What is a "British" guitar? (upcoming NGD)

Mellish

ToneControl said:

Mellish said:

@ToneControl ; Fylde are superb.

I saw a girl playing one seated at an open window and the tone made my jaw drop. It was beautiful.. 

Expensive, though, I believe. 

 

£2.5k last time I looked, just checked now, there are a few at £2900

Wow! Cheaper than I thought you could get a Fylde.

Some, like the Oberon, I've seen when out gigging. There's a folk singer with one in Nottingham. 

 

Tannin

BillDL said:

I suppose it's a bit like us assuming that Woollabongalong is close to Wanabaragimba because they are only 1cm apart on a map and are off the same main two-track red-dirt road 

Quite so. People hire a car in Brisbane and think they'll slip down the Adelaide for the weekend.

BillDL said:

One thing about the UK in general that many people from more rural or suburban places in America, Canada, Australia, and Africa find hard to imagine is why it takes us so long to travel comparatively short distances here.  A lot of the non-Motorway and non-dual carriageway roads connecting towns here are a lot more windy as they weave their way around places and things that were here a long time before the roads were built.  The notion of somebody doing a flying visit to London and then popping up to the Scottish Highlands for a few days is more daunting and takes a lot more planning than it ideally should.

I'm getting the picture I think @BillDL. Like Sri Lanka in other words. Or, for that matter, Tasmania. Mainlanders always under-estimate how long it takes to get anywhere here. And that's without taking into account the mad Tasmanian driving style - no faster than someone from Bendigo or Adelaide goes on mainland roads, but 100k on little narrow, twisty Tasmanian roads with no verges which are really only safe at 70k 'coz the instant something goes wrong you have got absolutely nowhere to go. But Tasmania is only mildly slower than (say) Victoria.  What looks like a one hour trip takes an hour and a half here at most here, more often an hour twenty. In Sri Lanka a "one hour" trip takes two to three hours, mostly three. I'm getting the notion that I should think of travel in England the way I think of it in Sri Lanka. (Only with nicer weather.) (And much more expensive!)

The flying visit to London and detour up to Scotland did indeed take a bit of planning! My three days in the south of England were easy as my friend will take care of it all. Apparently it's a 4-hour drive down to the Brook workshop. (I'd have guessed a couple of hours looking at the map.) The rest of the time we will probably spend at his place, walking in the woods and playing guitars. 

The trip north I have pondered in some detail. No roads involved, all of it by train (well, some bits on foot) and I've spent days on-line studying timetables and working out connections. Some sections are by first-class express, most are in ordinary second-class commuter trains. But a second-class seat in a commuter train is still 100% better than the nasty little things you have to sit in on an aeroplane, so who cares?

Tannin

I am aware of NK Forster's work @ToneControl though I haven't seen any of his guitars in the flesh. In recent years the Gold Coast seems to have become a centre of Oz guitar building second only to Mellbourne. 

Despite helpful details and advice here, a visit to Flyde isn't on my radar. I won't have time for it and I'm more than happy to be adding a Brook to my little collection. 

ToneControl

Tannin said:

I am aware of NK Forster's work @ToneControl though I haven't seen any of his guitars in the flesh. In recent years the Gold Coast seems to have become a centre of Oz guitar building second only to Mellbourne. 

Despite helpful details and advice here, a visit to Flyde isn't on my radar. I won't have time for it and I'm more than happy to be adding a Brook to my little collection. 

That's fine, just add them to your radar, one may be in a shop on your route if you are lucky, or a forumite might invite you in to try one.

Why not publish your route, and people could tell you if you are passing nearby.
I'm near J19 of the M6

Tannin

Cheers @ToneControl I'd certainly love to try one - and any number of other interesting instruments! Sadly I have very limited time. Well, none really. 

After leaving my friend's place (visiting there is the chief purpose of my detour to the UK - we grew up together and he's a very good mate I haven't seen for 5 or 10 years)  my route is Dorking -> London -> Settle via Leeds (1st day), then a round trip up the Cumbria coast to Carlisle and south to Settle (2nd day), then Settle -> Carlisle -> Glasgow -> Edinburgh and fly out Edinburgh -> Zagreb  (3rd day). That first day is the only one with any spare time in it. I have it in mind to use it by spending an hour or so walking around central London - not shopping or anything bar maybe a coffee and a sandwich, just looking around a bit. 

Soupman

@Tannin , a very tight itinerary! Just be aware that British Rail does not have the same reputation as the Swiss rail system....  

Tannin

^ A good point @Soupman! None of the connections matter too much bar the one to catch the flight back to Croatia. An hour late checking in at a pub ... big deal. A missed flight and I have to stay overnight and try again in the morning. 

I have actually stolen this whole week from Mrs Tannin's and my three week family visit to Croatia. For the sake of domestic peace, I dare not steal any extra days! And anyway, I am as keen on spending some quality time with the in-laws in Croatia as she is. The four of us get onto the interwebby thing every two weeks to talk nonsense and drink rajika and it's always a good night. Looking forward to doing the same with them in real life!

Soupman

@Tannin, yes, I know what you mean. I refer to it as domestic politics  .

ArchtopDave

Down in Surrey, at New Chapel, there's Turnstone : turnstoneguitar.co.uk. Rosie has made a bit of speciality of using English woods for her guitars.

 And if you're travelling between Carlisle and Glasgow, there's Mark Bailey, who's just outside Ayr : baileyguitars.co.uk. Not the easiest to get hold of, but I've made 3 excellent guitars in the past on his "Build Your Own Guitar" courses. 

ToneControl

Tannin said:

^ A good point @Soupman! None of the connections matter too much bar the one to catch the flight back to Croatia. An hour late checking in at a pub ... big deal. A missed flight and I have to stay overnight and try again in the morning. 

I have actually stolen this whole week from Mrs Tannin's and my three week family visit to Croatia. For the sake of domestic peace, I dare not steal any extra days! And anyway, I am as keen on spending some quality time with the in-laws in Croatia as she is. The four of us get onto the interwebby thing every two weeks to talk nonsense and drink rajika and it's always a good night. Looking forward to doing the same with them in real life!

Keep an eye on the news, there have been frequent rail worker strikes here - usually advertised well in advance.
Also some train companies have trouble finding drivers some days, so there are often cancellations.

Therefore, try to build in some "Plan B" ideas

Tannin

Thanks @ToneControl I'll do that. As mentioned it's a pretty tight schedule. If things look awkward, well the only things I have actually booked in the UK are a hotel near Settle for two nights and the flight out of Edinburgh. Everything else is fungible and can be played by ear if necessary.

@ArchtopDave I'm aware of Turnstone Guitars (in large part thanks to members of this forum). Lovely looking instruments, a bit more than I'm planning on spending this time but not unreasonable or completely out of reach. Somewhere on their site is a link to a video recorded at a guitar show where Rosie has an all-yew guitar (top as well as back and sides), which I watched with considerable interest - and some disappointment as we didn't get to hear what it actually sounded like!

Ayr is a place I'd rather like to go to but won't have time for.  I like the look of Mark Bailey's archtops. I guess it's inevitable - one of these days, sooner or later, I'm going to end up with an archtop from somewhere or other.

But not this year.

Mellish

@Tannin ; the weather you may not like. There's a cold snap on the way, so pack a thick sweater! 

 

Tannin

Mellish said:

@Tannin ; the weather you may not like. There's a cold snap on the way, so pack a thick sweater! 

 

Expected to last until July is it?

guitarjack66

Tannin said:

Mellish said:

@Tannin ; the weather you may not like. There's a cold snap on the way, so pack a thick sweater! 

 

Expected to last until July is it?

And through it! Expect every day to be cold and you might get a surprise or two.
Summer is often on a Wednesday over here.

Mellish

@Tannin ; mate, if you think July in Blighty, guarantees t-shirt and shorts, that's a mistake right there!

 

Shadow

Mind you we did have a couple of 40 degree days last summer, air con hard to find here outside of cars

bertie

Mellish said:

@Tannin ; mate, if you think July in Blighty, guarantees t-shirt and shorts, that's a mistake right there!

 

that's all year round 

Mellish

@Shadow ; yeah that was awful wasn't it? 

I remember struggling to keep my then Gibson Dove at 50% RH. The volume/tone control wouldn't stay glued to the underside of the top! 

 

Mellish

bertie said:

Mellish said:

@Tannin ; mate, if you think July in Blighty, guarantees t-shirt and shorts, that's a mistake right there!

 

that's all year round 

That's often very true!





 

GTC

I can't speak highly enough of the guys at Brook - and if you want all British then I'm sure they'll work something suitable out for you. I know they've used a lot of locally grown timber on their instruments. Drop them a line - Andy and Simon are very responsive and are always keen for something a bit different for their models.

A friend of mine recently had a Lamorna built and he wanted to use the reclaimed wood from a fallen French walnut tree from his mother-in-law's house in Picardy (I think it helped with the domestic justification).

Despite it being left out in the open and left to rot for an extended period, through a lot of patience and careful treatment they managed to get a stunning back and sides set from it.