FYLDE

Roger Bucknall began building guitars at age nine (back in the late 1950s), and continued occasionally building until he was twenty-one. While he was running a folk club, Bucknall soon had a large number of orders for his designs from artists such as Gordon Giltrap, Nic Jones, and John James. A friend offered to finance his new endeavor, and Roger moved to the Fylde coast of Lancashire in 1973 to begin producing guitars. He continued to expand the business through the 1970s, and by the end of the decade had a staff of around twelve people building twenty guitars a week. Roger estimates that half of the production was being sold to the U.S., the rest in Europe.
In the later half of 1979 to 1980, Roger suffered through personal family problems, coupled with a fading market and struggling finances. In 1980, Fylde Instruments Ltd. was closed down. He continued making about 100 guitars a year under the Fylde Guitars name. He also launched a business making snooker and pool cues. Bucknall sold the snooker business in 1992 and re-invested in guitar making.
With traditional wood supplies becoming scarce, Bucknall sought a source of renewable new materials for his guitars, and was committed to not purchasing any more rosewood or ebony unless the wood came from a substantial source.
In addition to the numerous guitar models, Fylde Guitars also offers a number of models from the Mandolin family, such as the Mandola, Cittern, Portuguese Mandola, Bouzouki, and Mandolin.
Since about 2008, most of Roger's instruments are supplied directly to the customer, and not through shops. His clientele includes Ritchie Blackmore, Pete Townshend, Eric Bibb, Lisa Hannigan, Gordon Giltrap, Ken Nicol, Duck Baker, Seth Lakeman, Tristan Sueme, John Smith, Martin Simpson, Dave Swarbrick, Martin Carthy, and hundreds of household names. Much of Rogers work is now commissions for individual customers. Roger also offers unique one off instruments made according to Roger's own preferences and sold exclusively as "Personal Selection". All prices are listed in pounds and a price list is available on their website where you can find detailed information about every Fylde instrument.