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June 2009

20 June 2009 :: Life takes on new focus...

I'm sat here drinking coffee and getting ready to go and meet up with Big Vern at Sounds Great in Manchester. I'm really looking forward to catching up with him again - and the fact that I'm collecting a couple of guitars from him at the same time is a bonus. One of the guitars is a lovely example of a Gretsch Electromatic ProJet, that I've been lusting after since I first saw it. I hummed and ahhhed too long originally and Big Vern bought it. I think my psychic powers must be improving, because he's caved in to my silent nagging and decided to part with it! The second guitar is a Vintage, looking something like a Peavey Wolfgang. I've been wanting something with a Floyd-style vibrato for a while, and this fits the bill nicely. I already have a pair of Iron Gear pups ready to drop into it as soon as I get it home. ;-)

Having caved in to pressure myself, I sold my rather lovely Tanglewood TW45 to my brother-in-law. At the time, I was playing it less and less and concentrating on getting to grips with the Simon & Patrick Cedar 12. Around three weeks ago, I found I was writing and playing more and more acoustic material and having to resort to a couple of nylon-strung acoustics to get the feel I wanted. It was no good. I needed something like the TW45 after all.

Brand blinkers went on. I knew what I wanted. It HAD to be a folk-bodied electro-acoustic. It had to feel instantly playable. It had to sound lively when finger-picked. I spent a day trawling guitar shops, trying everything in sight. In the end, after rejecting Martins, Taylors, a Stonebridge, everything in the Yamaha catalogue, I narrowed it down to a Takamine and an Epiphone. In the end, the Tak had the edge. She's now taken up permanent residence. :-)

There's also a Shine WT-445, Les Paul "alternative" winging its way northwards. I spotted it, loved it, made an offer. The offer was accepted and it's mine.

The site has been neglected for ages yet again. However, life is looking rosier by the minute. I'm feeling like spending the time sharing some of these ramblings again. Watch this space for some new material, and a couple of projects. One of the projects is to build a sustainer along the lines of the Fernandez... I'm planning to go and buy the parts on my way back from Manchester.

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"If Mother Nature intended for us to drink black coffee - why did she invent cows?"