A PAIR of guitar designers and developers whose quest for success was helped by the discovery of a renowned vintage guitar in a skip are staging a special event to showcase their collection.

Star of the show will be the Junkyard Dog, a restored and customised 1958 Framus archtop guitar, the type made famous by one of the world's best known and loved guitar strumming icons - Elvis Presley.

While this one did not belong to The King himself, Simon Raw and Al Elias of the Raw Guitar company, based in Masham, use it as their inspiration.

Mr Elias, the company’s luthier - someone who repairs and makes stringed instruments - found it in several pieces in a skip in the town over a decade ago, and after joining forces with Mr Raw, put it back together.

Mr Raw said: "He not only brought the guitar back to life but made her bark too by fitting a Bob G. Harrison Breuer single coil pickup.

“Because of the skip connection we call her The Junkyard Dog and we’ve been using her as the inspiration for our Junkyard collection, which we’ve been developing, including the Junkyard Rat, and the Junkyard Snake.”

The guitar, which would have been made in Austria, is not exceptionally rare, or worth a huge amount of money, but the pair say the fact it has survived so long and was brought back to life makes it special.

“To us she’s priceless,” said Mr Elias.

To showcase their series they have recruited the help of The Tom Killer Band, who will be playing their guitars and basses at the showcase event in Masham Town Hall on Saturday, May 7 with special guests Bob Angell, Bishop FM’s Gary Grainger and Consett’s Mitch Laddie.

Rosewell Amplification and MB Audio Visual, from Thirsk will also be demonstrating their work and helping the company make a video of the collection.

Mr Elias and Mr Raw have been working with a company in America on the development of the 12 guitars in the series, as part of the drive to break into the business, which is worth £90 million a year in the UK alone.

The FurtherOnUpTheRoad promo show at Masham Town Hall on May 7 at 7.30pm. Tickets are £8 and can be obtained online at www.wegottickets.com/event/347126 or on the door.