As career paths go, champion bodybuilder to guitar maker may not be an obvious one – but for Brett Barrett, the journey from muscles to music has come full circle.

A promising young guitarist, he abandoned music to wow judges and admirers with his sculpted physique.

Now he is sculpting the musical instrument for others to play and enjoy.

Brett is the first to admit that some find it strange to see him cradling and creating such a delicate, wooden structure.

Now 45, he retains the broad physique of a bodybuilder, although he has always kept his fingernails long in readiness to pick up the guitar.

“When people see me with a guitar, they think, ‘you can’t play that’,” he said. “People think it’s something that has just occurred, but the guitar has been with me ever since I was a teenager. People don’t see that, they only know me as a bodybuilder.”

Brett started learning classical guitar at 13, inspired by the likes of John Williams and Julian Bream and the distinctive twang associated with Westerns.

“I just fell in love with John Williams and the sound of the nylon strings has always encaptured me,” he says.

Taking evening classes at Skipton and Craven College, he progressed to music school in Harrogate.

But his life took a turn when he spotted a bodybuilding magazine featuring the tanned, glistening figure of champion Bob Paris.

“He was climbing out of a swimming pool,” recalls Brett, who still has a copy of the magazine. “I thought he had a really pleasing physique from both a woman’s and a man’s point of view. I decided to take it up as I thought I could be like him in six months. But it didn’t quite work like that, it took me years.”

Brett devoted himself to bodybuilding, winning local, national and European competitions. But he decided to retire from what he describes as an ultimately depressing career at the age of 30. “I did love it but it did take up my life and when I did the shows it was an anticlimax as you’re not on stage very long,” he reflects.

He was left with no direction, in his words, “roaming around in the wilderness”.

“All along, something was staring me in the face without me knowing it – I had a guitar under the bed,” he says.

“I knew music and it was there for the taking. I always said through the years it was something I could fall back on. Then I lost my dad to cancer in 2007. He always hated the fact I had given up the guitar.

“I made an oath saying I would never give it up again. Even when I feel like giving up again, I can’t because I have made an agreement in memory of him.”

Returning to playing, he decided to complete a guitar he had started making 14 years earlier, triggering a new career as a luthier.

He has crafted 13 musical instruments, now on display in the cellar of the Skipton house he shares with his mum Mary, which has been transformed into a workshop.

And he has been helped along the way by local luthiers Pete Barton and Bill Dinsdale, who have inspected his work.

Brett is inspired by the romantic and curvaceous shape of the Romanillos guitar – one of the most sought-after names in the industry. Using high quality wood from across the world, he planes it to depths of just 2mm to create as vibrant a sound as possible, whilst retaining the natural strength of the wood.

And each guitar has a unique, inlaid rosette with a chalice motif – a symbol of inspiration to Brett. “It’s a bit like the Holy Grail in respect that it points to God himself, being the creator of life,” he explains. “He created us, I create guitars and people that play them create music.

“It’s a rosette that is symbolic of creation and art, which is a great gift.”

Brett is hoping to return to performing and his ambition is to become a recognised name in the industry.

“Even when I wasn’t playing regularly, when I heard certain sounds in music, it did make me want to play. It was regrettable I stopped to a certain degree although I didn’t beat myself up about it.

“I always kept the nails on my right hand, even when I wasn’t playing. Like they say, old habits die hard.”