ALAN TIMMINS 1947 - 2008. R.I.P.

Hi Snakehips,

Your comments are very interesting. I had no idea that a student in Scotland was interested in F1 guitars and received some photos from Alan. That’s a great story! Can we see the photos please? You should have bought one!!!

F1s never did make it into any shops, but somewhere out there are a few that we don’t know about. Alan also built a left-handed Tricone for a maker/dealer in or near Liverpool….I think. Perhaps Mark can fill us in on the left-handed Tricone?

The flat headstock may have been Alan’s idea, but it was more likely to be the guy he brought in to build the necks. Alan was not able to build a complete guitar, his skill was building the bodies, coverplates, tailpieces, T bridges, and understanding how it all works…break angles…neck angles..etc. The neck and set-up of the first brass Timmins/Makin…Tricone was made and fitted by Ralph Bown. Ralph is one of THE great luthiers and totally understood what was required. The F1 carbon fibre necks and set-ups were done by a guy who I only knew as ‘Laz’. Laz was mainly into high-tech bass guitars and somehow, I am guessing through carbon fibre, they ended up working together. Laz did a great job, but had no experience with Nationals. So with Alan’s knowledge of break angles, neck angles and set-up, Laz made the necks and fitted them to the guitars. I guess the headstock looked more modern and in keeping with the carbon fibre, or it suited the style 97 graphics, or it was easier. The neck on my Tricone (the one in the book) is beautifully made, but it is not quite in character with the 1920s body. I have often had people visiting my home and of all the guitars they see, the F1 is a regular favourite. Although it looks very old style, it also has a very modern look to it.

When I first got my Tricone, which I think was in 94, it was fitted with Quarterman cones and sounded okay, but not brilliant. I had some spare 30s cones and immediately put them in and slung out the others. As you would expect, it transformed the instrument into a beautiful sweet sounding Tricone. Because of the strength of carbon fibre and due to Alan’s skill, this Tricone NEVER buzzes or rattles. No matter how it is played, or how often you change the tunings, it never buzzes. The reason I have not used it very much over the years is because of the neck and the feel of it. I really do want to get it sorted out sometime. Mike Cooper regularly tours and records with his F1 Tricone. Dave Peabody used to tour with his, but I haven’t seen it for a while. I think some F1s have NRP cones, maybe a Beltona in a couple of them? It was always a problem back then. Alan was going to start spinning his own, but Mike Lewis (also a close friend of Alan, Mark and myself) started making his own Fine Resophonic guitars and cones. There was an idea of Alan building bodies and Mike building the rest, but I think Mike got very into his wood-bodied Tricones & Triolians, and with the English Channel between them, the geography did not make it easy. It was around that time that F1’s production slowed up.

The whole F1 resonator guitars episode was quite short lived. Alan was always searching for the next thing; he was always looking forward to a new project. F1 guitars could probably have been a successful business, but I guess that was not Alan’s field or his intention.

During the F1 period, probably one of the most notable things to happen, and something I really should have mentioned in his obituary, was that in 1992 George Harrison contacted Alan Timmins about repairing/restoring some 1920s & 30s National, Dobro & Regal ukuleles. George visited Alan’s home and left him with the ukes. Apparently there had been a bit of a shindig at George’s house and Jim Capaldi needed some pots & pans to use as drums and the ukes were nearby. This was a great moment for Alan. He was so proud to have had George visit his home and trust him to work on his ukes. There is more to this story that involves Mark Makin, but that’s a whole other chapter!

If anyone knows the whereabouts of any F1 resophonic guitars, mandolins or ukes, we would love to hear about them.

Shine On
Michael

Hi again !

Michael - I remeber that article - it would have been in TGM ? (The Guitar Magazine, UK publication).
I think there must have been a contact phone number or address - I must have contacted Alan or someone via that way - and got sent pictures. I really hoped I'd get the money together.
Of course, having never played a real National at that point and virtually zero exposure to cheap brands (save for a short go on a Dobro a shop keeper BRIEFLY let me touch !!) - I had no idea what sort of risk I was getting myself into, spending that sort of money.

Hello Bill
I remember after the first brass tricone body, Alan made a body shell for Keith Bannion up on Merseyside somewhere. This eventually surfaced as a nickel plated instrument with "KGB" on the headstock which was overlaid with sterling silver. The body was heavily engraved (rather too much in my opinion!) with masses of foliage and bunches of grapes. I did see it on an album sleeve a year or two later. Was it maybe this one you saw Bill?

Sorry to hear about Alans death, since I first heard of them I have been fascinated by his CF resonator designs.

As I understand it molding a slot head neck in carbon fibre would be very difficult. I believe the way CF necks are usually made is by laying up sheets of CF (either with resin or pre-preg) around a lightweight foamed plastic core. That is - the core provides the shape of the neck with the CF wrapped around it, to eventually form a hard rigid shell. Another method is to make an outside negative mold for the back profile of the neck which the CF is laid into. The fretboard and headstock face are then glued on to make a complete 'closed' neck. All carbon fibre necks are essentially hollow.

With a neck made of a solid material - like wood - the slots of a slot head are machined out (or carved by hand). I think the slot head design goes back to the old methods of making peg boxes where the neck and peg box were constructed out of many pieces of wood - the peg box being made like a box, with sides and an end block. The slot head follows the peg box form, but carved from solid wood. The one piece neck is a fairly modern thing and as far as I can tell was adopted for purely cosmetic reasons when expensive hardwoods seemed relatively plentiful. The rather complicated 'dart' volute found on Martin guitars is a vestige of the older Martin neck, where the headstock was glued on to the neck using a bridle joint (the origin of the name of the joint is probably a bit lewd). Lutes apparently often had the pegbox nailed on.

Hi Mark
This is getting curiouser and curiouser. I've often wondered about this guitar, and have always wished that I'd just borrowed the money and bought it at the time.
I'm 90% sure that the guitar in Frailers wasn't the KGB model. I know Dave Bannion and I'm pretty sure that I would have made the KGB connection at the time. I don't remember any decoration on the body at all, just the squares that you can see on the back of Dave Peabody's single cone, not even any palm trees. In fact it may have been a single cone.
I'll pop into Frailers during the week and see if Frank remembers anything about it.

In addition to Mike's lovely piece about Alan & the early days of Fine Resophonic, I have just found these business cards. I think they are from 1992. (I have removed the addresses and phone numbers)





Shine On,
Michael