It's got to be rock'n'roll musicI...(or any other music....I ain't choosy as long as it's something I can play) I have a small collection of guitars, some old and some new, I find it hard to walk into a guitar shop and not come out with
something...
The oldest one I have is an acoustic Antoria archtop with F holes which as far as it's possible to date these things when they've had decades of modification comes from between 1956 and 59..the year I was born, you never know, Eddie Cochrane might have touched it-unlikely I know but it does have a sweet tone
Two of my babies-
These two are top quality Japanese instruments, very well made and both from the Matsumoku factory. On the left is a Westone Spectrum SX, around 1986, and on the right an Aria pro II YS500 from 1980-81. The Aria is a beautiful thing with endless sustain because it has a straight through neck with laminate strips- those laminates you can see running up the body and under the bridge and pick-ups continue all the way up the neck to the headstock: really expensive to make these days as it was then but well worth it. It has a very Gibsonesque feel with jumbo frets and a Gibson scale fingerboard. Mine has the wrong bridge, because one of the fragile offset thread saddles broke and replacements are non existent.....so if anyone has one please tell me!!!!!!!! The Aria name went the way of MG/Rover when Matsumoku went under, being stuck on cheap Chinese instruments but these early Japanese ones are well worth hunting down............and no the pic isn't back to front, I'm a leftie which makes these two very rare indeed.
I also have a 5 string banjo which one day I'll get the hang of- I can hack my way through 'Foggy mountain breakdown' but Earl Scruggs needn't worry
Apart from the axes I also have a nice vintage Korg synth, a DW8000, which I used to use live along with the guitars in my pub'n'club rockin' days. The DW is a peculiar mix of digital waveform generation and oscillators and analogue editing, a bit strange but some great sounds are possible, very Depeche Mode'ish..
There's also the various amplifiers and fx units I've acquired over the years....I have some old Colorsound pedals which are apparently sought after now along with more modern digital boxes.
It's great to plug in and rockout...sometimes when everyones gone to bed I'll line a cd into an amp, Sandman or something similar or some Chuck Berry, put the headphones on, crank it up to 11, and I'm away into a different world....and as any old muso will tell you, there's nothing better than when other muso's come round and the jamming start, gawd help everyone if it's a week night
I have to say it's pretty much trashed my hearing over the years but it's been worth it!
1968 Triumph Vitesse Mk1 2 litre convertible, Junior Miss rusty has a 1989 998cc Mk2 Metro, Mrs Rusty has a modern common rail diesel thing.
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