News 2007

Cleaning up lining on a Scantling MS model. Lack of hair due to 20 years fitting under-saddle pickups

Tailpieces

The tailpiece hold-up is over at last. Here are the first to arrive, two each of mandolin (still to have pins fitted), cittern (also octave mandolin and bouzouki) and guitar.

The guitar tailpieces are made up of the anchor plate (attached to the tail of the guitar) and the string plate hooking onto the anchor plate.

Spring weather

This was the view from my office window at around 7am

The same view a few minutes later

Bill Flatman built my mandolin and cittern cases in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He died unexpectedly on 3rd March. He was just sixty-five years old.

Bill was a farmer who lived and grew up on a hill farm close to Whitley Chapel. When I was looking for fibre-glass cittern and mandolin cases to replace my primitive wooden ones, Bill volunteered and made them in his small garden shed. He had no previous knowledge of fibre-glass but went round the canoe building classes in the North East of England, learning how to lay up fibre-glass and where to find the required components. He rewarded his informants with heather honey combs from his own bee hives. He was an ingenious and enterprising man.

Bill’s cases were dark blue and angular with softened corners, based on the wooden cases they replaced. They were well liked and very distinctive; complete strangers carrying these cases stopped in the street and talked to one another.

Bill was a thoughtful man, generous and kind and posessing a strong sense of justice. It didn’t matter if you hadn’t met up with him for a couple of months, you always knew he was completely dependable, the sort of man who would do everything he could to help you if you were in any kind of fix.

He was a special friend, and I will miss him greatly.

The Fretboard Journal

Many people already know of the Fretboard Journal. For those who don’t, it’s a beautifully produced quarterly publication of serious in-depth articles on all subjects concerning fretted instruments.

Last summer Brad Warren visited and stayed a few days, talking, asking questions and taking photographs. The picture at the head of my ‘Wood and Materials’ webpage is one of his photographs.

Usually I build two instruments together; this allows me to move from one to the other, working on each instrument while the other is glueing up.

However last week, having bent the sides for a Simpson model and a New World model, I carried on and bent sides for a Parlour guitar simply because I was enjoying bending. Because the three guitars are different sizes, there is no competion for moulds.

Here are all three sets of sides joined at the heel and at the tail. You can see the relative sizes of these guitars; the MS (top) is the same length as the NW but wider, while the Parlour guitar (bottom) is both shorter and narrower than the NW.

Cittern cases

At last I have cases available to fit large bodied citterns and bouzoukis. These are plywood cases with strap pockets, a two piece rucksack type strap and a rather garish yellow interior. They are basic but relatively inexpensive.

I hope to have Calton cases available for this size instrument in the future, but in the meantime I’m happy to offer these as pictured. The alternative option of using guitar cases lined out to accept citterns and bouzoukis is bulky and expensive.

Finally, even though it’s early February, last weekend was sunny and spring-like (though the week following we had frost and snow). Here are a friend and his son walking into the sunset. We’re far enough north here that sunset is shortly after sunrise at this time of year; the picture was taken at 3 pm.

Walking by Devilswater