The instruments

My collection...... (from left to right)

Ovation 6 string electro acoustic; Art & Lutherie 12 string; Michael Kelly Les Paul style 6 string electric; Takamini 6 string electro/accoustic  (2020 addition); Ashbury Bouzouki; Ebury Mandolin; Electric bass  (2020 addition)

Each instrument has been used on at least one recording and they have been used for  particular reasons. However, three of the guitars are particularly special to me. Their stories follow....

The aging ovation. I must have owned this guitar for over thirty years.  It is a good guitar but I always found it difficult to tune and it is only now that I have modern electronic tuners in various bits of tech that I can now use it a bit more.  Because of the tuning problem I never progressed in playing, as most of my time was spent struggling to tune the guitar. However, with a bit of patience it was used many times in different churches and it was played very nervously, as my skills as a guitarist had not developed.  However it is still special to me and brings back a lot of memories.

The second special guitar for me is the not so old 12 string.  This is around four years old and is responsible with a separate electronic tuner for getting me seriously into playing guitar. A few years ago, at a time when I wasn't feeling full of life, I bought the guitar as a bit of retail therapy.  It wasn't a spur of the moment thing as I had always wanted a 12 string and so I finally decided to get on and do it.  Fortunately, with the aid of the electronic tuner it was ok to tune and so at last I actually began to play.  A few months later I found myself on a three month sabbatical away from the parish, and I began worshiping a lot more on my own with this guitar, and during a few sessions I began fiddling about with chords and started to put together a few basic compositions and I was away.  The fact that I had found a new creative ability in my worship of God was amazing and very liberating. It was also great that nobody could tell me that I was playing them wrong, as I had written the songs myself!  The only problem with the guitar was that it was so loud that I ended up having to wear ear defenders to prevent hearing damage.  

  The sound that it produces is very striking and can be heard on the introduction and throughout the song 'In majesty stands'.

The third guitar is a 2020 addition to my collection and that is the Japanese Takamini (made in China).  It was a purchase that I made one Saturday morning whilst I was kicking my heals in Canterbury.  Frances was training as a volunteer at the cathedral and I visited a music shop and I fell for it.  It is my first guitar that has an integral tuner and equaliser. and so it has made my musical sessions really easy with the tuner and very interesting with the equaliser. The guitar was bought just before the period of 'lock down' in the UK and I found it a great aid to my home worship.  From it has come a number of songs, the first one being 'On you alone'.  A song of commitment, verging on confession, as I realised my complete dependence on God, that feeling of course was heightened at a time of health uncertainty that was being experienced due to the virus, but even so the feeling was and still is totally valid.

So that is the three favourite guitars, the others are all different and very useful, but, these three are special!  On the next blog I will share a bit about the equipment that I have and how I have used it.