Yesterday I spent an evening with Jim O’Boyle and Dave Richardson.  Jim is a talented concertina player and Dave, who plays mandolin, octave mandolin as well as concertina, played for many years in The boys of the Lough, along with Cathal McConnell and Ali Bain.

I’ve been friends with both for over fifty years; Dave had some of my earliest instruments.  Here he is playing the second mandolin I made him in around 1975, a time when we both had hair.

Lovely to see Jim, Dave and mandolin still in such good condition.

Danny Bradley currently has my 40th Anniversary 2D guitar on long term loan; he plays it beautifully and is a great ambassador for it.

He is a skilled guitarist who uses and controls sustain well, so the 2D with its depth of sound and great sustain suits him particularly well.  Today he sent me an audio clip of him playing ‘Sweetness of Mary’ on the 2D.

The 2D is fitted with a Highlander under-saddle pickup, but this clip was recorded using two condenser microphones.

‘The Sweetness of Mary’ arranged and played by Danny Bradley

The model 2D is based on my Model 2, a relatively large bodied guitar with 12 frets to the body.  The D version has two extra frets at the nut, making it a long scale 14 fret to the body guitar, with the bridge position unchanged.

It is tuned a full tone down as compared with a standard guitar; fitting a capo to the second fret gives standard guitar tuning, scale and string tension.  Taking the capo off opens up a fabulous full sound.

On this clip, Danny has tuned to CGCFGC, capoed at the first fret to play in C#. Capoing at the second fret would give a standard guitar scale and the commonly used DADGAD tuning.

Danny is a lovely singer and guitarist and has written some great songs.  He gigs regularly, opened for Richard Thompson on his recent tour, and will be doing several spots at the upcoming Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow.  If you haven’t already heard him, I recommend you go and hear him if you get the opportunity.

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Today Tom Fletcher recorded my latest long scale 2D guitar.  This is an African Blackwood and Douglas Fir guitar I built for Paul Aegerter of Bellingham, Washington USA. Paul kindly agreed to this recording.

Tom is a lovely guitarist, and his sensitive and lyrical arrangements bring out the sound and balance of every guitar he plays.

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Tom Fletcher plays my Brazilian rosewood and Douglas Fir Martin Simpson Signature model guitar on this recording he made recently.  It illustrates the clarity and separation of a Douglas Fir soundboard.

Tom is a lovely guitarist; he demonstrated my guitars at the charity talk I gave at Slaley village hall a few months ago.

Danny Bradley came to the Queens Hall in Hexham a couple of months ago, supporting Fairport Convention on their UK tour.  A lovely man, he plays guitar and sings his own songs along with others.

Danny is a great singer and his guitar playing is wonderful; lovely arrangements and great tone. Not super well known yet, but he soon will be.   Catch him if you get the chance.

While in Hexham, he came to visit and play a few guitars. We agreed he should borrow one and he returned recently, dithering between a Martin Simpson signature model and a long scale 2D, both Anniversary models. Both are built with old German Spruce and best Brazilian rosewood.  He finally chose the 2D; here he is in my workshop, trying it through the pickup.

Danny is currently supporting Richard Thompson on his UK tour.

Between 2008 and 2013 I gave talks on guitar making at the Whitley Chapel parish hall. Pat Wilson, who lives in Slaley, heard about this. When asking would I do one at Slaley, she unfortunately spoke to my wife Liz.  Liz got back to Pat saying I would do it and my arm would probably have recovered by then.

So a dozen years after the previous one, I will be giving a talk at the Slaley Commemoration Hall on Monday 27th January.  The entry charge is an outrageous £4.00, and a donation will be made to Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Guitarist Tom Fletcher will be playing music on one of my guitars.

Later edit:  The talk raised £160 for Medecin Sans Frontieres

Here is the flyer advertising it.

Liz and I spent this Christmas with our daughter and her friends. Lots of good food, lots of laughter. At one point, probably to keep me out of the way, she suggested I might like to play her guitar.  This is a Model 0 (the predecessor of my New World) I built for her 21st birthday in 1995.  It’s in perfect condition, with a sweet, gentle sound.  I was so pleased to be playing it again.

While examining it, I was struck by the appearance of the neck, which was made of old mahogany, dense and dark. When I was first building, I occasionally came across mahogany like this, but it became harder and harder to find and eventually impossible.  Since then I’ve used mahogany from a stock I bought in the early 2000s.  Nice wood, but not as dramatic as this. My daughter’s guitar must be one of the last I built with it.

In recent years I’ve also used Wengé, another stiff and resonant wood.

A few weeks ago I had one of my regular clearing up sessions.  Going through my shelves and cupboards I was astonished and thrilled to find I still had some pieces of this old dark mahogany.  Enough for perhaps half a dozen necks and heel blocks.

I also have two boards of Honduras rosewood, one for necks and another for backs, lovely dark perfectly quarter sawn wood .  I bought them from Craft Supplies (now long defunct) in 2002 but didn’t use them because the boards were too big for me to cut in my shop.

I’ve not built with Honduras rosewood before, but it is very well regarded as a tonewood for backs and sides.  It is heavy like African Blackwood but has a ring like Brazilian rosewood, an interesting combination.  Now I’ve decided, I can’t wait to have it cut and build with it. I’ve arranged to have it cut by a business with suitable equipment.

My plan is to build a short series of guitars with Honduras rosewood bodies and old dark mahogany necks. Soundboards will be German spruce, figured Sitka spruce or Douglas Fir.

SOLD

A beautiful 1974 Sobell dulcimer is for sale at the St Luke,s Hospice charity shop.  Details on my ‘Available now’ page https://www.sobellguitars.com/available-now/