Guitars

Intro.

As with the rest of the site the following pages are mainly intended as a personal record and for the benefit of family and friends.

If you have stumbled upon it I hope you find it interesting, or even useful, and if you would like to make a comment you will find my email and a Guestbook page at the foot of the Home page - and of course you are welcome to browse the rest of the site.

History

Like Land Rovers ‘it all started in Africa’. The evenings in the bush were quite long and I am not much of a ‘reader’ – this was in 1967. So, I bought this old beat-up guitar and a book (I now have no recollection of where I acquired these) and started practicing. I think, when I shared a camp sites with others, it nearly drove them mad. Eighteen months later however I felt I reached a reasonable basic competence although no doubt my technique had a lot to be desired.

I learnt from others when I returned to London (Keith in particular) and I purchased my first decent guitar by Ryoji Matsuoka; I still have it although it looks a bit used.

I then played quite a lot in my 'youth', that is up until my mid-thirties, but then family life and a career took over and the guitar was put to one side. I did however play quite a bit, but only briefly, when we lived in Bahrain and took lessons from semi-professional Bahraini guitarist but my enthusiasm waned and I think he was disappointed with my lack of competence/dedication.

When we returned to UK again family life and the career took over and when I retired in 2000 we bought South Low and manual/building work and guitar playing don’t mix. However, in 2016 I decided I had had enough of ‘heavy’ work – we would pay for anything that still needed to be done on the House.

So, I joined the South Lakeland Guitar Club got some lessons from Derek and started again. It has taken a couple of years (now mid 2018) to get back to where I was before and I still can’t play some of the pieces that I was reasonably comfortable with half a century ago. But - we progress!

My Guitars

Keith didn’t think much of my Ryoji Matsuoka (more later). I’m not sure why, it seemed alright to me. However, it was getting old and a bit worn.

On our regular trips to Spain I had toyed with the idea of buying a Spanish guitar, as much as a memento of our travels, and in 2016 we visited Salamanca where I had discovered there was a small guitar workshop http://www.guitarrasmarce.es/index.php. I bought a Flamenco 1 guitar that was the top of their ‘production’ range. We also had a guided tour around the small factory that I found of particular interest and, when I was doing Spanish classes in Kendal, I gave a short talk on our visit. Click below for my ‘Charla’.

Flamenco 1

The Flamenco 1 is quite a nice guitar. However, it is a flamenco style and has a somewhat narrow neck. Also, I think it was a ‘factory second’ as the fretboard is not quite flat and they are a few other minor irritations; however, it does have an easier action than the Ryoji Matsuoka and quite a bright tone.

The Yamaha CG-170SA

But I was not satisfied and Keith recommended that I should have a look out for a Yamaha. A decent one came up on eBay in March 2018, a Yamaha CG-170SA, and I won the auction; I am well pleased with it.

The Silent Guitar

Choosing