Sad and strange times here in the UK with the loss of the Queen and the change of Prime Minister in the same week.

Whatever our opinions on the monarchy, respect is due for the Queens’ life and the devotion she gave to her role.

We had dinner in our local pub at the weekend. It was opened (by the then) Prince Charles and is called "The Old Crown", which somehow carries some extra meaning now.

None of us know what the future will bring but in the meantime we will just keep on doing what we do ... making instruments and hoping they continue to bring cheer where needed .

It doesn’t get much more interesting than this, the guitar is a piece of English musical history.

I made it for John in 1977, paired with one I made for Dave Walters. Both are shown in “The Book”. John played this alongside his Oberon for many years and it featured in a lot of his publicity. The history didn’t stop with John, he part exchanged this guitar with me for one of the newer Oberons he has now, and I sold it on to somebody in England, then I heard it had been sold to somebody in Ireland. Earlier this year, I took it in part exchange from a customer in Germany, who had bought it from the USA. Did you follow that? Pity it doesn’t have a passport with visa stamps.

The top is German Spruce, which was just about all I used in the early days, it’s in good condition apart from a few minor marks. The sides, and two outer panels of the back are “Bocote” although I didn’t know what it was at the time. The centre panel is Burr Indian Rosewood - which I’ve never seen or heard of before or since and is very difficult to work with. The neck is laminated from Bocote and Burr Rosewood, with the heavy aluminium reinforcement that I used at the time. It was originally so stiff that I could not get any relief into it and it was difficult to set up, but we’ve now fitted a new Ebony fingerboard and bridge and reset the neck to make all that work just fine. The neck isn’t as big and chunky as many of the early Falstaff’s, but it’s not a modern adjustable style either. It feels and plays very well.

The purflings are unique. Four layers of red and green ABS twisted together over a flame, then sanded flat. The bindings are Walnut. The tuners are the original Schallers, nicely bedded in now after forty plus years and working perfectly. We have even kept the original Lignum Vitae nut- much better than bone.

We’ve refinished the back, sides and neck.

It’s a lovely thing and there can never be another one like it.

I'm asking £5400.00 - SOLD

And this might be that guitar. The words show John’s dry sense of humour which was a big part of his show, and his personality. Still is of course.

John's Website

Nearly there, I hope Scotland is still where it was three years ago.

Link to Ullapool's Newsletter

The Leadmill is under threat of closure. Read all about it here and see what you can do to help

The Leadmill's website

A Maple Ariel, with a Cedar top, Maple neck and Ebony veneered "Scoop"

Maple has various quirks, particularly when it is strongly figured. “Fiddleback” material is so very fragile in bending and loves to explode with little warning while quilted timber bends like butter but definitely has a mind of its own. “Bending” in this case would be better described as “negotiating” exactly what shape it will agree to become.

The idea here started as a custom Tenor guitar, but the customer was drawn towards double strings.  Compromise solution- double strings on the top two courses. It works very well indeed, with extra tonal content from the melody strings, and solid background from the lower notes. 

Macassar Ebony back and sides, Spruce top. Yet another delighted customer. I don't know how we do it. 

Yes, I do, we have a lot of experience and make so many different styles of instruments that its usually easy to extrapolate between two (or more) different concepts and learn from all of them Plus, and this is very important, we all enjoy and benefit from the variety.

I didn’t think I'd ever see Sam play the mandolin live on stage, but this was a much smaller gig than his usual stadium shows, and he obviously felt a bit more connection with his audience. Good to see.

I'm not sure what to say - how can Tristan take time off?  I can’t.

Tristan's Website

Martin was here a few weeks ago, bringing his two signature 00018s for adjustment. He was a bit befuddled by the double neck Falstaff. (see March 2021 Newsletter) but did manage to smile through the sound holes for me. Peek a boo Martin!

and I found this!

Martin's Website

I usually avoid videos with lots of “Preamble”, but if your name is Martin, I'll make an exception.  Why are the Christmas decs still up??

Martin's Website

Louis has some videos coming out with fiddle player Owen Spafford. This is the first one, there are two more due before their album comes out on November 4th  

Louis says “The Falstaff is still as incredible as always”

Louis' Facebook Page

Every so often, Anthony’s (Genesis) people get in touch asking for string advice for these two.  An early Cittern and Bouzouki, looking in excellent condition.  Always good to hear about such things

My daughter Charlotte is currently entering every instrument we have made since 1973 into a spread sheet so one day soon I might know some actual total numbers. I'll be able to look at the standard designs as well, which will be interesting, as they tend to go through fashions. We have had long spells of making lots of Orsinos, then it was Falstaffs, and the Ariel design seems to have "bursts” of popularity.

Once or twice, one of the standard designs seemed to have lost their popularity, so I dropped them from the price list, only to find another surge of enquiries straight away. You customer people are very strange.

I don’t want to publicise these numbers; I like to answer any enquiries directly and tell the customer as much as I can. When Charlotte has finished this, I'll be able to look up the numbers while I'm in a beach bar somewhere warm.

Having mentioned older daughter, it's a nice coincidence that John Hobson has posted this, written for younger daughter Sophie just after she was born. Aaaaahhhh.

Charlotte has her own tune of course.

Can somebody please write a tune called “lovely wife”? Oh, hang on:

Of course, I have two stepchildren and soon to be seven grandchildren. This is going to become a long newsletter when I find all those links:

What’s happening? Did Elliott plug the wrong guitar in? Fun though isn’t it??

Elliott's Website

Chris playing one of his own guitars alongside his Father’s Falstaff for this lively John Renbourn piece. The two instruments make a good compare and contrast conversation. Being ambidextrous must be very useful when Chris is making guitars.

Chris' Webspage

Keith Beardmore found this on Facebook and secretly delivered it to me. I've always wanted one and now I've got one. Moira tried to put her nose against it, but I said she was being silly. I hope she wasn't trying to make some sort of statement.

Maybe this is the axe I want to grind? It should be interesting to some of you and might even upset a few. Oh dear, what a pity, never mind.

Guitar backs are generally made from one piece of wood, in effect split down the centre and re-joined with the two halves “book matched” to make one, wider piece with matching grain.

But there is more than one way of doing this.  I believe that certain parts of the tree need to be avoided if possible.

I hate to see pale "sapwood" included in the back and sides. Sapwood is the living part of the tree under the bark, it's likely to have insect holes and bark inclusions, and is often a lot less dense than the heartwood. There are a few timbers where the Sapwood is the best part, Maple for instance but In most timbers, Rosewood and Walnut being two good examples, the sapwood does not have any of the qualities that we pay for when buying “tonewood”.

I regard that part of the tree as firewood. 

Here we have one piece of wood, cut and joined in three different ways;

The join here includes a large amount of Sapwood, wasting the higher quality wood from further inside the tree and putting the bad wood in the middle, the most important area. Some people like doing it this way for visual effect, and we do see this a lot nowadays because the available material is smaller than it used to be, but I still hate it.

This time it’s joined down the opposite edge, and avoids the sapwood, but now includes a large amount of “slab" wood from near the centre of the tree, the "Pith". The grain lines converge in an interesting "V", sometimes it’s unavoidable but this can waste the best part of the wood, stiffen the back and even include cracks from the Pith. Not nice.

Or like this, with the wood joined along a straight line cut just under the sapwood, with the grain parallel in the centre of the instrument, cutting away the more suspicious material near the outside edges and keeping all the better parts.   It's the same piece of wood but improves the guitar in so many different ways.

And finally. I’ve always felt comfortable with big horses; they are gentler than small ones and seem to have better communication skills. Here I am with "Big Mac" at Thornton Hall Country Park a few weeks ago, he and I had a lot in common, and no, there weren't any extra strong mints in my pocket.   I am planning to go back soon because there is something I forgot to ask him. I do hope he can help.