shaped instrument.

Already my second bass guitar was a great success and it didn’t stay with me any longer than two weeks. At that time I worked in advertising and had learnt some valuable skills using professional graphic programmes. This gave me the chance to be able to create my own designs, one of them a logo using the combination of ebony and nacre (mother of pearl).

In 2003 I was contacted by Focus, a musical instrument making company, and was asked to make an instrument for H.K. Behunek. After finishing the construction, I was offered a job as their serviceman. I was considering it for a while, but later decided to decline the offer. It has to be said that none of their instruments were ever serviced by me, to clarify some misunderstandings and rumours.

That year I also made several instruments for the American music shop Boutique Basses, specialising in musical instruments of lesser known makers and among them some European makers too. I worked on their brand instruments as an OEM. The bass guitar I built for them reportedly got into the hands of Abraham Laboriel. At that time I did some similar work for a few other companies, for example in France.

In 2005 several bass players from Finland asked me to make instruments for them. I managed to meet their demands and now there are numerous musicians playing my basses.

A year later I sent a guitar with a special neck decoration – a nacre image of a tiger - to Greece.

As a result of my partnership with Furch Musical instruments, I had the opportunity to display my guitars at the Frankfurt Musikmesse trade fair.

Today, thanks to many years of experience in bass and guitar building, and acquiring and using professional tools, I am able to fulfil the requirements of bass and guitar players at the very highest level. My instruments are played by musicians in the USA, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Italy, Finland, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Slovakia and of course the Czech Republic.

Due to the growing number of guitars built by me, as well as bass guitars, AV Basses became AV Guitars.

The main advantage of choosing a custom built as opposed to mass produced instrument is the opportunity to imbed your own tone and design ideas and fulfil your needs and imagination. Due to the combination of choice of wood, hardware, pick- ups, electronics, construction and the actual set- up, as well as finishing details, a unique musical instrument is born. During the time I have been engaged in guitar building, I have amassed a collection of many different pieces of wood, often very rare. Among other things I can offer high quality or unusual body tops.

The care devoted to each instrument, the hand work, knowledge of tone creation and the personal approach to the whole process reflects in the individual sound of such an instrument. Musicians realise this uniqueness and it truly enriches their playing.

Listening to my favourite records some time in autumn 2010 I decided to offer my bass guitar builder services to some of the bass players who worked on those recordings and who had been an inspiration in my work.One of my favourite bands had for some time been The Corrs with the charismatic Keith Duffy on bass. Thanks to Steve Mc Ilwrath from Avalon guitars, I was able to contact Keith and have had the opportunity of working with an experienced musician of his calibre. Keith Duffy who had previously worked with other bass builders was interested in the idea of being able to put some of his own input into the development of his new instrument.

His core requirement and greatest input was the very concept of the instrument. It should fulfil his expectations of sound and tone as a performing musician as well as the requirements of producers. As a Fender Precision player he wanted an instrument that would mirror this traditional concept in terms of sound and shape while adding a less traditional feature- the fifth, low B string. And it is this feature that makes this instrument special. Adding the low B and therefore enriching the instrument by the presence of modern low tones while maintaining the vintage character of the instrument is not an easy task. It has been a demand of many bassists which has not been satisfactorily addressed by traditional bass manufacturers.

I decided to face up to the challenge and the outcome of this cooperation with Keith Duffy is a new addition to my product concepts, a more traditional vintage style instrument inspired by Fender Precision, but not its copy. Among the new useful features are more action adjusting options, altered neck profile as well as the use of different hardware, pickups or electronics.

This model went through thorough testing in studio and life environments, including huge world stage arenas.

Another musician who has contributed to the development of this model is Paul Turner of Jamiroquai. His instrument was to be in the Fender precision style with a neck binding and an extra bridge pickup. It would also have a separate volume and tone controls for each pickup. To Paul it was important to find an ideal compromise in the neck profile to be as close to his Jazz Bass as possible.

The AVBP5 model has been developed with the help, experience and knowledge of recognized bass players and producers. At present, it has been Keith Duffy’s main instrument for the Boyzone and Sharon Corr tours, Paul Turner uses it on stage with Jamiroquai and it is an important part of the acknowledged Czech bass player Petr Vavrik’s gear.

The AVBP5 is now one of regular VYCHODIL models.