Post by ocarolan on Feb 26, 2013 16:28:11 GMT
Fylde Custom Alexander - a review
(most of this was originally posted on ALF in 2010 - I've tarted it up a bit to repost here)
The original idea was to commission, as a 60th birthday present to myself, a versatile “all-rounder” Fylde guitar, not too big, not too small, with a bias towards fingerstyle playing, but easily capable of a bit of light-medium strumming and all points in between. The Alexander body size appealed to me as being an approximately OM size guitar with a pleasant shape a little smaller and curvier than a dread, and comfortable to play standing or sitting. I wanted a guitar for solo fingerstyle with the necessary clarity, acoustic volume and projection but one that would also blend with other instruments or serve as a vocal accompaniment when the need arose.
I arranged to visit the Fylde workshop last July (2009) when Roger was able to let me try a standard Alexander (cedar/sapele) and a standard Alchemist (cedar/walnut – same body size as Alex but with cutaway) as well as variations on each in several other wood combinations, a couple of which were way too exotic and expensive for me to contemplate buying. As a result, I was sure that a cedar/rosewood guitar with an Alexander shape and size body would be what I was after. I could, in truth, have been happy with the sound of any of the guitars I tried, but the cedar/rosewood seemed to have a certain extra something.
The standard Alexander neck is too narrow at 43mm for me, and so I asked for 45mm, which with maximum string spacing is just fine. The usual scale length on Alexanders is 629mm, but I opted for 648mm as my other Fyldes have the shorter scale. Rosette and purflings were to be a colourful marquetry pattern. I chose bindings in rosewood, like the back and sides, but with some extra purfling lines on the sides and back to delineate them subtly.
I usually prefer perfectly plain ebony fingerboards, but, after ordering the guitar, I thought that maybe a discrete 12th fret inlay would look nice, and after searching for examples on line settled on a Celtic knot design and sent Roger a photo of exactly what I fancied.
To summarise I ordered the following specification based on an Alexander model -
(variations from standard model shown in italics)
Top: Cedar
Body: Indian Rosewood back and sides
Neck : One piece mahogany, rosewood head veneer
Fingerboard and bridge: Ebony, no position markers on face, Celtic Knot inlay at fret 12
Tuners: Gold plated Gotoh
Bindings: Rosewood with Marquetry borders, Marquetry rosette and purfling lines on front.
Fingerboard width at nut.....45mm
Scale length.......................648mm
String spacing at bridge.......57mm
String spacing at nut.........38.5mm
Overall length...................1002mm
Body length........................473mm
Body width, upper bout......288mm
Body width lower bout........395mm
Depth of sides at tailpin......108mm
Illness delayed Roger’s work schedule considerably last year, but, as many of you know, I eventually received my guitar on April 1st 2010, some 5 months after my 60th birthday .
My first play on it was no disappointment at all – a very light guitar to hold, with a quick, resonant and sustaining response. The sound with bare thumb/finger nails was rich, warm, clear and balanced across the strings and up the neck, with excellent sustain and plenty of volume and dynamic range. Firm bass notes, rounded middle tones and sweet treble strings made fingerstyle playing a delight, with no conscious adaptation to the guitar being necessary, and I was also pleased at the chordal strummed sound – nicely shimmering with both fullness and incisiveness and clearer than any of my other guitars. Runs and fills on bass or treble strings came out well in the midst of strumming too. The guitar has a very “in tune” sound with excellent intonation wherever and however it is played, and allows high fretted notes to be played along with open strings confidently. Notes left ringing sustain superbly and they tunefully add to, rather than clash with, the tone colour of notes played subsequently. I’m not a big user of alternate tunings, but I did try MS’s Mother Love and the tuneful sustain helped it sound very smooth and flowing indeed. The guitar’s 648mm scale helped keep the low C tension within acceptable bounds too.
Several days playing have only increased my pleasure at the sound and feel of the guitar. It is extremely light and responsive, and the satin finish one piece mahogany neck with ebony-bound ebony fingerboard is really fast and easy to play – actually a lot less deep and full than I usually prefer, but even after a couple of hours playing I have not suffered the usual pain at the base of my left thumb that I tend to get when playing shallow necks. I have also gone back to using a Shubb capo (instead of my usual Planet waves NS) on this guitar, because the depth of the neck is pretty much constant from first fret position to seventh, so I can change capo position quickly and easily without having to adjust the tightening screw at all – I like that a lot. The guitar still sounds good and sustains well when capoed up high too, which isn’t the case on all guitars.
The shaping at the fret ends allows full use of the fingerboard width – some guitars have a long and gently sloping rounded end to the fret, which reduces its effective length, but this is not the case here – the ends finish almost at right angles to maximise the playing surface. Careful finishing of these fret ends has still left them perfectly smooth and comfortable to play.
The headstock shape seems to be a love it or hate it feature. I do like it, and it does provide a straighter and less cluttered string path than Fylde’s version of the “paddle” headstock.
The bone “nut”, here functioning as a string guide, gives each string the perfect path and angle of approach to the zero fret and is very well shaped indeed. However, it has not been properly finished off and polished – the only flaw I have found. It only needs a few minutes careful sanding, but that will have to wait till the strings come off, probably soon.
The zero fret is perfectly set giving a very low and rattle free first fret action. The 12th fret action is very low at around 1.75mm bass E and 1.25mm treble E. Despite being so low it plays beautifully with no problems even when played hard – a tribute to the neck and fretwork I suppose. The case has a saddle shim in the pocket, so I may experiment sometime to see if a slightly higher action (I usually set mine about 0.5mm higher than on this guitar) might give tonal benefits. Hard to imagine it would though, it sounds so good now, and it is the most easily playable guitar I have at present. We’ll see.
Appearance-wise I am also very pleased with the guitar. I’m not a fan of bling, and much prefer plain guitars with nice wood. The cedar top has an almost 3-D look to it in certain lights, with a lot of cross-silking and some swirly patterning overlying the straight grain – not symmetrical but very appealing. The rosewood back and sides are fairly plainly grained and look sumptuous and chocolatey beneath the fine gloss finish. The marquetry pattern rosette rings, purflings and borders are very colourful when viewed close up, and are good detail features, but from normal viewing distance have a more subtle appearance outlining the guitar nicely. The only concession to bling, the 12th fret inlay is well made and looks great, to my eyes at any rate. I’m glad I decided on that addition.
The ebony bridge was let down by Fylde’s usual tacky plastic bridge pins, black with white dot, which were quite rough to my right hand. I have replaced these with some ebony/pearl dot ones which look subtly nicer, and feel much smoother too.
The Gotoh tuners are smooth and efficient in use and do their job well and without fuss. I was not convinced about the look of the black tuner buttons - sadly these turned out to be plastic, not ebony as I’d thought. They did feel nice though. I have replaced them for now with some “sucked barley sugar” ones (that dweezil hates) that I had spare, and I prefer the appearance to black. Ideally, some rosewood buttons might look best, to match the rosewood headstock veneer. Maybe soon!
The inside of the guitar looks lovely too, and is smooth, well finished, neat and free from blobby bits of glue. I’ll investigate further soon when I fit a pickup – K&K minis, the same as my other instruments. I’d asked Roger to drill out the end block ready for a strap pin jack as I always find doing that a bit scary on a new guitar. This had been neatly done, though the debris still remained inside the guitar! To plug the hole for now I have put in a push fit wooden endpin. I have also fitted a strap button on the treble side of the heel and so can report that the guitar is light, comfortable and well balanced when “worn” on a strap.
A Hiscox Liteflite case came with the guitar; not an ideal size, but it is the nearest Hiscox do. The Alex body, like many of Roger’s guitars is not a “standard” size or shape, and is also shorter than many guitars, but is just too large on the lower bout to fit into the largest classical case. Fortunately the case for my Lowden S10 (which is too big for that guitar!) is a perfect fit. Now how do I bring both these guitars to Hebden Bridge.....?
So, was the “custom” experience worth the wait? Definitely, yes. I wouldn’t want to commission a guitar without knowing at least roughly what it would sound and look like, but that risk was minimised thanks to my long and varied experience of Fylde instruments and to Roger’s kind provision of standard and custom-wooded versions of the guitar I was interested in. And cosmetically it was possible to use other models as examples – the binding/purfling treatment I ordered is pretty much the same as on standard Falstaffs.
The cost? More than a standard Alexander certainly, but still almost exactly the same as a standard Falstaff. Good value I reckon. In sound, craftsmanship and appearance it turned out exactly how I wanted, and then some, so I am well pleased.
Phew – if you’ve stuck with me this far you must be a guitar-geeky as I am. I’d better go and play it some more now.
I wonder if I can treat myself to a similar 65th birthday present in a few years time?
Keith Chesterton. April 2010
Post Script (February 2013)
Yes, I’m still delighted with this guitar! Shortly after writing the above I review I did indeed fit K&K mini soundboard transducers, which, as always, give a pretty good representation of the guitar when plugged in. I have also added a teeny bit more neck relief and raised the saddle to give me a 12th fret action of just a teeny bit over 2mm bass E and a teeny bit under 2mm treble E, which works very well for me for a variety of playing styles. The relief and action have remained stable since I set it up during the summer of 2010.
You can find loads of pictures of the guitar in the photo gallery -
www.acousticsoundboard.co.uk/thread/323/fylde-custom-alexander-keith
And, to close, here’s some soundfiles and a video to give at least some idea of what it sounds like -
Flatpicked and strummed - www.box.com/shared/dbl7s0c96f (Swedish Jig/Music for a Found Harmonium)
Fingerpicked song accomp - www.box.com/shared/kvxkj87nan (Rosemary's Sister)
Fingerstyle DADGAD (
) - www.box.com/s/u79y8xb79exj4tl3slvk (Quiet Tune)
Fingerstyle (standard tuning) - (New Tune)
Keith
(most of this was originally posted on ALF in 2010 - I've tarted it up a bit to repost here)
The original idea was to commission, as a 60th birthday present to myself, a versatile “all-rounder” Fylde guitar, not too big, not too small, with a bias towards fingerstyle playing, but easily capable of a bit of light-medium strumming and all points in between. The Alexander body size appealed to me as being an approximately OM size guitar with a pleasant shape a little smaller and curvier than a dread, and comfortable to play standing or sitting. I wanted a guitar for solo fingerstyle with the necessary clarity, acoustic volume and projection but one that would also blend with other instruments or serve as a vocal accompaniment when the need arose.
I arranged to visit the Fylde workshop last July (2009) when Roger was able to let me try a standard Alexander (cedar/sapele) and a standard Alchemist (cedar/walnut – same body size as Alex but with cutaway) as well as variations on each in several other wood combinations, a couple of which were way too exotic and expensive for me to contemplate buying. As a result, I was sure that a cedar/rosewood guitar with an Alexander shape and size body would be what I was after. I could, in truth, have been happy with the sound of any of the guitars I tried, but the cedar/rosewood seemed to have a certain extra something.
The standard Alexander neck is too narrow at 43mm for me, and so I asked for 45mm, which with maximum string spacing is just fine. The usual scale length on Alexanders is 629mm, but I opted for 648mm as my other Fyldes have the shorter scale. Rosette and purflings were to be a colourful marquetry pattern. I chose bindings in rosewood, like the back and sides, but with some extra purfling lines on the sides and back to delineate them subtly.
I usually prefer perfectly plain ebony fingerboards, but, after ordering the guitar, I thought that maybe a discrete 12th fret inlay would look nice, and after searching for examples on line settled on a Celtic knot design and sent Roger a photo of exactly what I fancied.
To summarise I ordered the following specification based on an Alexander model -
(variations from standard model shown in italics)
Top: Cedar
Body: Indian Rosewood back and sides
Neck : One piece mahogany, rosewood head veneer
Fingerboard and bridge: Ebony, no position markers on face, Celtic Knot inlay at fret 12
Tuners: Gold plated Gotoh
Bindings: Rosewood with Marquetry borders, Marquetry rosette and purfling lines on front.
Fingerboard width at nut.....45mm
Scale length.......................648mm
String spacing at bridge.......57mm
String spacing at nut.........38.5mm
Overall length...................1002mm
Body length........................473mm
Body width, upper bout......288mm
Body width lower bout........395mm
Depth of sides at tailpin......108mm
Illness delayed Roger’s work schedule considerably last year, but, as many of you know, I eventually received my guitar on April 1st 2010, some 5 months after my 60th birthday .
My first play on it was no disappointment at all – a very light guitar to hold, with a quick, resonant and sustaining response. The sound with bare thumb/finger nails was rich, warm, clear and balanced across the strings and up the neck, with excellent sustain and plenty of volume and dynamic range. Firm bass notes, rounded middle tones and sweet treble strings made fingerstyle playing a delight, with no conscious adaptation to the guitar being necessary, and I was also pleased at the chordal strummed sound – nicely shimmering with both fullness and incisiveness and clearer than any of my other guitars. Runs and fills on bass or treble strings came out well in the midst of strumming too. The guitar has a very “in tune” sound with excellent intonation wherever and however it is played, and allows high fretted notes to be played along with open strings confidently. Notes left ringing sustain superbly and they tunefully add to, rather than clash with, the tone colour of notes played subsequently. I’m not a big user of alternate tunings, but I did try MS’s Mother Love and the tuneful sustain helped it sound very smooth and flowing indeed. The guitar’s 648mm scale helped keep the low C tension within acceptable bounds too.
Several days playing have only increased my pleasure at the sound and feel of the guitar. It is extremely light and responsive, and the satin finish one piece mahogany neck with ebony-bound ebony fingerboard is really fast and easy to play – actually a lot less deep and full than I usually prefer, but even after a couple of hours playing I have not suffered the usual pain at the base of my left thumb that I tend to get when playing shallow necks. I have also gone back to using a Shubb capo (instead of my usual Planet waves NS) on this guitar, because the depth of the neck is pretty much constant from first fret position to seventh, so I can change capo position quickly and easily without having to adjust the tightening screw at all – I like that a lot. The guitar still sounds good and sustains well when capoed up high too, which isn’t the case on all guitars.
The shaping at the fret ends allows full use of the fingerboard width – some guitars have a long and gently sloping rounded end to the fret, which reduces its effective length, but this is not the case here – the ends finish almost at right angles to maximise the playing surface. Careful finishing of these fret ends has still left them perfectly smooth and comfortable to play.
The headstock shape seems to be a love it or hate it feature. I do like it, and it does provide a straighter and less cluttered string path than Fylde’s version of the “paddle” headstock.
The bone “nut”, here functioning as a string guide, gives each string the perfect path and angle of approach to the zero fret and is very well shaped indeed. However, it has not been properly finished off and polished – the only flaw I have found. It only needs a few minutes careful sanding, but that will have to wait till the strings come off, probably soon.
The zero fret is perfectly set giving a very low and rattle free first fret action. The 12th fret action is very low at around 1.75mm bass E and 1.25mm treble E. Despite being so low it plays beautifully with no problems even when played hard – a tribute to the neck and fretwork I suppose. The case has a saddle shim in the pocket, so I may experiment sometime to see if a slightly higher action (I usually set mine about 0.5mm higher than on this guitar) might give tonal benefits. Hard to imagine it would though, it sounds so good now, and it is the most easily playable guitar I have at present. We’ll see.
Appearance-wise I am also very pleased with the guitar. I’m not a fan of bling, and much prefer plain guitars with nice wood. The cedar top has an almost 3-D look to it in certain lights, with a lot of cross-silking and some swirly patterning overlying the straight grain – not symmetrical but very appealing. The rosewood back and sides are fairly plainly grained and look sumptuous and chocolatey beneath the fine gloss finish. The marquetry pattern rosette rings, purflings and borders are very colourful when viewed close up, and are good detail features, but from normal viewing distance have a more subtle appearance outlining the guitar nicely. The only concession to bling, the 12th fret inlay is well made and looks great, to my eyes at any rate. I’m glad I decided on that addition.
The ebony bridge was let down by Fylde’s usual tacky plastic bridge pins, black with white dot, which were quite rough to my right hand. I have replaced these with some ebony/pearl dot ones which look subtly nicer, and feel much smoother too.
The Gotoh tuners are smooth and efficient in use and do their job well and without fuss. I was not convinced about the look of the black tuner buttons - sadly these turned out to be plastic, not ebony as I’d thought. They did feel nice though. I have replaced them for now with some “sucked barley sugar” ones (that dweezil hates) that I had spare, and I prefer the appearance to black. Ideally, some rosewood buttons might look best, to match the rosewood headstock veneer. Maybe soon!
The inside of the guitar looks lovely too, and is smooth, well finished, neat and free from blobby bits of glue. I’ll investigate further soon when I fit a pickup – K&K minis, the same as my other instruments. I’d asked Roger to drill out the end block ready for a strap pin jack as I always find doing that a bit scary on a new guitar. This had been neatly done, though the debris still remained inside the guitar! To plug the hole for now I have put in a push fit wooden endpin. I have also fitted a strap button on the treble side of the heel and so can report that the guitar is light, comfortable and well balanced when “worn” on a strap.
A Hiscox Liteflite case came with the guitar; not an ideal size, but it is the nearest Hiscox do. The Alex body, like many of Roger’s guitars is not a “standard” size or shape, and is also shorter than many guitars, but is just too large on the lower bout to fit into the largest classical case. Fortunately the case for my Lowden S10 (which is too big for that guitar!) is a perfect fit. Now how do I bring both these guitars to Hebden Bridge.....?
So, was the “custom” experience worth the wait? Definitely, yes. I wouldn’t want to commission a guitar without knowing at least roughly what it would sound and look like, but that risk was minimised thanks to my long and varied experience of Fylde instruments and to Roger’s kind provision of standard and custom-wooded versions of the guitar I was interested in. And cosmetically it was possible to use other models as examples – the binding/purfling treatment I ordered is pretty much the same as on standard Falstaffs.
The cost? More than a standard Alexander certainly, but still almost exactly the same as a standard Falstaff. Good value I reckon. In sound, craftsmanship and appearance it turned out exactly how I wanted, and then some, so I am well pleased.
Phew – if you’ve stuck with me this far you must be a guitar-geeky as I am. I’d better go and play it some more now.
I wonder if I can treat myself to a similar 65th birthday present in a few years time?
Keith Chesterton. April 2010
Post Script (February 2013)
Yes, I’m still delighted with this guitar! Shortly after writing the above I review I did indeed fit K&K mini soundboard transducers, which, as always, give a pretty good representation of the guitar when plugged in. I have also added a teeny bit more neck relief and raised the saddle to give me a 12th fret action of just a teeny bit over 2mm bass E and a teeny bit under 2mm treble E, which works very well for me for a variety of playing styles. The relief and action have remained stable since I set it up during the summer of 2010.
You can find loads of pictures of the guitar in the photo gallery -
www.acousticsoundboard.co.uk/thread/323/fylde-custom-alexander-keith
And, to close, here’s some soundfiles and a video to give at least some idea of what it sounds like -
Flatpicked and strummed - www.box.com/shared/dbl7s0c96f (Swedish Jig/Music for a Found Harmonium)
Fingerpicked song accomp - www.box.com/shared/kvxkj87nan (Rosemary's Sister)
Fingerstyle DADGAD (
) - www.box.com/s/u79y8xb79exj4tl3slvk (Quiet Tune)Fingerstyle (standard tuning) - (New Tune)
Keith
)
) anyway he did it and I believe it to be the first.
Jo whoever he is.
