Barry Rhodes made his first electric guitar in 1957 but guitar building was a hobby until he retired from his day job in 1994. From his home workshop in Melbourne, Australia, Rhodes then went on to make high end hand built custom guitars. His standard models were named after snakes: 'asp' (base model) - 'adder' - 'copperhead' - 'tiger' and - 'taipan'. They all had the same basic design but with differences in body contours, wood, electronics, hardware, inlays and finishes. Barry Rhodes retired from guitar making in 2011 and moved to Margaret River, Western Australia.

Source: Guitar Tuning Services (Archived 2010)