Martin Simpson on guitar making in the UK and USA

Sam English put this together from the sessions that Martin spent with us making the “50 years of Fylde Guitars” video. It’s “ ll the trimmings” from Martin’s very generous contributions.

There is no one better placed than Martin to tell this story, it's a pretty good overview of the whole subject and it corresponds just about exactly with my own involvement. I would just add Dick Knight, Tony Zemaitis and Stan Francis to the early UK makers list, before Martin or I were involved. In those days there was no communication between makers in the UK, no shared knowledge or supplies. it's a lot different now, with a huge amount of information available, and a lot of disinformation as well. Because I've taken a different path, starting from those bare roots, I find myself having more in common with the older individual makers on both sides of the Atlantic and we have some fun conversations, but it's changing. Some younger makers actually speak to us oldies occasionally nowadays.
Roger Bucknall.