Walnut Small Falstaff; Megan Henwood; Eric Bibb; One I made earlier; Guitar for sale; Will McNicol; Another one I made earlier; Michael Chapman; 8-string guitar; John James; Bandurria; Whisky; John Smith; David Mead; The Fylde Book; A Short History of Nearly Everything; Guitar in Peru and Calculator stories.

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Billy Watman; 7-String guitar for John Breese; Cup O' Joe; Cumbria Guitar Show; Ken Nicol; Bireli Lagrene; Lisa Hannigan; Classic guitar from Ullapool; Elliott Morris; Ben Ottewell; Bill Bailey; Jochen Ross; Jez Lowe; Horror story; Broken guitar; Ed Tudor Pole; More About Bread & Roses in California and Moira’s medal and my new chair

Billy Watman

Billy was a grand finalist in Sky TV’s "Guitar Star" in 2016, at the tender age of 15. I met him at Ullapool last year and we got along very well. Guess what happened?

Billy was very impressed by the sound of Will McNicol's guitar, so this one is very similar, with some individual features, including his signature inlaid in silver wire. I suppose I might have to inlay Will's guitar now to stop any jealousy. Link to video

Billy's first gig after receiving the guitar was at the Beacon festival, and not being short in confidence, he used the brand-new instrument for the whole set, despite there being a bit of a party going on in the wings. (Festival organisers take note).

Billy has been busking at the Edinburgh fringe since he was eight years old, and is now studying music full time, fitting in festivals and gigs where he can. Now at the ripe old age of 17, it's going to be fun watching him develop from such a strong start. Billy's website

7-String guitar for John Breese

These pictures might be a little below our usual standard. It was me behind the lens this time, Mike English was operating me by remote control from a long way away. Apparently, my hands shake a bit, there's a surprise. It's when they stop moving at all that I will worry.

It's a 7-string classical guitar (low B). and it's rather nice. I didn’t take any detail shots though, which is a shame, as the headstock and tuners in particular worked out rather well.

We made it for John Breese who plays banjo and bass with Charlotte Carrivick (who is now his wife), and in various other bands. I met him when “Cardboard Fox” came to visit the workshop.

John studied Classical guitar at Southampton university with Vincent Lindsey-Clark, where he won the highest distinction mark for his performance at Master's level so I'm trusting him to make good use of it. Link to video

This is John and Charlotte playing together, Charlotte with her custom Falstaff and John on banjo. I'm looking forward to seeing him play the new guitar. Watch this space. John's site.

Cup O' Joe

We saw these three at the young Folk Awards concert a few years ago and they have moved on leaps and bounds. Link to video

What a lovely video. Charlotte Carrivick (again) picked out one of the "University guitars" when she came to visit and told Reuben about it. It's unusual for Fylde, a Spruce top with Mahogany back and sides and Charlotte reckoned it was perfect for Bluegrass - perfect for Reuben anyway. Cup O' Joe Website

Cumbria Guitar Show

Nearly there. Link to website.

Ken Nicol

Ken came to collect his signature guitar after some repairs and a refret this week, and tested it out by wandering round the workshop. He should do it more often, it beats radio one. It even beats radio four.

Ken Nicol website

Bireli Lagrene

Bireli is still bringing out his “Shallow Falstaff” at regular intervals. Considering how many guitars he must own, it's quite a compliment. Link to Video

Lisa Hannigan

I am told by a very reliable source that Lisa is a very good cook. Is there no end to her talents? Link to video

Obviously not!

Lisa's site.

Classic guitar from Ullapool

The newsletter this month seems to be dominated by Nylon strings. Perhaps I'd better change my name to Rogero. Link to video

This is nice, It's the Classical guitar we took to Ullapool two years ago, we sold it to Brian Arthur and it's developed very well. Brian is a strong supporter of the festival and it's great to see the guitar getting some serious playing. Lots of the professional artists have commented on it on Facebook.

Elliott Morris

Elliott has another pledgemusic campaign for a new album. Link to website

I've never seen so much merchandise available for sale.

Here he is with Jack Carrack. Link to video

Elliott's site.

Ben Ottewell

Ben been expressing interest in a Falstaff guitar like John Smith's, so I'm posting this video in the hope that it might remind him to give me a ring. Link to video

Good isn't it? Even more Nylon strings, what's going on? Have I had some sort of conversion?

Ben's site

Bill Bailey

Bill looping his mandola as an encore! Link to video

Great sound (Headway Pickup), poor video, sorry.

Bill's site

Jochen Ross

I've known Jochen for many years. He plays a Fylde Single Malt mandolin and a prototype Mandola, both at orchestral level, which is very encouraging for me, as classical players often insist on playing more conventional instruments. Link to video

I've always thought that the Single Malt timbers suit the mandolin remarkably well, and that shows nicely in this recording with Jens-Ewe Popp. Link to website

Jez Lowe

It's great to be able to feature Jez. He works so much with other artists that I haven't managed to find many clips of him solo. Link to video

This is his second Oberon, the first having been stolen many years ago. He has also had two Fylde Octavius Bouzoukis, because one of those was stolen! He now has a mandolin on order. Should you order another one Jez? Just in case?

I would talk to Jez more often but he's eight-foot-six and face to face isn't an option.

Jez's site.

Horror story

I saw this quite a long time ago and expressed my horror, but the guitar continued to give good service for another twenty years. Then Gavin Davenport bought it (he does like to rescue damsels in distress) and sent it here. New neck time. Old neck going into my museum.

Broken Guitar

And there's more. These things happen all too often. Link to video

Why have I not seen this before? Why did nobody tell me? I'm sure we could have fixed it.

Ed Tudor Pole

and talking of broken guitars - Ed is still playing his! Link to video

Look back through the newsletters to see the history of this guitar. Link to Newsletter

Ed's site

More About Bread & Roses in California

Here is a recent photo (by Ken Friedman) of Chris Gorog, the Los Angeles-based musician who won the Fylde Alchemist recently at a Bread & Roses benefit event. The guitar was donated by Bread & Roses board member Kay Tittle who bought it from Steve Coyle's Mighty Fine Guitars in Lafayette, CA where it had been consigned by previous owner Dr Bruce Victor.

Musician/physician Bruce Victor, who is on the Circle of Advisors for Bread & Roses and is a volunteer performer (along with his wife and musical partner Marla Fibish in the duo Noctambule - link to their website ) is currently the proud owner of a number of Fylde guitars including an Orsino and Magician, and recorded nearly all of the guitar tracks on Noctamabule's latest album "A Sweetish Tune" on the Orsino.

For the record, Bruce also has a Whisky mandolin a short scale Bouzouki and Cittern which is also prominently featured on this album. He has also owned in the past a Caliban, Falstaff and Oberon. Friends of Fylde are certainly fans of the guitars!

Any musicians travelling to San Francisco who might have time to do a show for Bread & Roses isolated audiences while they are in the Bay Area, are invited to submit a volunteer application and get in touch a few months ahead to see about scheduling. Visit their website at www.breadandroses.org/volunteer to apply online. A CD to benefit the organization has also been produced recently "Mimi Fariña with Lowell Levinger (Banana from the Youngbloods) Live in Germany" from recordings of a concert they did in Germany in 1988. The late Mimi Fariña founded Bread & Roses in 1974 as she felt the isolation of being a touring musician and began bringing her acoustic guitar into places where people were shut away to play for those who needed music most. Banana was her long-time collaborator and has been an active performer for Bread & Roses for over four decades. The CDs are $20 plus shipping and handling and available by emailing info@breadandroses.org.

Moira’s medal and my new chair

I needed a new chair for my office at home. Moira and I visited our local specialist office supplier, I won’t mention the name, but they were very nice people, and very appreciative of all the advice that I gave them while I was testing their products.

The first chair, which advertised rise and fall action, didn't actually rise and fall. The salesman smiled broadly when I pointed that out and offered me another chair that “did rise and fall”. But it didn't, and again, he was very happy to be gently informed. The next chair did rise and fall, but didn't tilt, in fact, it was permanently fixed at such a strange angle that anybody sitting on it would immediately slide off, as the nice man discovered for himself when he didn't quite believe me. Picking himself off the floor, he was so amused that he was having difficulty keeping a straight face, but he did manage to offer me another chair which he was sure would do the job. And, to be fair, it was perfect, other than it cost three million pounds (easy terms available). And it was huge. And ugly. By this time, I had conquered my natural shyness and felt able to tell him my honest opinion, and of course, he was very grateful for my help and I noticed he was chuckling to himself while he looked for other options.

When he did find a working, acceptable, affordable chair, and assembled it specially for me, I felt it only fair to test out the advertised high-quality castor wheels by scooting myself round the large marble floor and introducing myself as “demonstrator for the day” to all the other customers. I do have a sense of humour you see, and I think it's nice to share it.

By this time, all the staff were showing signs of their appreciation, so much so that the manager took Moira to one side and quietly said “we don’t offer medals here madam, but if we did, we'd give you one”

I thought that was very unfair, it was me that did all the work.

Editor's Note ... and you thought you were reading the thoughts of one of the greatest guitar builder's in the world.