Guitar for Henry Olsen. “The Rio Leo”; Video did not kill the radio star; Funny Cow; Chris While, Julie Matthews and Ken Nicol; Penrith Guitar show; Gomez and John Smith; Ullapool Guitar Festival; Custom Magician Guitar; Goodfellow for sale; Special Alexander for sale; Adam Palma; Dan Walsh; Will McNicol; New Signature Guitar for Gordon Giltrap; Carrie Martin; Troy Donockley; Remi Harris; Bread and Roses auction; Bruce Victor; The Charity; GDPR and Privacy policy; Grow your own Guitar.

Guitar for Henry Olsen. “The Rio Leo”

Henry first got in touch some years ago, asking about a slightly “off the wall” project, I tried to talk him out it, so he went to Alan Beardsall instead. That will teach me. (probably not). Now things have come full circle, as they often do, and after some intervention by Hugh Burns, several meetings and a lot of discussion, here we are.

Henry made his mark with Primal Scream.  He has now quietened down a little bit, he expresses himself in gentler ways but still has a wild streak - just look at this guitar.

Based on a Leonardo. Wild grained and strongly coloured Brazilian Rosewood, figured Sitka Spruce, Bocote neck with Mahogany centre section and red inlay lines, Burr Yew for the bindings and bevels back and front, all bordered with red lines. Plain Ebony fingerboard with Pink Ivory bindings, Partidgewood bridge, Tulipwood head veneer with Cocobolo truss rod cover.

DPA mic with built in XLR jack, Gotoh 510 tuners. Quite an exotic package. Henry is a lovely guy, I’ve enjoyed every minute of this project. Here he is with his son Shadi.

Henry's site.

Video did not kill the radio star (Thank you, Troy)

I've had lots of comments about the Radio 4 programme “The Instrument Makers” a few weeks ago.

One kind gentleman said we had good faces for the radio, how rude! Lots of others said they thought it should have been longer, and that it would make good TV, so my people are speaking to other people's people, and we shall see. Martin, Richard and myself have been swapping silly comments.

Richard thought we should use this picture, but I can’t decide which one is me?

Funny Cow

Richard has written the music to the new film “Funny Cow” starring Maxine Peake. He also plays a cameo role alongside Corrine Bailey Rae, so guess what Moira and I will be doing next time we have a spare Saturday night and fancy some overpriced popcorn and a parking fine? Link to video

Richard’s website

Chris While, Julie Matthews and Ken Nicol

Three very dear friends of mine who have worked together in various different combinations over the years. Here they are, at an almost chance meeting on the other side of the world, with three Fylde guitars. Link to video.

While & Mathews website

Ken Nicol website

Penrith Guitar show 26th August

Ken will be playing here as usual, and we will have a display, hopefully with some new instruments. It's a bank holiday, a good excuse for a few days in the lakes. “Sweetheart, look! A guitar show!”. “Oh darling, such a shame, if only we had known, we could have come here instead of spending the day with my mother”.

Cumbria Guitar Show Website

And here is a clip of Ken playing two instruments. By himself. Link to video

Ken Nicol website

Gomez and John Smith

I expect you all know what a “rider” is, but just in case, it's a set of “comforts” to be provided to the artist backstage, set in stone in the contract. Basically, they should be food and drink, but in the good old days, “fruit and flowers” were mentioned a lot.

John had warned me that they had a surprise for me. We emptied three bottles while I was there, but I have to admit they weren't full to start with. Link to video

John has also told me that Ben Ottewell has taken a fancy to a Falstaff. Looks to me as if he needs at least five guitars.

John Smith website.

Ben Ottewell website.

Gomez website.

Ullapool Guitar Festival October 5th 6th and 7th

We are now starting the long run up to the event of the year.

This time, in addition to the usual culprits like John Smith, Will McNicol, Clive Carroll, Tristan Seume, Adam Bulley, Chas Mackenzie, Hugh Burns, Innes Watson, John Goldie and Prof. Allan Neave, there will be: Amanda Cook, Aynsley Lister, Becky Langan, David Buckingham Quartet, Gareth Pearson, John Tracey, Julie Malischke, Soenke Meinen, Steve Hicks and Tim Edey.

Amazing - how do they do it?

I haven't yet decided what to make specially for the festival, but I have some ideas and I must get started soon.

Ullapool website

Custom Magician Guitar

A very special order. Macassar Ebony back and sides, Sinker Redwood top. Mahogany neck laminated with walnut and Ebony. Macassar headstock veneer. Macassar bindings and arm bevel, framed by gold lines. Abalone diamond inlays with a personal inlay and various personal features. Big, deep, dark and dramatic, in appearance and in sound.

Goodfellow for sale

Lucky for someone. A guitar made to export specifications, with Ebony instead of Rosewood for the fingerboard and bridge, and “Rocklite”. for the bindings. The customer is going through a divorce so can't complete the order, his loss will be somebody else's gain.

The Goodfellow guitar has often been referred to as a “Blues guitar”. I've no argument with that, but unusually, this one has a 47mm fingerboard, so ideal for specialist fingerpickers, or for those with big hands. See more photographs here.

SOLD

Special Alexander for sale.

This happens sometimes, a spare guitar, made without a customer in mind.

Indian Rosewood body, fine Cedar Soundboard, 629mm scale with a 45mm Ebony fingerboard and Mahogany one-piece neck. Rosewood bindings with marquetry inlays. A lovely guitar, just about identical to Ken Nicol's “small signature model”. See more photographs here.

SOLD

Adam Palma

Great to hear from Adam again. This tune takes me way back to my youth. Somebody is bound to say, “Can you remember that far back Roger?”, thought I'd say it first. Link to video.

Adam's website

Dan Walsh

Dan now has his new guitar! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEEToD6uJos Of course, Dan, or Danjo as he is sometime known, is known mostly for his banjo playing. His family live nearby so we see quite a bit of him and I'm pleased to be coaxing him on to a proper wooden instrument made without skin.

Dan's website.

Will McNicol

Our young friend will be hosting a guitar workshop at The North American Guitar company. Link to website

I hope he will be taking some North English guitars along with him to demonstrate his “Technically ferocious” talent. That's a quote from Clive Carroll and I promised I'd say it as often as I could. “Technically ferocious”. That's twice so far.

Will's site

New Signature Guitar for Gordon Giltrap

My oldest musical friend, GG and I have shared many special times over the years. I've lost count of the number of guitars he has bought from me, and we are always discussing new options. This one is long overdue - an update of the original Fylde Gordon Giltrap Signature. I've always thought that Maple and Cedar are a perfect tonal pairing, we both wanted him to have a new signature model but couldn't decide which direction to go, then all of a sudden, this occurred to me, and I am extremely pleased with it.

Gordon says, “It has a tone like no other”, and plans to record with it soon.

Gordon's site.

Carrie Martin

Carrie is another of Gordon's close friends, and she acquired this Leonardo quite recently. The picture is very deceptive, it looks like a painting, I can't work out how she can sit like that, and the size of the skirting boards makes Carrie look like Alice!

Carrie's site.

Troy Donockley

Troy continues to extend his magic, world-wide. Here he is with Nightwish in Las Vegas ... and here he is at the V&A in London, having drunk far too much milk of magnesia.

and here he is with his new band - Auri

“A kind of music which can't be described by words alone. A magical kind of sound to be heard whilst falling down Alice's rabbit hole.” That sounds like Troy to me. Link to video

One of the tracks is called “Them thar Chantarelles” That sounds like Troy as well.

AURI's facebook page

Remi Harris

Remi was here recently after playing our local club, here he is with Caley Groves in my office. Remi's wife Dani and Bass player Mike Green were cheering them on, along with all our workshop gang just out of the picture.

A breathtaking video taken on his current tour, which is just coming to an end, and his new guitar should be ready shortly after that. Pictures soon. Link to video

Remi's website.

Bread and Roses auction in San Francisco

I showed this auction a few weeks ago, it has all worked out very well.

The Alchemist was won at the Bread & Roses Presents charity auction by Chris Gorog, former Chairman & CEO of Napster and former President of U.K. Entertainment company ITC Entertainment Group.

Chris is on the board of Bread & Roses and is also a musician. Check out Chris's album, Lost Ohio, at which includes a rockin' song entitled Party Town selected by Dan Aykroyd's BluesMobile radio show as Song of the Week featured on over 200 stations across the U.S. Link to Chris's website

Chris was absolutely thrilled to become the next owner of the Fylde Alchemist and intends to “show it off to friends while playing the hell out of it.” Chris is especially impressed with the “bell-like chiming and resonance of the guitar”, as well as it's “whisky good looks.”

Bruce Victor

And here is the guitar, being played by Bruce Victor, the kind musician who owned it previously and donated it to the charity. Link to video.

The Charity

And if you want to see what the charity actually does - watch this. Link to video

GDPR and Privacy policy

What does a pirate think about the new legislation?
GDPARRGGGHHHH.
Thank you James, very apt.

We now have a privacy policy which you can see if you are that desperate. Link to webpage

Grow your own Guitar

We planted 700 native hardwood trees in our “garden” a few years ago. All I have to do now is wait a lifetime or so. Some kindly soul planted this Sycamore a long time before that, but it was getting a bit out of control and endangering our house. Time to become a guitar!

One small section “quarter sawn”, debarked, waxed and needing about five years to dry.

Our native timber is not ideal for guitar making. Even a tree as big as this one doesn't yield wood of good enough size and quality. The timber is often stressed and unstable because of our growing conditions, nearly always wild grained and sometimes it contains barbed wire, shot gun pellets, and even parts of bicycles! (I'm sure I left my bike leaning against this tree fifty years ago).

This one section is just about all I could salvage from the whole tree, and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort.

It's good to try though, great fun and very satisfying. I've said before that I'm quite happy picking bits of wood up and putting them down again.

See a tree and pick it up, all day long, you'll have a tree. Old English proverb.

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