Investing in the Future

Well, we've both gone and done it! Rob and I have both invested in more instruments. Non musicians are often puzzled why someone might want two guitars or two mandolins - but musicians know why - the different textures to the sound, etc. (I have a lawyer friend who has guitars as his pension fund - he has over 80 and a very understanding wife!)

Rob and I went down to Hobgoblin Music in central London to check out a new Fylde Mandola - to replace my rather less sturdy Ashbury Bouzouki he has been playing recently - which has the potential to play the odd Sproing Flat in the middle of a sensitive tune (more of which later).

After discovering a dangerous hairline crack on getting it home in the first Mandola he bought, Hobgoblin were happy to replace it, and Rob has been playing the new one with a Cheshire Cat grin, ever since. A nice bit of kit, matey!

As part of our desire to maintain a higher tempo when playing, we have also been looking at Drop D and DADGAD tunings for me, as a guitar accompaniment. Given that we didn't want to be tuning and retuning instruments, I started to think about getting a new guitar to keep in DADGAD or Drop D tuning for gigs. A lot of internet searches later and, one recent Saturday, I headed up to the really excellent Coda Music shop in Stevenage to look at some guitars. I had spotted a second hand Lowden there at a decent (if more than I set out to pay) price. Whilst there, I played a few other guitars but had already fallen for the Lowden. Then, because the other second hand Lowden that Coda had advertised on their web site was actually in their Luton branch, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse on one of the new Lowdens in the Stevenage shop - and, I confess, I then went on to bust my already bust budget. (I too have a very understanding and patient wife!) What a guitar - I just love it. It rings like a bell. I am now trying to learn a lot more about DADGAD and Drop D tuning, and if the day-job wasn't so pressing, I'd be making more progress. But, I'm getting there.

So, we are truly suited and booted now and, furthermore, on getting the Ashbury bouzouki back, I took it to the Music Box in St. Albans for a once over by the team there - and it is now sounding pretty good. I will attempt to restart my learning process on it, which stopped when I had it on loan to Rob, so that I can better support (?) Rob and Tam Lin when required. It looks like Rob's son's view that Rob 'plays too many instruments' is going to strengthen - I'm not sure we are going to have space to put all this stuff in some of the clubs we play in. (The loft room is looking a bit crowded now too!)