b'still hasnt left me. Im sitting in one such housefor Andy Summers, plus a guitar for Stings wife now, and Im half way through another. All of myTrudi Styler, and another for Stewart Copeland. A business ventures have been in manufacturing, andlot of these sort of sales involve meeting the artist I love designing and making the equipment needed.before and after a big show, which must be the Instead of borrowing thousands of pounds to buymost stressful sales situation you can imagine. ready made machines, I like to make dedicatedBodyguards, security, nerves, energy, stress, sweat, tools from bits and pieces.Sometimes I enjoy theworry, roadies, girlfriends, crazy fans. That was just tool making more than the actual job, but I canfor me, I dont know how the artists managed.use that as a diversion to keep me interested andI had bought a record - Flute for the Feis by John creative.Doonan with Phil Murray on acoustic bass. I fell Despite copyright and patent law, other companiesin love with Phils plectrum style, rebuilt his old copied a lot of my ideas, and I discovered thatGerman Bass for him and he eventually asked me paper is often not worth the ink it is written under. to make him a new bass guitar. Thinking back, this You need money to protect your ideas. I heard ofwas more important than it might seem - I wanted one man who lost his house trying to protect a verysomething to happen, and it did.The Sir Toby simple device that replaced the triangle used inwas obviously too small for the big sound Phil was snooker. One way past this is to move quickly, dontalready getting, so I adapted the Orsino body by spend money fighting unwinnable battles, sell themaking it about 2 inches deeper and fitting a long new product fast while it is fresh, then move on to aneck. Hey Presto - King John. Great name, again it new idea. Thats a bit more business advice for you. wouldnt have suited a 6 string, but it just seemed During the eleven years from 1981 to 1992, Ito fit the bass guitar. Some years later, Moira and I was still making guitars on a very small scale,booked to see the play King John at Stratford on but mostly for professional musicians, and notAvon, and by pure chance, one of the theatre staff supplying the general music trade at all. In factphoned up to order a mandolin. He warned me that many people thought that I had stopped makingthe play is rather dark, so I was right with the guitars altogether, but it was during this time thatname. Phil is still playing that much battered bass, I made a double neck guitar and several 6 strings30 years later.John DoyleI madeJohn a custom Falstaff with extraWinging Itstrengthening which he calls The TankHe has been touring with John Smith andAdam Bulley and Chas Mackenzie live on opposite sides of Scotland. How they manage Eric BibbWe caught one of his shows into work so well together is a mystery, particularly as they both have full time careers and a private house just the other side of theinterests in all sorts of other areas. Adam has a mandolin and a tenor guitar from me; Im still mountain from where we live, and he toldworking on Chas.me that his first serious guitar had been aQuite astonishingly good, individually and together. Really nice guys, stalwart supporters of Fylde Orsino. He bought it in London, usingthe Ullapool Guitar Festival, I really cant say enough good things about them.almost the entire proceeds of his first British tour. Back home in New York, he fell asleep on the subway, on top of his guitar case. When he woke up, guitar and case were gone, never to be seen again.67'