• Vanuatu Alexander for Sale - SOLD
• Adam Palma interpretando a Disney
• Lisa Hannigan
• Used Signature Mandolin for Sale - SOLD
• John Smith House Concert
• Blackmore's Night
• Young Folk Awards and a Tenor Guitar - SOLD
• Tristan Seume
• Gordon Giltrap. Starfield
• Will McNicol and Luke Selby. Danza da Cozinha

• Wills New Book. Creative Scales for Fingerstyle Guitar
• Heather Cartwright
• Eric Bibb Feature in Guitarist Magazine.
• The Luthiers ToolBox
• Fylde Guitar Galleries. Custom Guitars 4
• Keith Fitton
• Fylde versus Martin
• Remi Harris at Ullapool
• Ronstadt Fisher Jackson Williams
• Tariffs

A rather nice Signature Touchstone, made in 2007 and hardly played, it's  fitted with a Headway pickup and comes with a hard case.  Checked, set up, restrung. New, this package would cost over £2,200
It's for sale at £1,600 - SOLD

Will  wrote this specially for the "Strings that Nimble Leap" Charity  project.  All of the pieces on that Album are special to me, but this one stands out in a particular way . Moira and I have been known to dance round the kitchen to it.

These two musicians were a great combination, I might try and persuade them to regroup.

Will & Luke's Webpage

Will's Website

Will's new book is out now in paperback, Kindle and PDF. The goal of the book is quite simple - to showcase how looking at scales with fresh perspectives can open up a whole world of interesting and exciting possibilities in the practice room. The result is a book that shows you: 

• How to create cascading scales that combine open strings with rich, flowing harmonies
• Methods for mastering seamless position shifts, slurs, and dynamic picking
• Techniques for adding depth and texture with natural, artificial, and harp harmonics
• Ways to shape your scales with tonal variety, dynamics, and creative articulation
• Approaches for turning scales into expressive music through short studies and full compositions

It was interesting reflecting on my own experience of learning scales, taking me right back to my early classical days. I noticed how my outlook towards them shifted completely when I started creating my own music: all of a sudden, they took on a new meaning and no longer felt like linear entities, stuck on a page. And therein lies the inspiration behind it all.

Find out more and grab a copy here ...

Heather studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and gained a First-Class honours in Traditional music, she studied with Will McNicol in her final year, which obviously helped. She played at the Ullapool Festival last year, and lives quite close to us so we have many connections.

Heather toured with Kris Drever recently and has an EP to be released soon. She is currently working on a guitar duet EP with guests Will McNicol, Ian Carr and Kris Drever. She's very busy!

When I heard that she will be playing at our local famous pub next weekend it was an obvious excuse to feature her here. We'll try and get some photographs if we can see through the beer fumes.

Heather's Website

“You know, ever since I started touring with these wonderful guitars, I’ve been using soundhole pickups made by Fishman called Blackstack pickups. They’re passive, which is great. You don’t have to fool around with batteries, which I’ve always found really annoying on tour to keep checking all of that. They’re dependable and have a magnetic sound that I like. “I run it through a Roland Jazz Chorus amplifier. I split the signal between a DI and then combine that with the microphoned amplifier. That’s the kind of liquidy sound I like. When Roger Bucknall [of Fylde Guitars] first started making these wonderful guitars that I play, it seemed to really work well with them. A kind of amplified acoustic guitar sound that’s as close to an acoustic guitar sound as possible.” 

Well, that's all ok then

Guitarist Magazine

Eric's Website

An ambitious project that's been ongoing since early in 2023 and I'm really looking forward to receiving my copy.

Jamie Etherington is an expat Englishman in  Australia  who now writes academic papers and features for the music press. This idea started as a "5,000 word feature for Fretboard Journal but soon blossomed to a 50,000 word treatise "  

 Jamie and I have been swapping emails for a while, and when he bought the  " Wood Sweat and Tears"  Book, he asked for copies of Mike English's wonderful photographs of the workshop. The special tools we make are very important to the way we work and I'm rather pleased that Jamie has woven three of those pictures into this book.  I'm also pleased to be included  alongside some very famous names, Jamie tells me I’m the only one with three entries! Well, I do make a lot of tools--- 

"With contributions from over 80 luthiers, the narratives (with accompanying images) on a diverse range of tools and machinery should ensure the book has broad appeal within the lutherie community.

The book is dedicated to the memory of fellow contributor Joel Wilkens."      

You can order it here...

Another set of lovely pictures, I'm slowly working my way through them all.  

I still enjoy looking at what we've achieved. It's getting more difficult to make unusual instruments because my own time is more and more taken up with email and admin, it's a common theme whenever I talk to other makers, and to musicians. 

Everybody has to have help to get through the non-productive parts of a business, the actual woodwork here is the enjoyable and less stressful part, but it’s hard to find the time. But it still happens, maybe less often and possibly more expensive.

Link to Gallery 4

I'm amazed by this. A triumph over adversity.

I’m 73. I’ve played guitar since I was 13, particularly acoustic steel string since first hearing Dylan on radio Caroline. My first real guitar was a Kirkham Fylde Goodfellow bought from Roger in the early 80’s. I then graduated to an Oberon which I had for a fair number of years. By this time, I had also started playing electric guitar in blues bands. And then I became a born-again biker but in 2005 was knocked off my bike and suffered a brachial plexus injury, resulting in the total loss in the use of my right arm/hand. Oops! The journey to learn to play again was difficult and long but eventually I worked out that I could get some sort of sound just using my left (fretting) hand for hammer-ons and pull-offs and my little finger for embellishments. Starting out with a Telecaster I graduated to acoustic as well and went through a number of models before going back to my roots and finding a Fylde Orsino that Roger is fettling for me. So, I’m still playing by myself, with partner Cathy and in a couple of bands, Returning Leopards and Bitterbeck. 

And after all that, all that Keith says is "Oops". What a hero.

I know I spend far too long on "YouTube",  it's like digging for opals in Australia, every so often a little gem appears without any warning and encourages you to keep digging. 

It was such a surprise to find this. I wouldn't expect the two guitars to be compared side by side because there are some rather fundamental differences.

The Orsino is made from the softest, lightest materials - Mahogany and Cedar, while the Martin is Rosewood and Sitka Spruce which are both at the heavy and stiff end of the scale.

The Fylde has a longer scale length and bigger body and of course some details of the construction are different.

I would expect the Orsino to be mellow in tone, and very responsive, mostly suited to a light touch, while the Martin  would be bright, and have rather more "headroom", more suited to a heavier style of playing.

I’ve found over the years that USA perceptions  and descriptions of tone are not the same as mine, a language thing perhaps but by and large, I think the comments on this video agree with me.

Whatever anybody thinks of this comparison, I'm obviously pleased to be put along side such a truly iconic name and model. Martin guitars were always my benchmark, and along with many other makers, I probably wouldn't be doing this job if it were not for the CF Martin Brand. I've been to the factory twice and had an interesting chat with Chris Martin 1V at the Frankfurt show, a thoroughly nice man.

Just an excuse to start plugging the Ullapool Festival really, plus I love Remi's playing. I can't help but think they must be very very cold, but they are playing outside the Arch pub, so they can rush back in for a "cup of tea".

Remi's Website

Ullapool Guitar Festival Site

I had to make that title up myself, I've no idea how they are going to  "Bill"  themselves for the upcoming tour.

I've obviously used this video because of Skeet's involvement, but there is no denying that the Cello is the lead instrument here. You should watch the whole thing, but if you have less than optimal patience,  skip to 2 .40. What fun!

There are some tour dates on the video description, I wish they were coming further north.

Like many other people in the world, we've been a little worried about possible tariffs on goods exported to the USA. But I can reassure you, so far, it's not an issue. If any component parts were made in China, then we would have to declare that on the export documents, and they would be subject to a 10% charge. Fortunately , we don't use anything that is made in China, other than some mandolin cases. So, there is no problem.

Nevertheless, should things get difficult, we have a plan.

Roger Bucknall