I started making this mandolin nearly a year ago after a very pleasant chat with Simon Mayor and Steve Tilston. It's been a labour of love, mostly because I realised just how nice it would look.

Single Malt timbers throughout, carved and graduated Oak back and X braced Columbian Pine top. Copper plated hardware, solid copper diamond inlays, even the Fylde logo is Mother of Pearl, painted with copper paint. Why make things difficult when with a bit more effort, you can make them ****** impossible?

I needed to dismantle the tuners for the electro plating, and the pressed aluminium backs didn't survive the process, so I'm thinking of replacing them with coins or maybe the lead seals from whisky bottles.

It sounds great - much "throatier" than flat top mandolins.

I hadn't made a carved Lucetta for about 30 years, and it might be another 30 until the next one. I'm going to show it to lots of people, then take it home for a while.