Ex-soldier makes guitar out of 40,000 matches over two and a half years
Lance Corporal Dean finally finishes his project after rare heart condition forced retirement
DEAN Fraser, 37, spent two and a half years painstakingly fixing and gluing around 40,000 matchsticks together to complete the epic project he began 18-years ago.
He originally started work on the instrument while he was serving in the Army in 1998 while he was serving in Northern Ireland, but as his career progressed his work on the the guitar fell by the wayside.
Apart from a brief return to his creation while on a tour of Iraq in 2008, it wasn’t until a rare heart condition forced Dean to retire from the Army in 2013, that completing the project became a reality.
Dean, who joined the Army in 1996, said: “I started it as a young soldier and when you are in the Army in a camp you have to make do with the materials around you.
“You can’t just go to a DIY store when you are on operations.
“When we were issued with rations we were given 10 matchsticks, but not many people used them and the matchsticks were lying around the camp after being discarded by other soldiers.
“I used to collect them from out of the bin and I used to go around the rooms asking for any spare matches.
“Half of them didn’t realise what I wanted them for, but the friends that knew what I was doing though I was crazy.”
I could vision how it was going to look before I started and it has turned out exactly the way I imagined
Dean Fraser
Dean, who began serving in the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment before moving on to the Duke of Lancaster Regiment, said he was about a third of a way through the project when he had to put it to one side.
However 10 years later while serving on a tour of Iraq he started collecting matchsticks again and the project was resumed.
He said: “In your downtime in Iraq you are stuck in a reinforced shelter and can’t really go out for a walk and I would rather do something creative than just being sat about.
“When I went to Iraq the part of the neck I had been working on in Northern Ireland came with me, but I decided to start on a different part of the neck as I didn’t want to ruin the first part of the neck that would mean I’d have to start all over again.”
After his tour of Iraq came to an end Dean, a Lance Corporal, was once again to put the guitar to one side while he carried on with the day job.
Now, 18 years on from when he first started building the guitar, Dean is close to being able to play the fruits of his labour.
He just has some finishing touches to the body, as well as the strings and pickup covers left to do.
He said: “I could vision how it was going to look before I started and it has turned out exactly the way I imagined.”
Dean, who was forced to leave the Army after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, said his wife Marie, 36, encouraged him to start guitar building again The dad-of-eight, from Buckshaw Village, near Leyland, Lancs., said: “She’s my rock.
“She made this happen.
“I might have started it years before, but she is the reason I am about to finish it.
“It has been so therapeutic to work on.
“And I soon realised this was great for me because I could do it sitting down or in bed - it was not a strenuous act for me.
“It’s been hard but it has been great to work on and I’m happy it has worked out so well.”
Since leaving the forces Dean has opened up his own guitar business with Marie and has even designed a guitar and bass for world-famous rapper and producer B.o.B.
Dean said: “His record label got in touch with me after spotting one of my guitars on social media and said he had to have it, so I designed that for him and then he commissioned me to design and make a bass guitar in the same style.”