Mike Dawes

Mike Dawes is a British fingerstyle guitarist known for composing, arranging and performing several parts at once on a single acoustic guitar, and for a viral solo-guitar arrangement of Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know. His main guitar is a signature model built by the German luthier Andreas Cuntz, a modification of Cuntz's Indian Rose CWG23s+ with Indian rosewood back and sides, a 38-year-old Sitka spruce top, an ebony fingerboard, an Indian rosewood rosette and quilted maple binding.

Inside the guitar are a DiMarzio Black Angel magnetic pickup, a Black Angel piezo and a K&K Trinity mic and preamp, with a Schatten Dualie soundboard transducer for the kick-drum sound he gets by tapping the body. Premier Guitar's rig rundown describes a pedalboard he built himself with his father, a plywood board covered in cracked Velcro, which he went back to after trying a more professional-looking board on a tour.

Dawes has toured and recorded with Tommy Emmanuel and others. Guitar Radar follows his signature guitars, rig changes and tours.