Shoreline Music • Fylde Alchemist

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Muriel Anderson
Pierre Bensusan
Howard Emerson
Jaquie Gipson
Dougie MacLean
Franco Morone
The Waybacks

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Originally reviewed December 2001.

Current featured guitar:

Fylde Alchemist - This Cedar/Walnut guitar is Fylde's Mini-Jumbo cutaway. It includes built-in Headway active pickup system. $2800.

Sound - This guitar reminds me why I love cedar-topped guitars so much: round, rich notes, with just a little meat added to the low end. Whereas many high-end guitars focus on bright, sometimes overly crisp mids and highs, this guitar adds a rich fullness to those notes--and plenty of volume for its somewhat smaller size. Plus, the walnut back and sides bring a mellowness to the tone that is hard to find with other tonewoods.

Fylde guitars have become very popular among Celtic musicians, so when I first got this guitar, I figured I'd try to drop it into DADGAD to see how it sounded. I now know why they all love Roger's guitars: As I began to play several of my favorite DADGAD tunes, it was like these songs had finally found the home they'd been looking for for years. Tonally, this guitar loves DADGAD.

Playability - Fylde guitars are made to be eminently playable. Certainly, many high-end guitars are, but the slim neck, slightly shorter scale length, and perfect action of this guitar make it one of the most playable guitars I've ever had in my hands. If you're a guitarist, you know that there's just some chord shapes you struggle to hit every once in a while. It's a different story with this guitar. Although we play a lot of great guitars here at Shoreline, this is the guitar I can't put down--my hands love to be on that neck (especially when revisiting all those DADGAD jigs I'd written off as unplayable many years ago).

Finish - The first thing anyone comments on when they see this guitar is the cedar topwood. The slightly red tone is just gorgeous to look at. Fylde also includes some modest and attractive trim--herringbone around the top edges and in a three-ring rosette around the soundhole. And, as you can see in this picture on the left, the walnut back has some really unique figuring--certainly like no walnut back I've ever seen.

Summary - We at Shoreline have become quite enamored of Roger Bucknall's fine instruments, and this guitar is a big part of the reason why. In fact, we have to keep this one in its case just to keep Tom from drooling on it. The remarkably playable neck, the stunning top and backwoods, the woody, rich sound--all these things make the Alchemist one of our favorite guitars.

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