A BRIDGWATER guitar-maker stepped in to save the day after an unusual request from the South of France to cover a rare custom guitar…in 24-carat gold.

Kim Webber, owner of Kim Webber Guitars in Phillips Close, leapt into action when Glastonbury-based gold plater Graham Baker received an enquiry from a customer in Monaco asking to gold plate a chrome Fender Stratocaster.

Graham naturally assumed the guitar's body was made of wood and sprayed with chrome paint making it a simple job.

However, upon further investigation the Fender turned out to have a limited edition, hollow stainless steel body, which was chrome plated rather than sprayed.

This complicated the situation as the precious instrument would need to be delicately dismantled to re-plate in gold.

The guitar was then sent off for evaluation, and after several tests it was confirmed it could be safely gold plated without suffering any damage.

Graham not only had to make sure the gold plating was of the highest quality but the disassembly, reassembly and set-up was of the same standard.

This was where Kim stepped in and he took the high-value guitar apart immediately, and just a week later Graham gold plated it and it was ready to be put back together and sent back to the customer.

Kim refused to give away the customer's identity but revealed he is 'well-known and lives next door to Justin Hayward from the Moody Blues'.

He said: “It really is spectacular - you had better wear sunglasses when you play this guitar!”