• Electro Classic Guitar for sale
• Ullapool
• This year's Photo Gallery
• Jule Malischke: He Waited
• Sönke Meinen, Philipp Wiechert and someone else
• Sönke and Philipp at the late-night club

Two Special Mandolins for Sale

• African Blackwood and Swiss Pine Mandolin.
• Macassar Ebony and Sinker Redwood Mandolin - SOLD
• Personal Selection Rio Rosewood and Italian Spruce Falstaff

• John Goldie and Brian Nicholson
• Tristan Seume, Adam Bulley and Chas Mackenzie. Nine to Five
• John Smith. Silent in the Rushes

And in other news

• Gordon Giltrap with Bert Jansch’s guitar in Guitarist Magazine
• Chris Herring. Rosie
• Jon Wilks. October Song
• Steve's famous five-minute soundcheck
• Finally, The Annual Ullapool Pool

Specially for the festival! Indian Rosewood and European Spruce, fitted with a K&K classic pickup.  Many of our friends double up on Nylon strings, and there isn't a better place to show this style of guitar than an international guitar festival.  Most of the music on the following video was recorded on this guitar. 
And it's for sale. £5,400

I had all the specialist Nylon string players try the guitar out. Sometimes it's enough to quietly watch and listen,  but Sönke and I managed to discuss string spacing, low tuning, pickups, volume, and history. As usual, I've come away with a lot to think about.

Sönke‘s friend Philipp Wiechert was at the festival and borrowed a second hand Orsino for the late-night club. We meet someone new every year, almost always via another artist. That Orsino is for sale by the way, I don't have room to show it this month.

Sönke's Website
Philipp's Website

Even though this is a “Guitar” festival, lots of people there do play other instruments, and it’s the only place where we can show anything unusual, so we try hard to have unusual things to show.

But the real reason of course is to have fun making them. It's difficult to explain how important that is for us, anybody who works with wood feels the same. As soon as the wood is on the bench, inspiration starts to flow. Moira and I were away for a few days at times, so some of the details were decided by Alex and Paul. I won't tell you which ones. All good fun.

Small sections of the most expensive Tonewood  in the world coupled with seriously bearclawed Swiss Pine.
The  headstock veneer is African Blackwood with some pale sap to reflect the Maple bindings. Black against white, very striking.
Red borders, Laminated Mahogany neck, Ebony fingerboard with Abalone inlays.
 £2300 plus case

Another opportunity to use some small sections of the most impressive timbers we have, plus Snakewood bindings with gold borders and all the usual extra details. Everything matches. I think it's extraordinary.
£1900.00 plus case - SOLD

I try hard to have a similar guitar at Ullapool every year. There isn’t a better place to show an instrument like this, the highest specification of an acoustic guitar that it is possible to make.

The Rosewood here is “special”, the highest quality in every sense, and beautiful with it. The Soundboard is the same story, I’ve collected a lot of Spruce over the years, some of it, like this piece, from a time when the grading was much more stringent than it is with newer material.

Snakewood bindings, Abalone Diamond inlays, delicate red line borders, Gotoh 510 tuners. And 50 years or more of guitar making experience built in. It doesn’t get any better.

£10,900.00

This is me being sneaky, I needed somebody to demonstrate the Falstaff and John happened to  come over and say hello. He should know by now that it won't end there. Then Brian came along and we all talked Shetland music for while, Brian messaged me after the weekend and he is now the proud owner of that Leonardo, that's the way this business works. 

John's Website

Adam and Chas are the backbone of the festival, they can play with anybody, at any level.

Here we see them having great fun either side of Tris so that he can't escape, not that he would want to, he's enjoying himself and playing brilliantly.

Every time the tune went round I thought Adam was going to burst into song but he never did. It isn't a singing festival, there's a clue in the name. I will say though, each one of them can sing, I've heard them.

The main event in the big auditorium is carefully structured. The late-night club is a bit more "free form".

Tristan's Website
Adam and Chas's Website

This video is not from the festival, but the timing is just right , John is about to start a USA tour, and he has this new release to announce.

"Silent In the Rushes" from the deluxe edition of 'The Living Kind,' out now, including five new bonus tracks.

"As Summer turns to Autumn, new songs are what keep me going. And so, The Living Kind Deluxe Edition is out today, featuring two previously-unheard tracks from the original studio session (see the stories behind them on my Instagram), plus three songs from our show at the Union Chapel earlier this year, featuring the string quartet. You can stream it here.

I hope you enjoy it – the full picture, as envisaged in the room, before we had to make difficult decisions about the album’s run time and which songs should be left out. One of those was ‘Silent In The Rushes' USA poster

John's Website

I posted a video of Gordon playing this guitar  2 months ago. Here we have the feature that David Mead wrote in Guitarist  Magazine this month.

Quite a lot from Gordon of course and from me. I'm really glad that this special guitar is now living where it belongs

I will post more recordings when I can - Gordon has plans!

Gordon's Website
Guitarist Magazine Website

A song about Dave Evan's landlady!  Chris plays a lot of great music; I think I miss a lot of it because I can't keep up with him.

The Incredibles were a major influence on me in the 1960's .  Flower power, psychedelia and all that. The shirts don't fit me anymore or I'd show you. We won't even mention the trousers and the hair.

The 5,000 Spirits of the Layers of the Onion. The Hangman's Beautiful daughter.  The Hedgehog Song. They don't write them like that anymore. It's a shame, they were (are) brilliant songs and with some original guitar playing.

I admit it's all a bit hazy. Despite that, I did manage to sell instruments to Mike Heron and Robin Williamson. They still play them.
Jon is playing the guitar that  came about from a three-way discussion with Martin Simpson, it's a Falstaff but with Adirondack top and slightly shallow body.  I think we got it just right- a very clear and tidy sound. Jon calls her Gwendolyn and thinks it’s the best thing he's ever done. He phoned Martin today to tell him.

"I recorded the session at the Albion Rooms, which is owned by The Libertines. I was invited down there by Carl Barât, the more level-headed of their frontmen. All the instruments and amps and stuff in the background belong to him. Suffice to say, he was rather enamoured of my Falstaff. 

I recently played a gig in which I was asked to play my guitar, Bert Jansch's old Yamaha, another Yamaha that John Martyn recorded on, and Jackson C Frank's old Martin. A real joy to do that, but the Fylde was easily the pick of the bunch, with Jackson's a distant 2nd". 

Article about the recording session

Jon's Website

I do like to listen to a soundcheck. It's not a public event and most people never see it. Steve is showing how it works.

Eric Bibb and John Smith come to mind for being able to identify a particular frequency that is causing trouble and asking the engineer to tweak it.  Martin Simpson knows exactly how he wants the guitar to sound and won't settle for anything less - he is world renowned for his acoustic sound.  It's a set of skills quite apart from the singing and playing, but absolutely essential for the best performance. 

I don't think I'm breaking any confidence to explain that there is a hierarchy in soundchecks - top of the bill gets the most time!  If they overrun, well, they've earned it and are getting their own back.

Engineers can now have "presets" for the characteristics of a particular theatre so they can concentrate on the artists' half of the equation. It's getting better and better all the time. 

Piano technicians "Voice" the instrument to suit the theatre. Opera Singers "tune" their voices to the room to get best projection. A lot of work happens before the audience is allowed in, and the best performers have skills that you might not know about. Until now.

Steve and Phil Beer used to perform their soundcheck as part of their stage show, having the sound engineer at the back of the hall almost as part of the band . They quite rightly regarded  the details of their sound to be rather important and found a way of involving the audience, great fun.

Technology is changing the way all that is handled. A lot can now be done from an iPad, even moving round the auditorium to change the sound in different places.

Steve, as ever is bang up to date and has added it to his show. It's very impressive.

Steve's website

We were a little short on numbers this time, Clive and John had to fly off to continue their tours, but it was the usual noisy, happy, chaotic Pool Party followed by big Curry. Jule and Don are as mad as the rest of us. I thought I was winning until I wasn't. 

Some years ago, we had a special badge for the winning “team”, but it has been mislaid.  We now think we know where it is! Can't wait.