• Personal Selection Falstaff for sale
  • The Ullapool Guitar Festival
  • And on the Fylde stand
  • Adam Bulley and Chas MacKenzie
  • John Goldie and Tim Edey
  • Will McNicol and Sönke Meinen
  • The Late Night Club
  • Will McNicol, Soenke Meinen and Philip Weichert
  • Chas MacKenzie, Adam Bulley, Tim Edey, John Goldie and Seonaid Aitken
  • Tristan Seume, Adam Bulley and Chas MacKenzie
  • Macassar Ebony and Cedar Alexander - SOLD
  • Second hand instruments
  • The Little After Show Party
  • In Other News
  • John Smith. Gatherings
  • John Smith. It's a long way for a woman.
  • 16 Fyldes and what do you get?
  • The Life and Songs of Martin Carthy
  • Martin Carthy and the Mercury prize
  • Graham Coxon
  • Musicians Brains show Remarkable Resistance to Pain
  • That's it for this month
Personal Selection Falstaff for sale

This is one of the guitars we had on show at Ullapool this year.

Deeply figured "Pomelle" Sapele and unbelievable Swiss Pine for the soundboard. The grain is so fine it is actually very difficult to see. Ebony bindings. Neck laminated with Mahogany and Ebony sections, all bordered by red lines. Pearl Diamond inlays. Gotoh 510 tuners.

It's a very unusual combination of timbers for us. With a Spruce soundboard, I like to use the hardest and stiffest timbers for the back and sides, and that usually means the more exotic and expensive choices. When I bought this Pomelle some years ago, it wasn't the most expensive, but I've recently seen it for sale on American sites and it's becoming much more highly valued.

The deep figure makes the wood denser and harder, so I think this combination works very well, it has the power that we would expect from a Falstaff, but with rather more warmth, a slight nod towards an Orsino. You can hear it played gently on Will's video below

This is a stunning guitar, in sound certainly, but also in appearance.

For sale at £6,200

Click on an image to enlarge ...

Will McNicol plays the Personal Selection Falstaff

It's so generous of Will to make this video for me, but I do think he enjoys doing it. He is playing a typical McNicol piece, gently, letting the guitar shine through.  I particularly like the bass string tone on this guitar. It's just right, exactly in proportion to everything else. The whole guitar is balanced and pure. Just like Will?

Thanks, Will!

Will's Website

The Ullapool Guitar Festival

Well, that's it for another year. I've put a note in next year’s diary to give us plenty of time to prepare. It's never enough. Next year will be the festival's 25th Anniversary and is likely to be something special. October 2nd, 3rd and 4th 2026. Don't forget.

Sam English has put together this rather impressive video record of the artists involved.

It really was a fantastic weekend. Despite the awful Motorway closures and detours, the very impressive storm, the wrong turnings, yet another wonderful B&B closing down just as they were getting used to us, (it's not our fault, is it?) and somebody at the festival generously sharing Covid, we all had a wonderful time. Of the nine special instruments we made to demonstrate our skills, we sold five. Wow. The remaining instruments will be offered in this and upcoming newsletters.

And on the Fylde stand

Of course, it's all about the music and the people. The live concerts and club performances were excellent, but I can't get to see many of them because I always have people to talk to. Fortunately, there is a big screen in the cafe / bar area so I did manage to see bits of most things.

Most of my own time is spent talking at the stand, and we had some lovely impromptu sessions, our own mini festival in fact:

Adam Bulley and Chas MacKenzie

The backbone of the festival, two of the best musicians you will find anywhere. Adam, on the left is playing the Walnut 12 fret Leonardo which is for sale and I will talk about next month, Chas is playing the Pomelle Falstaff shown at the top of the newsletter and is for sale now.

Adam & Chas' Website

John Goldie and Tim Edey

Another Festival stalwart, Fylde owner and all-round good sport, John Goldie tempts Tim to try out various guitars from the display, with artists and friends passing by. Tim has been asking me about a special guitar for at least 15 years. One day Tim, I'll show you something special, you don't seriously think you can tease me without consequence?

John's Website

Tim's Website

Will McNicol and Sönke Meinen

The "Twins" with a little impromptu music. This is one of Soenke's tunes, and Sam used it for his "main stage" video. Such nice people, amazing musicians who both make massive journeys to get to the festival and can never stay long enough.
It's part of the festival character that we won't see many of the artists or customers for another year. It's never a problem; we just pick up where we left off.

Will's Website

Sönke's Website

Late Night Club
Chas MacKenzie, Adam Bulley, Tim Edey, John Goldie and Seonaid Aitken

Four of the best guitarists anywhere and the best violinist we know, at the late-night club on Sunday evening. It's very difficult capturing the audio of all the instruments, but you can imagine the atmosphere. Amazing.

Seonaid's Facebook Page

Will McNicol, Soenke Meinen and Philip Weichert

We released the boys to play on their own personal instruments for this, it's only fair.

Tristan Seume, Adam Bulley and Chas MacKenzie

We all love Tris's playing, and Adam and Chas can join in with anybody at any level of music.

Tristan's Website

Macassar Ebony and Cedar Alexander for Sale

We had a second-hand guitar very similar to this one on show last year and everybody loved it, so I thought it would be a good idea to offer a new version! 

629mm scale length. Glorious colourful Macassar Ebony. Fine, selected Western Red Cedar soundboard. Ebony bindings with red borders.  

Gotoh 510 tuners, 45mm fingerboard with Abalone diamonds. Neck laminated with Mahogany and Rosewood

A beautiful guitar

For sale at £5,900 - SOLD

Click on an image to enlarge ...

Tristan Seume plays the Macassar Alexander

I've said it many times before, Tristan's playing is instantly recognisable.

Here’s a new game for musicians - "I'll name that player in xxx notes"

Tris is very supportive of everything we do and always willing to demonstrate when we have a new guitar to show. After the festival finished, we had the usual very competitive pool match where I was thrashing everybody up until I wasn't. There's always next year.

Tristan's Website

Second hand instruments

We had a number of second-hand instruments on show this year and sold two. Since then, I have put four of them on the "for Sale" pages of the website and sold two more.
It's always worth looking, as I can't always manage to put everything in the newsletter and they don't stay unsold for long. There will be a few more posted over the next few weeks, so keep watch on the "Instruments" page of the website

Pre-owned Signature Octavius Bouzouki. Made in 2008. For Sale.

The “Signature” version,  made from Indian Rosewood and Spruce. Including a Headway undersaddle pickup and a  “Gig Bag” style case. Excellent condition.

£2,600.00

Click on an image to enlarge ...

The Little After Show Party

In the final hours of the festival when I think nobody will notice, I usually find a few bottles of merriment to open and share. then wander round and collect people I like. Some were hiding. It's a horrible photo of me though, Sigh. Rosie, you need high heels.

We are now back at the workshop and trying to catch up on all the unwise promises I have made in recent months. See you next year!

In Other News
John Smith. Gatherings

John's new album is out now!

"---a ten-song selection of audience favourites, revisited and reimagined, for all the people in the crowd who have stuck with me through the years".

We've all stuck with you John, seriously, you have rekindled a belief that there is still "proper music" being made. Stuff with strong vocals, strong words, and of course, for us, strong guitar parts. The complete package, you've not been called that before have you?

You've made a big difference to a lot of people.

Buy the album here

John Smith. It's a long way for a woman.

What a coincidence, that's exactly what Moira says when we start talking about Ullapool.

This is one of the songs that John has reimagined for his latest album. I've not heard much of the album yet, but we do have tickets for his upcoming show at Kendal. They are selling fast.

John's Website

16 Fyldes and what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt?

These were the Fyldes that were taken to the recent meeting of the Acoustic Soundboard in Halifax. There would have been others, but savings had been spent on guitars rather than on larger cars.

The Life and Songs of Martin Carthy

The closing song from Martin's recent Celebration. Lead by Jon Wilkes and his Fylde. I think I can name sixteen of the artists on stage.

By all accounts it was a historic event. There are videos of Jon Wilks and Graham Coxon playing " Scarborough Fair". and Graham playing " Slide Cittern", throwing the glass bottleneck over his shoulder halfway through. Maybe I'll show them next month.

Jon's Website

Martin Carthy and the Mercury prize

I stayed awake specially to watch this when I really needed to be asleep. I did hope Martin's Album would win, but I completely understand why it went to Sam Fender.

I'll say this - the BBC is wonderful. What other broadcaster could have got the audio, and the visuals so absolutely spot on? The massive emotions involved are there for the whole country to see, and they captured every bit of that as well. Eliza's love and support for her dad is obvious.

Martin has made this song into a mini national anthem. Now there's a thought.

Even though the vast majority of the audience must have been there for the "bigger" acts, you can hear the huge support for Martin at the end.

A more self-serving comment - Sam Fender won the prize on the same day we finished his latest mandolin. That's four he has. What's he doing with them all?

Martin didn’t win the prize, but we can honour him ourselves by buying the album, it's now been released for general sale.

See it here

Graham Coxon

I changed my mind; I'm showing it this month!  Graham is singing one of Mike Waterson's songs, playing cittern with a bottleneck! If that slide had hit Martins guitar I would probably have been given the repair job.

Graham's Website

Musicians Brains show Remarkable Resistance to Pain

Well, we knew this didn't we?  Spiking fingers on sharp string ends? Listening to (insert preference here)?

That's it for this month.

Don't forget the dates for Ullapool next year - October 2nd, 3rd and 4th 2026.

See you there!   

Julie's Website

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