One of these guitars has one F hole with parallel bracing, and one oval hole with X bracing. The woods are entirely conventional for such guitars: curly maple from North America, German spruce for the soundboards as well as ebony bindings and head veneers. The maple was specially imported for this project and conditioned for two years before Roger Bucknall started work. The soundboards are cut from cello soundboards. This project took eight years.

The walnut for this guitar came from a tree planted by Queen Victoria in Kew Gardens in London, sadly it blew down in the great storm of 1987. Fortunately, parts of the tree were rescued and sold to a few lucky people like Roger Bucknall. The guitar neck is made from a single piece of the same tree, which must be almost unique in the world of guitar making. The guitar was inspired by the wood itself, so rather than wait for a customer to order it, Roger made a guitar entirely according to his own perception of the possibilities of the wood.

A local furniture maker imported a whole log of Curly Claro Walnut from Oregon, but didn’t have enough for the next project, so Roger Bucknall bought the remainder for a guitar. The neck is made from walnut and laminated with ebony. The soundboard is sinker redwood which was brought back from California. The “sunburst” effect is achieved using a blowtorch – it really is flamed! The Rose inlay is four pieces of Pearl with a small amount of engraving.

The back and sides of this guitar are handcrafted from curly mango and coconut. The neck is English walnut and coconut, with a mahogany core, to keep the weight low. The soundboard is crafted from Engelmann spruce and the fingerboard from ebony. Roger Bucknall is happiest when he has complete freedom to make what he feels is best. In this example, a good friend wanted an “unusual” instrument and this unique fan fret bouzouki, perhaps the only of its kind, was the result.