Post by brianr2 on Feb 26, 2014 15:05:16 GMT
I have just heard from Roger Bucknall that my custom Fylde should be ready by the end of next month. Oh happy day!
This guitar has been a mere 40 years in the making, though Roger only learned of it in 2012.
My story starts in October 1975 when I had just arrived at University, a shy, unworldly working class lad away from home for the first time. I was of the many who benefited from the free higher education of the 1970s. Family circumstances and personal insecurity would have stopped me from going under the present mercenary system, and this would have completely changed the course of my life. I feel so sorry for today's teenagers burdened at the the starts of their lives with long-term debt and the triumph of short-term politics over long-term societal value.
During my first week in the peculiar world of university life, I wandered into the student canteen (pompously called "The Buttery"), to find a superb folk singer sat on a table playing the most moving guitar music I had ever heard. It turned out that he was someone called Nic Jones! I have been an ardent fan of his ever since.
He happened to be playing a Fylde guitar and this gave me my first ever bout of GAS, though I did not then know what this compelling urge was. Sadly, I frittered away the next 40 years on study, work and other distractions. I finally took up the guitar about four years ago, having finally realised the futility of my working existence. While the expression about old dogs and new tricks could have been written for me, playing the guitar - however badly - gives me more pleasure than almost anything else. How I regret the years I missed.
My wife, God bless her, encouraged me to commission a Fylde for my 60th birthday. She said: "it will be well worth it to keep you from under my feet"...
With stumpy fingers and ageing joints, I wanted something with a short scale and cutaway. I also wanted something "dark in tone and dark in appearance". Roger was very helpful indeed in pointing me in the right direction.
He said the build would take about 11-18 months to complete. It should arrive just under the higher figure. This period coincided with the production of his superb book "Wood, Sweat and Tears". This this will have claimed quite a bit of his time but rarely can time have been better spent.
Though I am by nature very impatient, the new guitar will unquestionably have been well worth the wait. In this world of instant gratification a bit of anticipation can make you appreciate things more.
This is all for now. Further details and pictures will follow later. In the meantime, this archetypal grumpy old man is wandering around with a very foolish grin on his face!
Brian
This guitar has been a mere 40 years in the making, though Roger only learned of it in 2012.
My story starts in October 1975 when I had just arrived at University, a shy, unworldly working class lad away from home for the first time. I was of the many who benefited from the free higher education of the 1970s. Family circumstances and personal insecurity would have stopped me from going under the present mercenary system, and this would have completely changed the course of my life. I feel so sorry for today's teenagers burdened at the the starts of their lives with long-term debt and the triumph of short-term politics over long-term societal value.
During my first week in the peculiar world of university life, I wandered into the student canteen (pompously called "The Buttery"), to find a superb folk singer sat on a table playing the most moving guitar music I had ever heard. It turned out that he was someone called Nic Jones! I have been an ardent fan of his ever since.
He happened to be playing a Fylde guitar and this gave me my first ever bout of GAS, though I did not then know what this compelling urge was. Sadly, I frittered away the next 40 years on study, work and other distractions. I finally took up the guitar about four years ago, having finally realised the futility of my working existence. While the expression about old dogs and new tricks could have been written for me, playing the guitar - however badly - gives me more pleasure than almost anything else. How I regret the years I missed.
My wife, God bless her, encouraged me to commission a Fylde for my 60th birthday. She said: "it will be well worth it to keep you from under my feet"...
With stumpy fingers and ageing joints, I wanted something with a short scale and cutaway. I also wanted something "dark in tone and dark in appearance". Roger was very helpful indeed in pointing me in the right direction.
He said the build would take about 11-18 months to complete. It should arrive just under the higher figure. This period coincided with the production of his superb book "Wood, Sweat and Tears". This this will have claimed quite a bit of his time but rarely can time have been better spent.
Though I am by nature very impatient, the new guitar will unquestionably have been well worth the wait. In this world of instant gratification a bit of anticipation can make you appreciate things more.
This is all for now. Further details and pictures will follow later. In the meantime, this archetypal grumpy old man is wandering around with a very foolish grin on his face!
Brian
This, Brian, is good news, very good news! I'm really pleased for you. You've had to be very patient, but it will have been worth it I'm sure.
Jo whoever he is.
