Nazareth

an Art of Dying fragment

That’s PA: Nazareth, PA, the home of Martin Guitars.

Roger Bucknall, owner and maker of Fylde instruments, and his then wife came over to New York in the fall of 1979; both to visit and to do some sightseeing and to see if he could collect some of what I by then owed him.

We got the sightseeing done to everyone’s satisfaction, and we got the moneys owed settled to no one’s satisfaction.

At one point, Roger asked if we could visit the Martin factory in Nazareth, PA and after a brief phone call or two, I had lined up a tour and some one-on-one with the production folks at Martin (Roger, as a premier English luthier, was well-known to the Martin folks).

The drive was through brilliant summer weather and it was a pleasure to get out of the city (to say the least).

On the way there, Roger went in to more detail about why the Fyldes did not stand up to American winters as well as say, yes, the Martins do. It had all to do with drying and curing the wood the guitars are made of.

Say you buy a log of Brazilian rosewood (no longer possible, but at one point you could — nowadays the Brazilian will only sell you pre-cut pieces of rosewood, if at all). Say this log arrives by boat in England and then driven by truck (lorry) up to the Fylde factory. There is no…