Mike Waterson inspired many people.  Richard Hawley was a friend and a huge fan, and last year he toured with Bright Phoebus Revisited, singing Mike and Lal's songs. John Smith was on the tour as well, and of course Martin Carthy, so one way or another, Richard came into contact with various Fylde guitars. One of those guitars was the lovely little Ariel that I made for Anne Waterson, using very old timber that Mike had discovered. That is how it all started.   

The top is Swiss Pine with nice features of bear claw figure. I didn't know they still had bears in Switzerland, just shows how old the wood must be.  Nearly everything else is from  "Mike's wood". The back and sides are Rio Rosewood from a part log he found in the floor of  a joiners workshop.  The neck came from a small plank of dirty brown wood that I couldn't quite identify. I’m going to call it "Mike's Suspicious Mahogany". The bindings are, I think, Burr Yew, which I've used a few times, but only on guitars like this one, that I really wanted to make, because this is "Mike's Really Difficult Wood". 

The finished guitar is a gem, sweet sounding, perfectly even and smooth across the whole range, and at Martin Simpson's suggestion I've fitted a Highlander pickup, and a McIntyre Feather on a stereo output. Richard loves the guitar and, and is playing it everyday, so hopefully we will see it on YouTube before too long.

When Mr. and Mrs. Hawley came to collect it, they brought along their little Collie dog named Fred, who, I discovered,  is scared of bubble wrap, poor thing. When I first typed that, it came out as bubble rap, which is the music to a new soap commercial. Sorry Fred.