Black Leonardo going to Ullapool; and a Personal Selection Falstaff going to Ullapool; Now for a shock; A bit less of a shock; Will McNicol; Dreaming with Music. A guitar lesson from Segovia; John Smith – Hummingbird; Eric Bibb; Ken Nicol Days of Reason; Ullapool Guitar Festival; New Guitars for Martin Simpson and Richard Hawley; Martin Carthy; Left Handed Goodfellow for sale; The Ullapool Guitar; Music in the Glen and a New fret slotting machine.

Black Leonardo going to Ullapool

Let's start off the newsletter with something big and dark. No, not me, a guitar, specially built to show at the Ullapool Guitar Festival (Hooray!), this Leonardo has African Ebony back and sides, and a remarkable piece of Sinker Redwood for the top.

Snakewood bindings, and red border inlay lines everywhere. 44.5mm neck laminated with Ebony, contrasting Pearl diamond position markers. Black Gotoh tuners, even a black strap pin. And a matt finish! A wonderful thing, to be displayed at the festival then offered for sale. Price, £6,400.

And a Personal Selection Falstaff going to Ullapool

What's so special about Ullapool that we make all these lovely instruments to take there? Go there and find out.

Here we are - Malaysian Blackwood back and sides, selected for me by Stefan Sobell because I rarely manage to leave my workshop. The soundboard is interesting- it's Torrefied, Bearclaw Engleman Spruce. Torrefied? Not terrified, but close, the wood has been cooked at a high temperature, without oxygen, so that is doesn't actually burn, but all the resins evaporate, harden or crystallize, making the wood lighter, and stiffer, which is what every guitar maker looks for in soundboard material. I've used Brazilian Tulipwood for the bindings, and the neck laminations. Gorgeous isn't it? Pearl notched squares for the fingerboard inlays. Matt finish as well. Price, £5,900.

Now for a shock

You didn't expect this did you? Made about 1989 for the band Xentrix, who still have the black version we made at much the same time.  This is in very good condition, the white lacquer is largely unblemished, fitted with two EMG active pickups.

It's for sale - offers in region of £2,200, inc. flight case.  I did try modelling it for a photograph, but I refuse to let you see the results.

A bit less of a shock

A Walnut Pack Leader - selling for a good friend to raise money for a house! It's made from African Walnut, with a three-piece built-in neck and silver wire and pearl inlays, PRS Mira pickups. I think it has had two coil tap switches and an extra strap pin at some point, but the holes have been very well disguised. Made in 1979, the Pack Leader guitars were the forerunner of several well-known brands. A similar guitar sold from Terry Pack for £2,500 recently, and a Rosewood version for £3,500. I'm asking £2,200 ono

Will McNicol

There is always something to say about Will, all good of course.

Here he is, on his recent visit to Zimbabwe, with his friend Zicky on Mbira - a sophisticated form of thumb piano. Link to video

And here he is again, featured in the French magazine "La Guitare Seche le Mag" this month. Also featured in the magazine are Eric Bibb and Bireli Lagrene, so my secret plan for world domination is working.  Will is one of my undercover agents, he's wearing a beard nowadays in order to avoid being recognised. Doh, that was a mistake, now everyone will know.

And let's not forget the weekend of composition with Gordon Giltrap! Link

Will's site. 

Gordon’s site. 

Dreaming with Music. A guitar lesson from Segovia

This is very appropriate after talking about Will.

As players, we should know most of this, but how wonderful to see it demonstrated so clearly by Andres Segovia. Link to video

John Smith - Hummingbird

Not long now until John's new album is launched- October 5th to be exact. I have my "press copy" in my car stereo. Every note sung, every string played, is very clearly Smith.

If you go to this iTunes link, you can listen to the title track, Hummingbird, which John has released as a single.

Despite his deep background in folk music, John has mostly performed his own songs. He feels the time is right to expose all those dark influences, basically, our ancient "traditions" of killing people, or failing that, falling in love with them, then killing them. Much of the album is John's interpretation of some famous traditional songs, such as "Hares on the Mountain", but there are some new original songs as well.

My favourite is "Boudica" "A line drawn in the ground, ten feet down" which I think refers to the layer of ash (and blood) which the lady put under London.

The album includes all the words, and the guitar tunings!

Guitarist magazine reviewed the album -

"The Guitar work throughout is virtuosic - his Fylde acoustic positively glowing, complementing John's hypnotic vocal style"

Yep, that's what I said as well.

John's site.

Eric Bibb

I came across this by accident. Link to video

This all starts off very nicely, but when Eric starts a new song, I think the guy with the camera was bundled out of the arena, leaving his phone running!

Eric's site

Ken Nicol Days of Reason

Mostly new songs, one of them is this, "Song of two bridges" Link to video

The album is a special limited edition. I have number 107.

I've known Ken about thirty years, and I still regard him as one of the most exciting acoustic guitar players we have, but he is certainly not the most flamboyant self- promoter I've ever met. I didn't know about the album until Moira saw it at the Cumbria show, and Ken didn't tell us!

So here we are, a bit of promotion for Ken, because he won't do it himself. Buy his albums, see his gigs, here! Ken's site.

Ullapool Guitar Festival

This is the new banner that will go across the back of the stage, showing Remi Harris on top of Stac Pollaidh.  Design courtesy Mike English. Photo Adam Bulley.
 
This will replace the small banner of my cheeky face getting in on the act behind every artist. It wasn't my idea originally and I've been getting more annoyed with it every year.

Just a couple of weeks now - so much to do, but we really can't wait. There are only a few tickets left - don’t miss out.

Ullapool Guitar Festival site.  

New Guitars for Martin Simpson and Richard Hawley

Not much to show, or to say so far, but two very interesting projects just starting. I sent this picture to both of them, Martin said the neck looks a bit chunky. Richard said he wants me to finish his first.

Martin's Website. 

Richard's site.

Martin Carthy

We met up with Martin at Kendal last week, to deliver his repaired and refretted Signature Martin 00018, I came away with his other Martin guitar to work on! Martin is just about the only person I will do “non-Fylde” repairs for he is so important to me, and to many others. Nice to see him playing his Fylde and looking so well.

Martin’s contact.    

Left Handed Goodfellow for sale

Made in 2006 as a left-handed guitar, not converted from right handed.

Structurally, it's in excellent condition. It has been played a lot, so we have refretted it, and there is some soundhole wear and some dings on the soundboard, nothing that would worry me. Lovely sound, fitted with a Headway pickup.

If no one is interested in a left-handed guitar, we can easily convert it to right handed.

New, this would be £2,400. I am asking £1,500

The Ullapool Guitar

This year, it will be a special Tenor guitar, made from Indian Rosewood with a Port Orford Cedar soundboard, neck laminated from Mahogany and Ebony, with red lines, An Ebony fingerboard with Pearl "notched square" inlays. A very good-looking guitar, big strong sound, loads of headroom. I know it will attract a lot of attention, but if it doesn't sell at the show, it will be on our website soon afterwards.

Also, on this picture, a Ukulele on its way north, and a Flamenco guitar. Lots of guidance from David Buckingham for this one. Cypress back and sides, European Spruce soundboard, Spanish Cedar Neck and Ebony fingerboard. 655mm scale length, courtesy of my new fret slot cutting machine, see below.

In addition to all the instruments shown here, there will be two brand new special guitars, and several smaller instruments on show.

Billy Watman

I have my copy now.  It has had the usual Roger test of sitting in my car player for a while.  I knew that Billy had recorded four of the tracks with his new Fylde, and I think it’s clear which ones they are. 

I can’t wait for Billy to get used to it enough to make some excellent videos. He is, in far more ways than one — a “Guitar Star”

Billy’s site.

Music in the Glen

I have a soft spot for Uilleann pipes. Add flute and a Falstaff with Celtic inlays, and it's almost guaranteed to get into the newsletter.

Deidre Galway has had this Falstaff for some years now, and the band is continuing to do well. Link to video

They have a new CD available

Band site.

New fret slotting machine

I've save the best until last. In one of Bill Bryson's books, there is a line something like "there are a large number of middle aged Englishmen who will never need Viagra as long as we have working steam engines". I don't go quite that far, but I do like a bit of pretty engineering -

Isn't it, well, sexy? (Yes, Moira does worry about me). It's basically a CNC machine, without the C, the N, or the other C. It has jig bored index plates, ground eccentric clamping, micro adjustable fret compensation, and, wait for it, steady now - recirculating ball linear slides.

Yes, it does, ball linear slides and they recirculate. It has lots of other things as well, but it's all mine, my precious, and I'm not going to share.

It will cut any scale, any slot width or depth. Radiused fingerboards, fan frets. It will probably cut flapjack into equal slices. That should stop some fights in the workshop.

It's only taken me about five years to get this far, it's been fun making it, now I suppose I should put some blade and belt guards on it before the elf and safety people see it. Please don't tell them until I've got that done.

© 2018 Fylde Guitars - All right reserved