Ullapool

[Dattan]

Hi!
Ullapool festival is coming closer....

1) Any chance for you to share some pictures with us this time as well? It was great fun to see the photos from the Cheltenham experience.

2) Have you already decided what beautys to bring to the show? Guitars, that is...

[stevemac]

Just back from Ullapool and recovering from a 7 hour drive - it's a very long way away but what a place and what a festival! Lots to tell which I'll do in more detail once we've got some pics up. Suffice to say, it was a memorable weekend for music, talking guitars and a fair bit of craic (wiki that if you're not sure what it means!).

One of the most pleasing aspects of the weekend is the very positive comments about Avalon from the artists - the ones you expect to have good things to say such as Andy McKee who mesmerised us on his L32C and Don Ross who, although he has a few guitars we made for him, played two Beneteau guitars (one a baritone) with fan frets - quite insane and, as they say in Scotland, 'beyond my ken'.

But there are some pleasant surprises which I'll tell you about later.

[stevemac]

Many thanks to Jim for putting a gallery together of shots from the Ullapool Guitar Festival.

http://www.avalonguitars.com/albums/Ullapool08/

The star of this show, in terms of Avalon's, was the new American parlour. It certainly grabbed the attention and interest of several of the artists performing at the festival, including Andy Fairweather Low who gave the performance of the weekend.

Also pictured is Andy McKee performing with Don Ross and New Yorker Adam Rafferty.

[Dattan]

Thank you for the photos, I hope you had such a great time as they sure do implies. Ullapool seems like a beautiful place too, the pictures of the surroundings look very lovely. I didn't know that you had a black sheep in the Avalon family, though...

It's a treat for the eye to see Andy Mckee with an Avalon in his hands. The one guitar that made me most curious, though, was the full body dreadnought with the cedar (or even redwood?) top. I don't think I have seen that version of the headstock before. Is it a special model?

[stevemac]

Ah, that guitar ... we do a special guitar for Ullapool which is auctioned at the festival and the proceeds sponsor the event. We did a thistle themed headstock last year and this years is a 'tornado' shaped inlay bound by a celtic knot. The winning bidder is shown holding the guitar in the pix.

[Dattan]

That explains the huge smile on the pictures, then...

[dale warner]

Had some family issues recently - hospitalisations (still ongoing) and bereavements so I've been away from the forum and indeed the guitar. Looking at the second foto - there's a fan fret guitar to Andy Mckee's right. Is it an Avalon? I ask because my next guitar will surely be a fan fret. Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere on the forum but as I said I've been somewhat pre-occupied.
Thanks
Dale