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| Stringing at the headstock |
The blues-rock band Cream was formed in 1966 (I was 15); John Peel had his Sunday afternoon progressive music show, Top Gear, on Radio 1 from 1967 (I was 16). I remember playing lead lines on my steel-stringed acoustic guitar, with pickup plugged into the back of that radio for amplification. Sometimes the house shook.
I started on the English blues when I was about 13 under the influence of John Mayall, playing on a family artifact, a mandolin now long since lost. I bought my first guitar - having saved up and with my father pitching in - for £15, the Christmas of 65 I suppose. That's when I properly learned chords and navigating around the fretboard.
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| The top E string is next |
I took that guitar to university in 1969 and let it go for a Fender Stratocaster - infinitely superior action and sound - in that university band. I let it go when I joined the IMG in my third term.
My third (very cheap) guitar was the one you see being restrung in the pictures. As I mentioned in my previous post, it's now useless except for low-level practice - but replacing the corroded and brittle strings doesn't hurt.
My fourth guitar was bought in Brighton - another Strat - in the mid-to-late nineties - along with a small amplifier - when my interest was reawakened. Its fate was to be donated to my son's school in Maidenhead as we prepared to ship out to America c. 2000.
My fifth guitar was bought last month - a stimulus to embark on a fingerpicking blues journey. I'm told it's six months to a year before passable competence.
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