A Dunstable man has tuned into the past with a loving restoration project on an American guitar over 100 years old.

Singer and guitarist Rick Camp is showing the world just how good a real period instrument sounds after spending some £1,300 on buying the 1907 Washburn parlour guitar and having it painstakingly restored by professional luthier David Merrin, of Olney in Bucks.

Said Rick: "He's done a fantastic job renovating it, removing all the bodged lacquer, French polishing it and achieved it without making it look like a new guitar."

Work on the guitar has revealed the Washburn to be made of now rare Brazilian rosewood with a sold spruce top and mahogany neck.

Delighted Rick, who has been putting the Washburn through its paces at Dunstable's Globe pub on Tuesday's acoustic nights, said: "It would rival a Martin in materials and its construction is fantastic."

You can hear Rick telling the Washburn's story and see him playing it by watching the attached video.