Rik Middleton worked as a secondary school biology teacher for 25 years, but developed an increasing interest in woodworking. After his classical guitars began winning gold and silver medals at competitions he decided to go full time as a luthier in 1994. He specialises in classical guitars: more recently he has concentrated on making a short-scale length model and a super-cutaway Jazz classical guitar.

Source: Rik Middleton website (20 May 2018)