Welcome to Fylde Guitars Newsletter

Koa Ariel
Custom Walnut Ariel for sale - SOLD
Remi Harris. That Pedal Show
Cartoon
George Sansome and Holly Clarke. The Lakes of Coolfin
Holly Clarke
12 fret Walnut Leonardo
Will McNicol and Tristan Seume. Middle Child ( for two guitars)
Ken Nicol. Bye Bye Blackbird
Vibrationists. It Ain’t Right
Big Jim Sullivan. Rock History. Part One

Second Hand Instruments
Archie Fisher's guitars
Biréli Lagrène. Live at Iridium
Fret wear anyone?
George Sansome and Matt Quinn
The Songs of Martin Carthy
Maz O Connor. A Man Like You
Ben Robertson. Fairytale Lullaby
Kyntra. Strangers Point
Amy Leach and Alasdair Paul
Galleries 11. Personal Selection Instruments

Koa Ariel

This rather special guitar was inspired by an article in the Sunday Times about the cost of the exotic woods used by some guitar makers. Figures of £10,000 and more were quoted for the rarest pieces of figured Koa being imported into the UK, then sold to makers in other parts of the world.

Then I thought back to a conversation I had with one American maker, who liked to pay as much as possible for his wood supplies because it enabled him to charge so much more for the finished product.

I'm not the only maker who finds this sort of thing rather "triggering", and I decided to demonstrate what can be done simply by speaking to contacts in Hawaii and the west coast of America.

Here it is. Isn't it gorgeous? I asked Sam English to see what could be done with a little videography, he does like a challenge. Tristan Seume provides the music.

The back and sides are of course Curly Koa from Hawaii, via one of those special contacts I mentioned, and the bindings are made from the same pieces of wood, Paul has just reversed the grain and added gentle borders to make the colours "pop". The soundboard is Salvaged Redwood that Moira and I collected from a long-established supplier in Oregon, (a beautiful spot right on the coast, overlooking the Pacific Ocean) and the neck is Torrified Rock Maple from Seth Baccus guitars in England.

The finish is hand applied French polish with gloss lacquer on top.

The guitar already has a home, so it isn't for sale. Yes, it would be expensive, but not stratospheric.

It's a guitar, not a Faberge Egg. Let's keep guitar making real.

Click on an image to enlarge ...

Custom Walnut Ariel for sale.

This is a rather lovely guitar that wasn't meant to be here, but the universe has changed and it is now available for sale.

Dark Claro Walnut back and sides with subtle red lines bordering the Rosewood bindings. The honey-coloured Cedar soundboard is decorated with mosaic purflings and more gentle red lines. The neck is laminated from three sections of Mahogany, again with delicate red lines.

I think the combination of these materials and colours is particularly beautiful and it sounds full and rich; the Ariel design always works particularly well with these timbers.

For Sale at £4,200 - SOLD

Click on an image to enlarge ...

Remi Harris. That Pedal Show

Remi came to visit us this week and among other things, played a little on the Koa Ariel that I featured at the top of this newsletter, plus Martin Simpson's "New" Orleans.

Remi's date sheets are going to keep him very busy for the next two years. Plus he has some exciting projects in the planning stage.

I've always enjoyed Gypsy Jazz, inspired originally by my purchase of the famous Ace of Clubs Django Album, which I bought with my university grant money just because I liked the cover.

My first five Albums were Django, Davy Graham's Folk Blues and Beyond, The Shadows Greatest Hits, Roy Harper's Come out fighting Ghengis Smith and John Mayall's It’s a Hard Road.

I wonder why I started making guitars?

Remi's Website

Cartoon

Just one of the "toons" that the late departed Tony Husband sketched for me. What fun.

George Sansome and Holly Clarke. The Lakes of Coolfin

We saw these two at a tiny venue near Coniston a week or so ago and really enjoyed ourselves. Each of them is carving a solo career but also excel in partnerships with other musicians, so you will need to check their websites and "socials" to keep up with everything. Certainly, the pair of them playing together is something special, they are planning bigger tours and are well worth seeing.

The noticeboard at the village hall where we saw them was full of Fylde players who had played there over the years. Vin Garbutt, Gordon Giltrap, Chris While and Julie Matthews etc.

A big part of live music's future is in the hands of small venues like this, and of the hard-working committees. Look out for them and support them.

George's Website

Holly's Website

e-voice

Holly Clarke.

As I said - playing with other musicians. George already has his feet under the table in this newsletter, and it looks like Holly is going to become a regular too. Splendid.

I love hearing string bass playing, and I think it goes particularly well with acoustic guitar. Holly has put together an excellent band of young musicians here.

Music has certainly changed since I started to go to folk clubs sixty or more years ago, but it really makes me more hopeful when I see a collection of talent such as this.

It might be my eyesight, but I'm sure the pub where they recorded this is advertising a "Free Horse”.

Holly's Website

12 fret Walnut Leonardo

Personal Selection Walnut Leonardo

Why oh why has this guitar not sold? I honestly thought it would be snapped up, and my only conclusion is that the 12-fret body join makes it a little unattractive to some players.

I want to emphasise that the neck join position is a very important part of the design and sound of the guitar, putting the bridge right in the "working area" of the soundboard. The cutaway design restores access to the higher frets so it’s a very practical guitar and I think looks really cool!!

What's not to like? Have I set the price too high? Compared to some other guitars it's very reasonable. £7,400?

Tell me what you think?

Click on an image to enlarge ...

Will McNicol plays "A Cornish Tune" on the Personal Selection Leonardo

We made this guitar with Will in mind as the "demonstrator" at the Ullapool Guitar Festival. His style of playing suits a 12 fret instrument perfectly, and I knew he would bring the best out of this guitar.

For this guitar I chose the best pieces of figured Claro Walnut to pair with the fine dark Sinker Redwood soundboard. The neck is made from Walnut and Mahogany, all possible only because we have such "extensive" timber stocks.

Gotoh tuners, 45mm neck with Abalone Diamond inlays.

It's a 12 fret long scale, placing the bridge just where it wants to be to achieve a big, rich, warm balanced tone.

A beautiful giant of a guitar.

Will McNicol and Tristan Seume. Middle Child ( for two guitars)

This was recorded at Will's guitar weekend just a few days ago. It's one of Tristan's tunes, which happened to be one of Will's favourites, so he wrote the second part, Tris heard it for the first time this weekend and was really pleased. I think its excellent.

Shall we encourage them to do a duet album? And a tour?

Will's Website

Tristan's Website

Ken Nicol. Bye Bye Blackbird

I don't need to say much - nice to see you here again Ken, where have you been?

That's the first Ukulele we ever made.

Ken's Website

Vibrationists. It Ain’t Right

Rather a grim story I'm afraid, with a massive video production centred around the lovely Suzy Starlite and her King John Bass.

I think you need to turn the volume up for this. I'll rephrase that, you NEED to turn the volume up for this.

The story of the band, and the video is here

The Band

The Video

Big Jim Sullivan. Rock History. Part One

We heard a lot of this when Jim came to collect his guitar, and we spent a lovely few hours in "our pub". The stories of his time with James Last and Tom Jones were particularly vivid. What interested me most though were his tales of the acoustic players who he knew well, as he described towards the end of this interview. Bert Jansch,

John Renbourn and Davy Graham. Gordon Giltrap was a particular friend.

A gentle giant of a human being and musician. One of a kind.

This video is one of a series, look out for the rest of them.

Second Hand Instruments

You may have noticed that I've been offering some older Fyldes for sale recently.

Some of them have been close to fifty years old with massive histories, and it's great to be able to rework them and give them a new lease of life. Others are a lot newer than that, but the owners are cutting back . Tempus Fugit and all that. We've had some very nice instruments.

I'm mostly showing these on the website, but not in the newsletter. They sell very quickly, quite often within a day and sometimes within a few minutes, but we can’t mark them as sold on the website until the transaction is complete. In January, I showed six instruments, five of them sold within a week.

If you want to buy something "now" rather than waiting for it to be built, it’s a good idea to keep watch on the Instruments For Sale Page.

Fylde guitars for Sale

Archie Fisher's guitars

Two of those older guitars with quite a history. Archie named them Thelma (The Olivia) and Louise ( The Orsino).

Both of these will be available soon, with proceeds going to Archie's widow. By all means send me a mail if you want to register your interest.

The handsome chap holding the guitars is Sandy Watson, Innes's dad.

Archie. The Shipyard Apprentice

This is Archie playing "Louise".

Dick Gaughan sang this song at his own tribute night at Celtic Connections this year. One legend to another.

Biréli Lagrène. Live at Iridium

I keep discovering new videos from Bireli. This is one of the best.

Biréli's videos

Fret wear anyone?

We work on a lot of older Fylde's, it's really good to see ones that have been round the world several times, changed owners from one continent to another and generally worked hard before we give them a new lease of life.

This bouzouki has never been outside the UK but nevertheless has accumulated a little bit of wear during its 25 years of heavy use. It came in to have some lacquer damage sorted out and I think the owner was a little surprised when I told him we really should look at the frets as well.

Alex will enjoy sorting this out. I hope.

George Sansome and Matt Quinn

Well , Holly appears here twice this month so it's only fair. This is another of Georges co-operations, about to start a tour taking in some well-known venues, plus adding themselves to the Songs of Martin Carthy Tour which I would dearly like to see.

The Songs of Martin Carthy

Following quickly on from Martin's retirement from live performance. Eliza is pulling together a wide and wonderful collection of Martin's friends to keep the songs and memories going. A lot of our friends are taking part.

Maz O Connor. A Man Like You

Maz Recorded a new album last year using both her Fylde guitars. This one is the Nylon Strung Ariel.

The Album is called 'Love it is a Killing Thing' and it's out on March 13th. Mark Radcliffe has been playing songs from it on his Folk Show recently.

Maz's website

Order the album here

Ben Robertson. Fairytale Lullaby

A really famous song from the early "gentler" part of John Martyn's writing. The guitar part became a bit like Davy Graham's "Anji", to be played at parties to impress the girls. So I'm told anyway.

Ben's Website

Kyntra. Strangers Point

Our young, old friend Elliott Morris performs with Henry Webster as their duo, Kyntra, and they have a new Album out now.

Kyntra Instagram

Amy Leach and Alasdair Paul

These two have a new Album out on 27th February.

Robert Burns was a busy lad wasn’t he?

Amy and Alasdair's Bandcamp

Galleries 11. Personal Selection Instruments

Here you will see some (just some) of the more exotic instruments that we've made without much, or even any, input from customers. It's a safety valve for us and I wish we had more time to make such things.

Link to Gallery 11

That's it for now!

Roger