For No Good Reason...

Last night I spoke to an old school friend of mine, actually my best friend for many years at school, a guy called Charlie (Adrian) Groves. It was great to talk to him for a few hours after probably around 20 years of not having spoken.

He sent me an old press article from when I was 16 about one of my old bands with a very dodgy looking picture of us. The reporter for some reason decided that Def Leopard was my main influence - I think because it was a rock band people had heard of. I still remember being annoyed with that at the time... still bugs me a little now... 

I was just amazed that someone had kept the article, an old friend. I know I don't have a copy and I know my folks didn't keep one. Not sure if they saw it, I'll have to show it to mum at some point.

I've also decided to have a guitar clean out. I have a few which I don't use.

Not trust me, as a guitarist selling any guitars regardless of if you use them or not is a painful process because you might want to use them at some point. For years of playing I only had one guitar, I would borrow spares in case of broken strings on stage, and now I have an absurd amount.

Bear in mind though that I've never paid more than £500 for a guitar, I am a guitar bargain hunter extraordinaire. That includes my Gibson, EVH special and so on. Guitars are creatures of depreciating returns. From around £500 through to £1,500 you get lots of real quality guitars. Under £300 and you have to be lucky, or research well, there are some great ones out there at that price point but you might need to have a guy look at it and set it up properly. Over about the £1k mark though and besides the name and maybe the "this was 1984, the best ever year for this guitar" it's not going to make a huge amount of difference to your playing.

As Eddie Van Halen once said, if you can't do it with a broken amp and a stolen guitar, don't bother!". So much of the tone, the sustain, the feel is down to the player and not the guitar. No guitar is going to make you sound like a god without the practice and hard work. I wish it did make a difference, I wish I could buy a guitar that suddenly made every sweep absolutely perfect but no, it's my bloody fingers!!!

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