Fylde Family Portrait...

[Markkunkel]

When Rick came from a nearby city to pick up the Fylde Touchstone mandolin that he had purchased from me on the cafe he brought a couple of his instruments with him and we spent some time playing (to tell the truth, mostly he played and I listened and marveled...wow!). In addition to a very cool (and LOUD) National reso mandolin he brought his Fylde Octavius, and the occasion seemed too auspicious not to bring out the camera. So here is a Fylde family portrait, with left to right:
* a custom (cedar top, fifth course) Touchstone Signature Archtop bouzouki
* Rick's lively "new" Touchstone mandolin, sapele and spruce
* his very cool Octavius, same woods and very unique sound
* my Single Malt Touchstone (also very cool)

It was surely fun to hear all the different sounds.... and we thought that other Fylde fans would be interested. We missed, alas, a Fylde guitar.

Mark

[steve V. johnson]

Nice pic, nice family!

Can you describe the difference in sound between the Touchstone and the Single Malt mandolins?

I've never been in a room with a Single Malt instrument and I'm very curious about them.

I had an Octavious for a while, just like that one. I had a great time with it.

stv

[Markkunkel]

Nice pic, nice family!
Thanks, Steve... Rick commented that between the two of us we may have had assembled a sizable percentage of the Fylde mando family instruments in the Southeast US, or perhaps even more broadly... it was fun.


Can you describe the difference in sound between the Touchstone and the Single Malt mandolins?

I've never been in a room with a Single Malt instrument and I'm very curious about them.

I had an Octavious for a while, just like that one. I had a great time with it.

stv

The Octvius is very nice...it shows to my ear (and eye) its guitar-based heritage, and tuned in unison as Rick has it is lively and rich without being brash.

The Touchstone and the Single Malt, or at least the two I have owned (unfortunately, it's down to only one today!), show precisely the sorts of differences you'd expect from the different woods. The Touchstone is much louder than you might think given its flat-top construction, and has the mahogany/spruce sound in spades: woody and also full-bodied (sorry, with the whisky comparisons, already, a bit prematurely it turns out). It has a very "clear and bold" sound.

The Single Malt shows much of that same tone pallette, as you would expect given its common pedigree. It is different feeling, though...a bit heavier, due to the oak and pine used (well soaked in the previously mentioned beverage and still exuding a very pleasant reminder of that origin). Similar (very long!) sustain, but a somewhat more subdued and less brash voice. The trade-off is that the trebles on the Single Malt "cut" very nicely and it has less overtone and more fundamental, to my ear...a bit more three-dimensional but less forceful than the Touchstone.

Both VERY nice instruments, and a treat to hear them played by someone who knows a triplet from a sixteenth note.

Mark

[PseudoCelt]

Another Fylde family: an Octavius mandolin that I no longer own, and my long-scale archtop bouzouki, bought from the Fylde workshop. Both have cedar tops and sapele back/sides.

Patrick

[PseudoCelt]

The Touchstone is much louder than you might think given its flat-top construction, and has the mahogany/spruce sound in spades... It has a very "clear and bold" sound.
The nicest Touchstones I've played had cedar tops. They sounded very similar to the spruce tops, perhaps a little less clarity, but with a bit more bass. I've played two or three of them and they were all good.

Patrick

[Rick C.]

Thanks for the kind words, Mark- you're well on your way, yourself!

One thing that's impressed me with the Touchstone is the balance from low to high. Notes on the E string sing just as easily as on the others, and there's no need to hit them hard to make them heard. Sort of Foley/Sobell-esque in that regard. I had to get the tape measure out to see if it actually was a longer scale since it doesn't feel longer, but yep. So I don't know what combination of scale length, body depth, woods used (or timbers for our Brit and Aussie friends) or zero fret give this Touchstone its tone, but I like it!

Since I've adjusted my playing over the years toward thinner picks and a lighter touch for better articulation and facilitation of ornaments, this responds very well.

Thanks again!


Rick

[Fliss]

Nice pic of the Fylde family, Mark :)

Living (as I do) in the North West of England, I tend to take Fyldes somewhat for granted, as we see quite a few of them, but they are very nice instruments. I've just spent a weekend up in Lancashire (genuine original Fylde country!) at the Folkus spring music making weekend, where there were quite a few Fylde instruments. The mandolin tutor was Roger Purves who plays a Fylde Touchstone mandolin. There was another Fylde Touchstone in the class, and a Fylde Octavius bouzouki similar to Ricks which you show in your pic. I took a snap when we did our ensemble piece this afternoon, with the bouzouki in the foreground and the two Touchstones in the background. An Octavius mandolin showed its face at some stage over the weekend, but I didn't get a photo.

There were also a few Fylde guitars around; I'm attaching a pic of an Alchemist being played by a young guitarist who was in the advanced guitar group. On the right of that pic is Steve Tilston who was the tutor for advanced guitar.

Fliss

[delsbrother]

Anybody ever break out a choro tune in one of those circles? Flattops... Skin-drums... :)

[PseudoCelt]

The nicest Touchstones I've played had cedar tops...
I was looking at the Fylde website and they are now making a cedar/walnut Touchstone mandolin, priced between the standard and the signature models. There are some photos here (http://www.fyldeguitars.com/news3.html).

Patrick