b'when I first started to see a clean, flat shine, farshort, and it soon became a standard material on superior to anything I had achieved before. I kept toits own. For a short time, I was able to buy Sequoia that system for quite a while and during that timeRedwood before it was lost for decades under a pile the spinningmop threw a thin brown line of polishof destructive bureaucracy. Some of the Spruce that all around the workshop walls about four feet fromI used would be regarded as very low quality today, the floor, and all around me, Bill, and Eddie.but the guitars worked, and sounded great. Even A few years later I bought a powerful polishingmachine heads and strings were difficult to get, and spindle which made all the difference. A salesmanat one time I was completely stumped by a lack of tried to use it on his electric bass, and the stringsbone saddles. Most makers might have made one or became caught in the revolving shaft. Have youtwo saddles by boiling up old cow bones, but how ever seen a Fender doing 1400 rpm??Its anmany have done it to make hundreds? It wasnt interesting sight. practical and doesnt make you popular at home. Besides, English cows are not big enough. Because In the early years of Fylde, timber supplies wereof the difficulty, I used lignum vitae for the nuts a big issue. There wasnt anyone who held stocksinstead of bone. It wasnt a question of cost, just of wood in the amount or size that I needed, notsimple necessity. It was also a good idea and I stuck even in other countries. Supplies sufficient forwith it for quite a long time. I still get guitars in for making one guitar at a time could sometimes beservice that have that original feature in place.bought from hobby suppliers, but all the largerThe original material would of course have been manufacturers had their own sources and cutIvory, and I once visited a supplier of elephant their own materials. This meant that for a longivory in London, which was a deeply depressing time I had to use whatever I could find, includingday. I used to work in a butchers shop, and I dont alternatives such as Sapele instead of Mahogany,find the sight of meat disturbing, but piles of tusks and Sycamore instead of Maple. European Spruceare another matter.I hate to see heaps of Ivory was sometimes replaced with Sitka, or evenbeing burnt to counter illegal trade, it seems a Hemlock, a great timber that I dont think hasfurther insult to the magnificent elephant and been looked at much by other makers. I started tosomehow a rather perverse logic.We all want to use Cedar when supplies of Spruce were running Duck BakerWhen I first heard Duck play he used a Classical guitar to play ragtime and blues, but now he mostly plays steel string on jazz and roots American orBig Jim Sullivan Gary PotterCeltic tunes. He does seem to have quite a few guitars, but amongst themMoira and I spent an evening in our localThis is Gary in my office in 2011 playing is a rather nice Gordon Giltrap signaturepub with Big Jim and his wife. It wasthe guitar I built especially for him. Gary model. several hours of stories. Tales and gossipis a big fan of Laurel and Hardy, so we about artists, continual touring, theswapped silly stories. Throw the clutch guitarists he taught or inspired, snippetsout Gary. Another fine mess you got me about Davy Graham and Jimmy Page.into Roger. We could have gone on a lot longer, butJohn Etheridge played this guitar quite a he wasnt at all well at the time.Big Jimbit and said it was the easiest guitar he ran his own club, and featured guitaristshad ever played. from every sphere right up until he died.38'