• Five Guitars in Progress
• Richard Hawley. Corrina Corrina
• Ben Walker Visit
• Ben Walker. Showers on Ascension Day
• Ben Walker Fan Fret For Sale
• Used Orsino for Sale - SOLD
• Findlay Napier. Outsider
• Maz O'Connor. Lily and Lemonade Wine
• Toby Hay and Aidan Thorn – Draw
• Martin Barre. Crossroads
• The Lost Pack Leader
• Charity Time!

• Tim Edey. Brídín Bhéasaigh
• Gordon Giltrap downsizes!
• Gordon Giltrap. Ives Horizon
• Ullapool Guitar Festival
• John Goldie. Those Who Fell
• Heather Cartwright and Sam Mabbett . Paddy Joe Tighe’s
• Custom Guitars 7. Mandolins and others
• Guitars recently sold
• Chris Herring. Jessica
• Jon Wilks and Ellie Gowers. Strung out on the Line
• Remi Harris. Improv on Donna Lee
• Vin Garbutt and The Repair Shop

Here we are the complete version of Ben's recent visit to the workshop.

Before Covid we had a lot more visitors and a lot more instruments on display, that has changed, probably for ever. Nowadays most of my discussions are by email, and that has some advantages, because we have a record of  everything that has been discussed and I can take my time in replying, sometimes at very strange times of the day and night.  

I can also refer to the extensive Galleries on the website and to lots of YouTube videos of Fylde players. I have a lot of experience in this, and it works very well.  

Having a customer visit the workshop requires a bit of planning. I have to have the time available, and we need to have some instruments to show. Neither of those things are easy. For Ben's visit we had plenty of advance notice, and had already swapped a lot of emails so I had a good idea of what he would want to see.  

Plus, of course, I know Ben's music and his guitars very well. Sam English and  I were able to make a plan for the day.

When we published the  "YouTube short"  version of this, there was one particular comment that  says it all -

"Happy I came across this, bringing the magic and putting on display right here. It’s a silly comparison but this reminded me of Olivander’s in Harry Potter. A plethora of options and when you find the right fit it’s obvious. We don’t get this sort of clarity in guitar shopping often, and it takes a whole different type of insight to really articulate these nuances so clearly. One which most guitarists might not have totally developed but a builder such as this can see clear as day. Thank you and thanks to the algorithm for sending me here despite the lack of ‘big numbers’ "

That was the idea. An in-depth video on the approach I like to take. I try to demonstrate the features that I'm trying to explain, because words simply don't do the job, and as I've said before, in many ways, email conversations work better as there are no intrusions and no pressure over time. 

Whichever route we take, there is never any attempt to "sell", I'm only interested in matching the guitar to the customer.  

I hope I haven't given the impression that every visitor gets a visit to the pub and a game of pool. Around 1974, that might have actually happened, but it wasn't a very good business model.  I don't know how we ever managed to fit the guitar making in amongst all the socialising. How times have changed. 

Watching this again, I notice how well the Oberon sits in amongst all those bigger and smaller guitars. The tone is balanced, rounded, and I'm thinking back to all those fingerstyle players who made their living on this model in the early 1970's. We don't sell many Oberons now.  Again, times have changed

Sam English's Website

The Old Crown - Hesket Newmarket

One of the lovely tunes that Ben recorded with Sam English at The Old Crown after our Pool match.

Ben explains - "Written after I found a section in Steve Roud's excellent book on superstitions, about rain on Ascension Day being bottled and kept as a cure for poor eyesight".

I will suggest to the pub and brewery that they offer a suitable beer named "Eyesight", that you should drink at the very end of an evening.

Then they could sell another one next day, called "Hindsight", because you shouldn't have drunk the "Eyesight".

We are making a guitar very similar to this one, to show at Ullapool in October.

Ben's Website

It's still here. Why? It's gorgeous. I was tempted to describe this as a Baritone guitar, because it was intended to be tuned low, but only the bass string is longer than standard, and not by much. It's really a fan fret guitar with a slightly deeper body which helps with low tunings. Listen to the Folk Awards video again and you'll see what I mean.
It's still for sale. £5,800

See more information and pictures here.

Moira has just made our yearly payments to the three charities that we support from sales of the  "Strings that Nimble Leap"  CD and booklet. Link to the CD page.
And that gives me the perfect excuse to include this, from that very album:
Clive Carroll. The Adventures of Wilfred

Clive is still sharing his time between the USA and the rest of the world, he will be at Ullapool in October and is single handedly planning to turn the 3 day event into a 6 day event by adding a 3 day workshop from 1st to 3rd of October. I think that workshop is already fully booked, but there is a waiting list, so do get your name down just in case.

Or maybe go to Ullapool anyway and just hang about?

Clive hasn't yet managed to complete his walking circumnavigation of the UK coast so is thinking of arriving at Ullapool on foot. If you are driving up the west coast, watch out. You aren't allowed to give him a lift or he will have to start all over again.

Clive will be accompanying Brigitte Demeyer for the opening concert of the festival, and on the final concert on Sunday evening he will host "Guitarmageddon" with Tim Edey.

Those who have seen Tim before will know what to expect.  Basically, expect the unexpected. There will certainly be exceptional music, and more than likely, a certain amount of chaos.  

Clive's website

This is Tim in relaxed mood! You have been warned.

Tim once took a lot of trouble to warn me never to drink a glass of coke if it had a plectrum floating in it. I didn't have a glass of coke anywhere near me at the time, nor a plectrum, but he was serious. Guess how he knew?

He and I have been discussing a custom guitar for over twenty years, maybe this will be the year.

Tim's website

Gordon has moved house and needs to downsize his collection. 21 guitars must go!

One of those, probably the highlight of the collection is his Prospero 12 string  which I made in my St Annes basement workshop in 1973. My word. The only electricity that went into making the guitars at that time was the electric light.  

Gordon is being very practical about all this; he can't play all those guitars, and he still has "a lot".  

This guitar has changed hands a few times, I know some of the history and we completely rebuilt it at one point. Gordon was  given the opportunity to re-acquire it a few years ago and I think it’s wonderful that the story continues. It's in fantastic condition. The estimated price is £5,000 - £6,000. 

The sale is being handled by Gardiner Houlgate auctioneers who I know very well, they often get old Fylde’s to sell and refer to me when they do, which is a good way of keeping in touch with "The Market".   

https://www.guitar-auctions.co.uk/auctions

And here is Gordon, playing what I'm fairly sure is that very guitar.
It could be yours!!!

Gordon's website

We are starting to make preparations for this to avoid panic in late September. It won't work; we will still panic in late September.

There are already three special guitars partly finished, plus one in particular that I have a cunning plan for, and two more that so far, exist only in my head. (Yes, I know, it’s a worry.) I'm sure there will be more than that, plus quite a lot of second-hand instruments for sale. 

I always want each year to be better than the previous one ,which only works because Alex and Paul put so much effort in. We will have Sam English on hand again this year as well which should produce some excellent video memories, and I must mention Keith Beardmore who could probably put up the whole display blindfold by now. That's another reason for changing it every year, can't have him getting complacent.

It really is a massive effort, and we couldn’t do any of it without Moira, Janet and Margaret. 

Ullapool Guitar Festival website

John publishes an excellent newsletter full of all sorts of things guitar related, and includes this video on his website.  I remember being so pleased a few years ago when he chose the Nylon string guitar which we had taken to Ullapool. 

There is a lot to see on his newsletter- sign up here

John's website

And I’m going to include this video as well. 

While Sam was recording Ben at the pub, we included Heather and Sam, Heather lives nearby so it all worked very well.

It's a lovely arrangement with complete understanding between the two of them, just watch them smile at the end.

Sam was due to fly to Columbia the day after this, and I haven't yet heard if he has managed to get back.

Heather has recorded an EP which will be released online soon and is working on another EP, featuring duets with the artists that have inspired her .

There is a lot more on her website, she is busy! 

Heather's website

This should logically be gallery 6, because I showed Gallery 5 last month, but it doesn't have much in it so I'm showing Gallery 7 instead.

It's a pretty good selection of some of the unusual smaller instruments we have made. Please ignore the banjo and never, ever, ask me to make one for you.  There are two, both in very special hands, and that is enough.

Link to Gallery

It can sometimes be difficult to fit everything into a newsletter, and I don't like  to overload it with instruments for sale- mostly I like to think that I can help with bits of music and artist's projects and show some parts of what we have been up to in the workshop.

So, I've been making a little experiment- Putting a few second-hand instruments in the "for sale" section of the website without talking about them in the newsletter. And it works - both instruments I put there a few weeks ago sold within 2 days. It's clear that lots of people keep a close eye on the website and it's not just the newsletter that does the work. With nearly 10,000 instruments going back to 1973, we are inevitably getting things to sell.

So, I will be doing a little more of that, it makes it all a bit easier for me. Don't miss out- look at the for-sale pages as often as you can.

You should know the story by now - Chris is a guitar maker and Artist in Germany who uses his father's Falstaff for much of his recording, He has recently refretted it and is demonstrating it rather nicely.

Jon explains this in the notes to the video- he's been busy!

John's website

Remi is back in the studio soon, recording  a new album. I will of course tell you all about it as soon as I can

Remi's website

I knew this was going to happen, but I didn't know Tim would be taking part. I think he represents his dad in this story incredibly well, and it was lovely to see the picture of the two of them together.  Lovely, but of course, sad.

I would have been rather upset if one of Vin's Fyldes was featured here, but I've no complaints about the way the repair work was carried out - Julyan Wallis put an enormous amount of work into a style of instrument that relies on decoration rather than practicality. 

So I’ll just say well done to everybody involved. I might go and play some of Vin’s music now.

That’s all for now, until next month!!