• Custom Alexander for Sale- SOLD
• Jez Lowe. Oubliette
• It's nearly Ullapool!
• The one and only Ullapool Guitar Festival 2025
• Megan Henwood. Mr Housefire
• Eric Bibb
• A Complete Unknown
• More Guitars for Ullapool
• John Smith with Lisa Hannigan. Salty and Sweet
• AI Overview
• Historical Pictures
• Will McNicol
• Will McNicol. A Place to Land

• Will McNicol. Vesper Flights
• Martin Simpson's Latest guitar
• Custom Mandola and Custom Tenor Guitar
• Tristan Seume. Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar
• Sam English. Film and Photography
• Remi Harris: Lulu Swing Improv
• Bouzouki Comparison Part 4
• Bill Bailey. Insane Mandola
• Dave Holmes. The Four Winds
• Chris Difford
• Gallery 10
• Best use of wood

It's very nearly here. The only exhibition we take part in, where you can see more of what we do, even more than we can show you at our workshop. The only place where we can meet so many of our friends, professional and amateur. One of the few places where we get the heady combination of sea air, pine trees, wood smoke, diesel, and fish all at the same time.
And of course, the only place where you can get to see and hear so much astonishing guitar music.

And get to meet the players. 

Buy your tickets while you still can.

Ullpool Guitar Fetival Website

There are all sorts of reasons to include older videos. Some are special musically, some bring back wonderful memories, and some, like this one, are songs written and recorded as part of the friendships that we have built over the years. This was Megans contribution to the Strings that Nimble Leap Charity CD. She is a massive talent, from a lovely and equally talented family. That is a poorly disguised hint that we'd like to see more!

I'm planning to include more older videos in these newsletters, but I'll have to be careful, there are a lot.

Megan's Website

A good strong link here, I first met Megan at an Eric Bibb Concert.

Out of the blue recently, Eric send me a picture of him and "Pinky". Eric was wearing his best cook’s apron, and he titled the pic "Cookin' with Pinky".

So, I couldn't leave it at that, I had to fire back a response. I wanted to know exactly what he was cooking, and because the picture was just a bit of a tease, I needed some music.

Result! Thanks Eric. That guitar has quite a history. It lived in New York with Eric's Father Leon for a while until Eric managed to ship it over to Sweden. Among their family friends was Pete Seeger, which provides a nice link to the next item, I do love it when I can find links all through a newsletter.

I have a very distinct memory of refretting this guitar on a Sunday morning after a slightly heavy night with Eric and Mike English. Eric was in the workshop with me, playing while I worked. It didn't exactly relieve the pressure, and I shan't be doing that again!  

We made the guitar in 2008. Eric has it tuned down to A.

Well, it was completely unknown to me anyway. The actor (Edward Norton) playing the part of Pete Seeger wasn't actually playing the banjo. That was our ridiculously talented and lovely friend, Clive Carroll. We'll be seeing him at Ullapool and I want to know how he got this gig!

Some of this should have been obvious if I'd been paying more attention. Edward is making a fair job of the left-hand fingering but his right hand - not so much. The film is still excellent; I'll enjoy it even more next time now I know a bit more about the logistics involved.

Clive's Website

I've known about this project for a while and been really anxious to start talking about it. 

Best if I let Will explain:

"Jack reached out to me at the beginning of the year with this idea of me recording a suite of his tunes, and I was of course happy to oblige! I didn't realise back then quite how satisfying and enjoyable the journey would be, with so much collaboration between us getting the pieces into shape, recorded and transcribed. The pieces are all exceptional compositions with great stories behind them. Rich in detail, Jack left no stone unturned which was great for me to work with. He wrote these pieces with nylon strings in mind, so it was a perfect opportunity to use my Fylde Custom Classic, and we're both over the moon with how that sounded across all the pieces."

The YouTube playlist of all six pieces is here.

And Jack's website, where you can buy the TAB of the suite.

Will guided me to this piece to start off what looks like being a series in my newsletter:

"Vesper Flights - a proper roast that was! But they're all wonderful compositions and a joy to play. I also have a soft spot for Warley Woods Waltz, because I'm a sucker for a waltz!"

And Jacks words of explanation:

"Inspired by my favourite bird, the swift, and named after their nightly ascents far up into the heavens. Swifts are migratory and spend most of their lives in flight, which offers a radically different viewpoint on the idea of home."

Me again. These pieces were set around my hometown of Birmingham, so it's really nice for me to hear them, and doesn't the guitar sound good?

Will's Website

Martin loves his new guitar and has used it on Emily Portman's new record. No doubt there will be more to say about that at some point, particularly because of this:

It was a coincidence that I've just been reading that Emily has been the victim of a weird  AI generated "scam". She had released an album, and it was getting  a lot of praise from her fans.

But she hadn’t made or released any such thing! 

“It was called Orca, and it was music that was evidently AI-generated, but it had been cleverly trained, I think, on me.

The 10 tracks had names such as Sprig of Thyme and Silent Hearth - which were "uncannily close" to titles she might choose. It was something that Portman, who won a BBC Folk Award in 2013, found "really creepy".

When she clicked to listen, the voice - supposedly hers - was a bit off but sang in "a folk style probably closest to mine that AI could produce", she says. The instrumentation was also eerily similar.

Read the full story here.

I'm astonished, and worried that if AI is already "that clever", where will it all end?

Moira did hear on the radio that AI  is not going to be able to take over a luthier's job. That still leaves me worried, because I'm a guitar maker. At least AI can't collect wood, can it??

But at least we know that Emily's next album must be "real" because the real Martin Simpson is on it!

Martin's Website

Two custom orders with something in common. They both have special necks.

This version of the Octave Mandola is something I've wanted to make for years. All I needed was for somebody to offer to pay me to do so.

Basically, it’s the standard signature model of "OM", but with a much slimmer neck, and changes to the body dimensions as a consequence.  It's a feature of most Fylde instruments that they have wider necks than many other makers, but this doesn't suit everybody. I suppose I'm now going to get orders for both styles. Sigh.

The other is an otherwise standard Tenor guitar, but with a shorter neck and a shorter scale length, so the body structure has to change to accommodate the new bridge position. I think it looks rather cute.

This is the place to come if you want to learn guitar. You'll need to buy one first of course, I'm not daft. Well done, Tris, I've already planned his time at Ullapool for him.

Tristan's Website

Part of the plan for Tris will involve an hour or two with Sam English, who makes a lot of the special videos we use. Tris has agreed to make some short demo videos of some of the guitars we will have on show.

You might remember the time lapse video of us setting up at Ullapool last year? Sam is also an excellent photographer and drone videographer, if that is the right word.

I thought it would be appropriate to advertise his services in this newsletter, as there must be a lot of common ground with at least some of "our readers".

Have a look at Sam's website, it's very impressive. (Each section has its own showreel.)

Sam's Website

Remi is posting a lot of videos at the moment, so I'm spoilt for choice. He is such a talent and to have made him not one, but two guitars is a massive privilege. I'm serious when I say that its a very important part of why we do this.  Alex and Paul are just as "encouraged" by these things as am I. It really does make a difference to us.

Of course, you can look on YouTube or on Remi's site if you want to see the other videos.

Remi's Website

This is really a comparison of Microphones for recording bouzoukis.

I asked Sean if there was likely to be a part 5 in the series, and he said, “For now, I will stop at Part 4, unless I feel the need to buy another one.”

Ahh, do I sense a challenge?

We supplied Bill with his third mandola a few weeks ago, and he sent his second one back for a new pickup, ready for a video he is about to make. Can't wait!

Bill plays a huge number of instruments, and from the wear on the frets of this one, it must be one of his favourites.

I was sorely tempted to add an "F" to the "stage right" label on the flight case. Think about it. 

Bill's Website

I showed Dave last month with this guitar, his latest acquisition. He is really proud of it, as he cites Gordon as one of his main inspirations. Dave will soon have more time on his hands, so I'm hoping he will be making more videos.

Dave's Website

Chris sent me this picture of him backstage at Halifax. Thanks Chris

Chris' Website

There aren't many instruments in this gallery yet. Maybe by the time this is published, there will be a few more.

I'm very proud of everything we do, but I do have to say that those two Archtops are something very special indeed. 

Link to Gallery Page

These pictures show the early stages of laminated necks for the Ullapool guitars above. I could write a lot about why we do this, but all I want to say at the moment is that all these sections were cut from one plank of wonderful Brazilian Mahogany, with hardly any waste. The sections are all "vertical grain" and match perfectly.

It doesn’t often work out as nicely as this, it isn't easy to manoeuvre the bandsaw round these awkward shapes, and it can easily go wrong. I put a new blade on the bandsaw and really enjoyed myself.

And guess what? I have a lot more wood just as nice as this.

Till next time!