b'I started the business in 1973 with Bob Astley, whodisappointing experience. Lots of strings and pins was a salesman for the company I worked for,and glue, but very little decent timber.and played banjo at the club. He had family andThe guitar that I had shown Gordon became contacts around the North West of England, andOberon - King of the Fairies from Midsummer when we set up the business on the Fylde CoastNights Dream. Being a king gave the name some of Lancashire, he suggested Fylde Instrumentsgravitas, and I liked the concept of the guitar Limited.being top of its particular tree even if the fairy part One part of me wanted to use my own name, asweakened it a bit. The Oberon went on to become I was the guitar making half of the partnership,the weapon of choice for many of the emerging but Bucknall Guitars didnt roll off the tongueEnglish guitarists such as John James and Nic Jones, quite well enough and even now, forty years later,and is still popular for the English style of playing Im reluctant to push my own name that far.The40 years later, so it was a good decision. The name partnership didnt last very long, but we remainedsounded right, tripped off the tongue quite nicely friends and I didnt want to change the name, Iveand helped convince me that the Shakespearean more or less hidden my Gemini personality behindidea was going to work. it to some extent ever since. Roger Bucknall and MrI made the next model from Maple, but otherwise Fylde, very apt.identical to the Oberon, so I thought it would be My first professional workshop was in thea good idea to keep it in the family and chose basement of a gents outfitter in St. Annes on SeaOberons wife, Titania. It didnt take me long to and I lived in a flat on the top floor. Bobs brotherrealise that this could cause silly jokes, so I quickly Bill came to work for me, and would generallychanged it. I think it fair to say that the guitar was wake me up by putting on an LP (remember them?)rather striking in appearance, so Lysander - the at full volume while he made the first tea of thehandsome young man of Athens from Romeo and day. We spent far too much time finding old pianosJuliet worked rather well, and again, I liked the and wheeling them through the streets beforesound of it.breaking them up for wood, which was always a Bill and me in 1974Above: Bill and me comparing hair length, and neck length in 1974. I won. This must have been one of the times when Rosewood was scarce, as most of the guitars on the bench are made from Maple.GlenkinchieLeft: The guitar from page 29, back to its usual size.A picture taken in the stillroom at Glenkinchie Distillery. There were big notices everywhere saying no flash photography. Guess what we did? People worry too much, nothing happened.33'