A few years ago, I was in what was then the King's Head in Blackboy Hill, at one of Eddy Martin's blues evenings, and got talking about acoustic bass guitars with another punter, and he said that he could build me a bass incorporating the ideas we discussed. I guessed that it was as likely that he really would be able to build it as it was that I could spare the money to pay him for doing so, and didn't think much more about it.
In late 1998 I was in Vintage & Prestige Guitars, which had just opened up near here, and was very impressed by the handmade acoustic bass hanging on the wall. It was next to a Guild acoustic bass, but sounded much better. It was also beautifully made, and interestingly asymetric in shape.
Then one night in Brighton I got into a drunken discussion with Ben, then a student instrument builder, who tried to persuade me that any handmade instrument was by definition better than the best factory-made one. Complete bollocks, of course, but it got me thinking.