Doug Wilkes started making guitars in 1972 in his home workshop. In the 1980s Wilkes developed "The Answer" guitar pickup system - with sliding single coils on rails that allowed for a wide range of single coil and humbucker tones. Wilkes made a The Answer guitar for David Gilmour. After an abandoned plan in 1985 to open a guitar factory in North Wales with Richard Branson - Wilkes went on to set up a large factory in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. He employed nine people at the Hanley factory the largest independent guitar factory in the country at the time. The factory closed in 1992 and Doug gave away all his big machinery, and moved to Keele, where he now makes bespoke guitars, bass guitars and other instruments from his garden workshop.

Source: Wilkes Guitars website (29 September 2021)