Brazilian Rosewood Mandolin

It's an absolute joy to make things like this. With any small instrument, I have a much greater choice of exceptional, high quality timbers, partly because I have saved every small section for about thirty years. This is a Touchstone mandolin, made from old Brazilian Rosewood, which came from the Classical guitar maker Harald Petersen. Harald lived quite near to here, although I never did meet him. The soundboard is again, very old timber, dark Sinker Redwood from California, and the neck is wonderful Mahogany which I have had for a long time.

Snakewood bindings and head veneer with red lines at all the borders. Abalone diamond fingerboard inlays, I knew it would look lovely, and it sounds so sweet.

This instrument is a special order, and is not for sale, but to give you an idea, it would cost in the region of £4,000.

Remi's second Gypsy guitar, now with his name on the label inside, I think the older Caliban and Egyptian models have run their course, so I am offering a more traditional design, and the opportunity to have a Remi Harris signature model was too good to miss.

This one has a Cedar top, by Remi's request, and again is finished in French Polish.

French polishing is one of my favourite jobs, but this time, I grudgingly allowed Alex to do the shellac work, I was hoping the fumes would get to him and he'd agree to do some overtime. It worked!

I've used Gotoh tuners, I really don't think they can be bettered. Otherwise, it's much the same as Remi's previous guitar- a slim Walnut neck , and the usual laminated Rosewood body. A slightly warmer, possibly louder sound than the first.

Remi says "The sound is a perfect contrast to my other one. I absolutely love it! Thanks so much to everyone who worked on it, I might have to start taking both to gigs now!"

Here is Remi playing his first Fylde, hopefully he will feature his new guitar very soon. Perhaps he could double track something? Link to video

Remi's site.

John Smith's New Album

Our intrepid hero ventures forth once again to capture the hearts of the natives and convert them to his own brand of heathenship, and in search of a lady called Pocahontas to whom he can sing "Save my life". I've wanted to say something like that ever since I met John, but it's just occurred to me that "Save my Life" gives me the perfect excuse for such a weak joke.

I wonder how many people will understand? History lessons are not what they used to be

Back to the real world …

John has recorded a new Album! I've known about it for a while and had to swear a terrible oath. It really was quite terrible, probably the worst oath I've ever sworn. The album is a "collection of original and traditional folk songs". I've heard some of these songs hundreds of times, but never, ever, sung the way John sings them.

Here he is, "showcasing" one of the tracks at the backstage session at Cambridge Folk Festival. Link to video

You may have heard him play this same track, with his band, on Mark Radcliffe's show last week. Link to audio

If you want to read "useful blurb, including some press notes", go here The album is called Hummingbird and is out on October 5th - ULLAPOOL!

You can see and pre-order it here.

Vampire Guitar

John was here a few weeks ago with his newest Fylde - the custom Alexander that was featured in the august 2017 newsletter. He wanted to change the pickup to a Baggs Anthem, which takes a while and he was in a rush, so he had to leave it with me. "While it’s here Rog, do you think you could take the lacquer off"? WHAT!

Sigh. We have taken it apart, stripped the lacquer and given it a light refinish, then wire wool, polish and elbow grease. Elbow grease comes in soft containers about 5ft 9inches long, with a beard, called Paul. (how can a beard be called Paul?) Well done Paul. It is now so UN-shiny that it doesn't even have a reflection - see the mirror behind? It's a vampire guitar, that should suit Mr Smith quite well.

I will probably say a lot more about matt finishes in another newsletter. This time it has worked out well, and John thinks it's great.

John's site.

Ullapool

Cumbria Guitar Show

Gordon Giltrap's new album

Perilous journey - Gordon Giltrap's biography

Do you think Gordon wrote that tune, just so that he would have a great title for his biography forty years later? Couldn't have been much better could it? I can't wait to read it.

Written by Steve Pilkington, with a foreword by Del Newman, and a pic of his new Fylde guitar on the cover - it's going to be very popular. Publication date 5th October. That's the same day as John Smith's album, we should all have a party.

Pre-order here.

Gordon Giltrap and Will McNicol

Will McNicol in Zimbabwe

Toby Hay

Henry Olsen

"Old Fruity" is playing beautifully and I am still as thrilled by the guitar as I was when I first picked it up from you. I've settled on Martin 13-56 "Retro" strings, which are manufactured from Monel, on a steel hex. core. They are difficult strings to play because they are of high tension and feel quite rough under my fingers, but the sound that they produce with O.F. is what I have been looking for for years, i.e. to represent what the North-East sounded like to me in the early 1970's.

I have never before been so inspired by a guitar. I've found my sound, after all these years ... Thank you again for this transformational instrument.”

Thanks Henry, see you soon.

Billy Watman

Billy and his new guitar are working well together. He has been finishing off a new CD, and has used the Fylde to record the last four tracks.

Press release here.

The CD is now on all the download sites, and available to mail order from here.

Elliott Morris

Elliott has reached his target in his PledgeMusic campaign, so watch out for the new album.

More about it here.

We are going to see Elliott with Jack Carrack this weekend, at one of our local venues that serve good beer - always a factor in our social plans. It's probably good advice to any artist - make sure your venues serve good beer, you will get bigger audiences. And if the beer is really good, they will buy more CDs.

Elliott’s site.

John Hobson

One half of my old favourite duo - "Hobson and Lees", John has now recorded three tracks on his “Grand Bouche” and has worn a different suit every time. Martin Simpson, Richard Hawley and myself all agree that guitars sound better when played wearing a suit, although I did point out that a guitar wearing a suit would look a bit odd. Maybe it's a Sheffield thing.

Link to video

Good, isn't he? John came to the workshop this week to have the "dots" moved from the traditional gypsy 10th fret to the far more logical 9th fret, so that he doesn't have to play jazz all the time. Or perhaps so that what he does play doesn't turn into jazz by accident.

Bireli Lagrène

Last month's newsletter was a bit "Nylon". This one is rather "Gypsy". No reason, it's just the way things fell into place.

Link to video

The guitar Bireli bought from me isn't a "Selmer" gypsy style, it's actually a Falstaff, with the modifications that I first made for Adam Palma, then Al Di Meola - a shallow body, cutaway and Baggs Anthem stage pro system. Lovely sound and does the job very nicely even in such a specialised situation.

This clip is very good.

Bireli emailed me again this week to say that the guitar is sounding better all the time … and I bought some bigger hats this week.

Big Lumps of Rosewood

I'm on a mission, to get hold of all the unusual timber that is hidden in old joiners' workshops. Or in the workshops of old joiners. I think I have all the apostrophes right. These Rosewood "logs" came from a retired Funeral director, which raises all sorts of questions. It has lots of splits and it's a bit wild, but should yield some interesting timber. I quite often get calls from people who have something to offer me, it sometimes doesn't work out (Rosewood Pianos, for instance, are not actually Rosewood) and I do wonder how much else there is in various places that might or might not ever get used. If you know of anything or anyone, do tell me before you tell anyone else. You might get your name in my newsletter

Crispin Halcrow

Crispin is about to join the real world - he has finished his degree in "electronic engineering with music technology systems". That sounds like an excellent education for someone with Crispin's ambitions, and he will soon be contributing to my pension - and yours!

Link to video

So it's in everybody's interest to help him. Go to his gigs, buy his albums, watch his videos, and follow his progress over the next few years. He has an excellent start - keep going Crispin!

Crispin's Facebook site

Antonio Forcione and sand painting

Ariel for sale somewhere

Omega Guitar auctions

Innes Watson

Fylde mandolin sinks Nuclear Submarine

Note to self