b'Martin CarthyRoger Bucknall makes very, very fine guitars. I first became aware of him in the early 1970s due to a chance meeting with Gordon Giltrap on a train on the way to a gig somewhere. We fell at once to talking about guitars (well I never) and he started by enthusing about his very new guitar, insisting that he show it to me then and there, which he did and he was right. It was a beautiful piece of work made, he said, by a man in Bournemouth who was thinking about going into the luthier business full time. When I met that man a few days later and he did an emergency refret on my own guitar I remember being aware of a quiet passion for what he was doing as a hobby and wondered when he would take the plunge.It cant have been so very long after that first meeting that he did so, because a year or more later I heard about a man who had opened a workshop in Kirkham near Blackpool and thought that it must be he. Truly I dont know why but following my hunch I visited the workshop and found that it was indeed Roger and that he was very happily following his dream. He handed me the first Falstaff model, which he had built - reluctantly because of one tiny flaw in its finish - but was very happy indeed with the sound that came roaring from that instrument, as was I. That he has continued to pursue that dream is testament to his resilience as well as his passion because there were one or two fairly major hiccups on the way. There was a temporary burnout after family tragedy which he hid by switching his attention to making snooker cues (snooker being his other love), only to develop an allergy to wood dust which stopped his gallop for a while but he very soon made his way back. What singles him out is desire and a capacity to build the instrument which suits the individual, which has resulted in a powerful, continuing and lasting contribution to the development of acoustic guitar playing on the wider music scene in general on this side of the Atlantic.Hes clever, flexible, fearless and proud of what he does, knowing that hes loved in turn by musicians who he has helped and who he in turn admires. Hes well deserving of his place among the very best craftsmen around. And he taught me a great trick shot one-day in the course of a snooker lesson.15'