A graduate from The London School Of Furniture Making, Ashley Pangborn first started his career crafting classical Instruments. Pangborn guitars were to emerge in 1980 when still very young, he began hand building custom electric basses.

From a small workshop near the Crystal Palace in London, Pangborn guitars were to produce several seperate styles of basses. The Warlord, which was he flagship of the range would be custom built and constructed with fine quality exotic hardwoods, its design constantly evolving throughout the years. The Chieftan was a mid range model with a bolt on neck and Precisionesque look and feel. The Warrior was a through- neck model with solid body wings and was obviously intended to compete with cheaper imported instruments from the far east.

Ashley Pangborn in 1983

Production would run to 2 Warlords a month produced concurrently with around 6 Chieftans. As well as the basses a few mini guitars were produced th most notable of which was a mini flying V which went to Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music. A full size six string similar in looks to the Warlord bass was also produced.

John Entwhistle of The Who had a bass made wih his famous spider web design. Mark King had two Warlords built, the quality and metilculous attention to detail made these basses probably the finest instruments produced at Pangborn.

By the late eighties the company was finding it very hard to compete with the much cheaper imported instruments and was sadly to close.

Ashley Pangborn now works in Germany with a famous American guitar manufcturer but he leaves a legacy of outstanding instruments which are cherished by owners and collectors alike.

Pangborn workshop, the guitar second from the left was one of the first ashley ever made. In the distance is a very early warlord.