• Personal Selection Pomelle Falstaff for Sale
• John Smith. The World Turns
• Skeet Williams. Save My Life
• Archie Fisher. Joy of My Heart
• Thelma and Louise
• Findlay Napier. Call Me if You Need Me
• Innes Watson
• Martin Simpson with Liz Hanks and Louis Campbell
• John Smith in Italy
• Personal Selection Walnut Leonardo
• Will McNicol's Christmas Stocking Fillers
• Strings That Nimble Leap Charity CD

• Lindsay Straw and Andy Cambria. Cahalen Morrison's Wealth of Sorrow
• Biréli Lagrène. Martin Taylor. Ulf Wakenius. Blues for a Playboy
• Eric Bibb. Don’t Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down
• Len. Bless the Telephone
• Gareth Evans. Fields of Gold
• Jochen ross
• 2003 Oberon for sale - SOLD
• Antonio Forcione and Sarah Jane Morris in Session
• Dick Gaughan. It's what you do with what you've got
• John Doyle and Mick McAuley
• Robyn Hitchcock. Off the Road Sessions

Archie was one of my very earliest customers and had numerous Fylde guitars during his career. Before long I hope to have his first Fylde, an Olivia model which he called Thelma, and his much-loved Orsino - which of course, he called Louise.

We will be waving a magic wand over those two guitars and selling them to raise funds for Archies family. Imagine having a guitar that has been sung to with that voice, thousands of times. Watch this space

 … and while we have the opportunity - another of our special young friends, Innes Watson won the Best Tutor award, to go along with his  Instrumentalist of the Year award from a few years back.  There can’t be many young folk/trad players these days who Innes hasn’t helped

Innes' Website

I spoke to Martin while he was at the airport at the start of this tour. He tried to explain how complicated it was going to be to get around and get home in time, involving flights, Eurostar then more trains and finally a car journey to meet all his obligations.

Planes Trains and Automobiles. I’ve heard that before somewhere.

Martin has borrowed Louis’s custom Falstaff for this tour. He is quite comfortable with it, as its very similar to the one we made for him earlier this year, both being 13 fret neck joins.

As it happens, on my bench at the moment is another of Martin’s Fylde guitars, which I’m changing the neck on to match his new one.

It’s a great video, and isn’t the Cello a wonderful instrument?

Martin's Website

Another video made in the last few hours,  I know we have used another video of John this month, but this is so “matched” with Martin's video above  that I've included it anyway! 

John played at the lovely theatre in Pieve di Cento Italy this week, hosted by our friends Giulio and Giulia from SEC guitars.

It’s the same theatre where we saw Will and Jule last year, Teatro Comunale Alice  Zeppilli.

I didn’t know in advance, but  we had a number of friends in the audience, so we have  right up to date photographs and a video of the last song of the show.
John handles every audience in a very professional manner!

SEC Guitars Website

John's Website

A message from Will -

"If you’re looking for any stocking-fillers for a guitarist or music-enjoyer in your life this Christmas, may I humbly point you to the shelves of my online shop?  We’ve got CDs, vinyl, custom notation books, teaching books, lesson vouchers - all sorts  Thank you!"

Will's Website

Well, I've advertised Will's  "Merch" so it’s only fair. It's a pity that CDs aren't as popular as they used to be, but this one is rather special. It includes a book!! Well, more of a booklet really. It's very good. And all proceeds go to charity. And it’s Christmas.

Link to "Strings That Nimble Leap"

I do enjoy Lindsay's voice and playing and I particularly like the bouzouki when it’s played with full chords, deep and rich.

Lindsay's Website

Biréli seems to bring out his Fylde guitar on a random rotation pattern. It disappears for a few months, then it's back again. It's wonderful to see him playing it next to Martin Taylor, but I do think Bireli should turn his volume up a bit. 

It was Adam Palma who introduced Biréli to that guitar, and that has reminded me that I've promised to make another one for Adam and we haven’t started it yet.

Moira - I’m just going to work for a bit!

Biréli's Website

"Guitar Artistry of Eric Bibb". Yes indeed. There seem to be some re issues of Eric's Videos at the moment, which is really good news for me. This is one of his songs he played a lot when we first met him.

Eric's Website

Isn't this good?  I've seen Len's videos before, but I know nothing about him. I'd love to be in touch if anyone can help?

Len's Instagram

A classic song, probably one of the most common "ear worms" I can think of. Gareth has a knack of picking those tunes that people want to play, and putting them "out there" on video, which I think is the best teaching media ever invented.  I couldn't imagine  going back to video tapes.  

Gareth's Website - Goliath Guitar

Jochen sent me this video - 55 minutes talking and playing. All but one tune on his Fylde Single Malt Mandolin

He has had this mandolin for a long time now; it's sounding better and better.

Yes, I do know it’s all in German.  Music needs no translation.

Jochen's Website

There is quite a story around this guitar. It belongs to a good friend who bought it in 2003 after having had his original Oberon stolen. It has been his main guitar ever since.

He was a close friend of John Renbourn, and John played the guitar regularly when he stopped over. "The first time that he played it was all a bit magical as he was so happy noodling away on it, the best thing for me to do was shut up and leave him to his own devices for a couple of hours whilst I listened in from the kitchen !"

We have refretted the guitar. It's in excellent condition, just a little faded from being out in the world and played for twenty-two years. To be fair, the pictures make it seem rather brighter and more orange than it is in real life. It has a Headway FEQ pickup fitted.

I think it’s one of the best examples of an Oberon you will see anywhere.

The other part of the story is a little unfortunate. One year after he bought it, the guitar "fell" off its stand, and the headstock broke in "the usual place". That sounds really bad news, but it's not.

We repaired it. The repair is twenty-one years old now and is still invisible.

There is a lot of nonsense talked about guitar repairs. There are correct ways of doing these things and I hold a very firm line. I'm very proud of the way Alex and Paul continue with the same attitude. We know where the repair is, I could easily offer it for sale without telling anyone. But I won't.

It's for sale at £3,600 and I'd be happy to discuss it. - SOLD

Will McNicol introduced me to Antonio. We've made him three guitars and a mandolin in the years since then.  I have seen a brief clip of him playing the mandolin, and he has promised me a professional video at some point.

Whenever I see the Reverend Richard Coles on TV I think of Sarah, which makes me think of Antonio, so I then open YouTube, and things like this pop up. What fun.

Antonio often tuned his bass string down to illegal notes. To accommodate that, we ground the frets under the bass string almost to nothing so that the strings  don’t play out of tune when he presses them down. He also likes to tune the string quickly, so I fitted an oversize string post.

Over the years, I've spent a lot of time trying to accommodate unusual requests from artists. It's not a sensible business model but it’s always been a big part of what we do and hope to continue doing for a long time yet. 

Antonio's Website

There is a link here, as it's another story about guitar repair.

Dick had broken the headstock off his much travelled and battered Martin. He had made it known that the only person he would trust would be me, but somehow, he never plucked up the courage to ask me! Some fans of his managed to get the guitar to me without him knowing.

Somewhere along the way, Dick had visited me for a cuppa and fell in love with the guitar you see him playing in this video. It coincided with him receiving a reasonable royalty check. from the BBC I think. The rest, as they say, is history. 

The Story of Dick Gaughan

Dick is far from the only Artist whose music is trapped in this legal limbo. I often get asked what happened to the " Fylde Acoustic " album that Bill Leader and I made in 1977. Here is the answer. I have tried a number of times to get through all the barriers and it's a frequent topic of (angry) conversation amongst our friends.  Dick probably has the most "invested" in this unpleasant situation and I really hope something gets sorted out very soon.

Link to full article

This is John's second Falstaff, I think he keeps it on this side of the Atlantic to avoid transport hassles. It used to be said that a sailor had a girl in every port.

I don’t know why the video goes out of focus  later on, perhaps because they are playing so fast.

John's Website

I wish I knew where this was filmed, isn't it lovely? Robyn has a massive following  and has worked with many major artists.  You'll probably recognise some of the songs.

Robyn's Website

Watch out for our Christmas Newsletter next week. Specially recorded Music , minced pies, silly hats, all that sort of thing!