Suzuki '50' |
The first time I tried to play the guitar
was in junior school, in an after- school guitar club. I had a 'model 50', a small classical
guitar made by Suzuki Guitars, Japan. The neck was so thick I couldn’t get my fingers round it and I think
the bridge broke off it before it even sang a tune. I hadn’t been particularly
inspired and that was the end of my guitar-playing career for next 6 years.
Mini Grim & Tetra 'Foreign' |
One day, let’s say it was in the summer - hell if I can remember when it actually was - I visited my auntie in Bath. Not all that long before the visit she had bought a bass guitar. At the time I wasn’t especially fussy about whether I played bass or guitar and was very excited that I was going to be able to try her new bass. I remember the excitement when she finally asked if I’d like to see it. It wasn’t a make I was familiar with and was a slightly different shape from the basses I’d started obsessing over, but here it was, in my hands - the first time I’d even held a bass guitar. I was nervous, almost reluctant to play it, in case I found I was unable to, but my two-stringed guitar playing paid off and I was able to play the bass line for Design For Life, by Manic Street Preachers… or as much of it as I knew at the time anyway. This was a very encouraging experience and, when we left, I felt freshly determined as I sat in the back of my dad’s car, the opening track of Everything Must Go drifting in to my earphones, underscoring the passing motorway; I hear the ocean, a guitar… ‘Twenty foot high on Blackpool Promenade…’
Manics - Butt Naked (click for video) |
Rockin' cake |
Guitar shops have kinda been killed by the
internet but back then they would stock a lot of secondhand guitars. I remember
the cheapest guitars started at around £100 and it took months for me to save
up that much money. Years later, when I was working with young bands, I really
hated the kids who’d been bought a brand new Gibson by their parents, just
'cause they’d shown a vague interest in owning one. It was a Gibson I wanted, of
course; that extraordinary footage of James Dean Bradfield playing had never
left my mind. The closest I was going to get to a Gibson would be a copy but
not for one second did that dampen the excitement of finally getting my own
electric guitar.
Rushworth's on Hanover Street. The shop was
downstairs, below street level. It was in there one day when I saw my guitar. A
black, Les Paul-shaped guitar made by Hohner. I can remember the buzz of
excitement I had when I saw it. I wanted to take it there and then, not to let
it out of my sight. I was already recreating my identity around it. The guy
went and got a horrible, old, thin, grey guitar bag for it and the transaction
was complete. I’m fairly sure I sat in the back of my mum’s car on the way
home, holding the guitar, just looking at it. This guitar was mine and that really meant something… more so than any
object I’ve owned before or since.
The only thing I had to do now was to start learning to play it… oh, and to get
an amp; I didn’t have an amp at that point.
Hohner Rockwood LX250G (The Hornet)
'The Hornet' |
The guitar I think of as my first guitar was a Rockwood LX250G, made by Hohner. A black Les Paul- shaped guitar with a slim body, cream binding and a very slim, inlaid rosewood neck. I nicknamed this guitar ‘The Hornet’, after putting a rubbish sticker of a wasp on the headstock… I suppose I thought it was cool at the time. I gigged this guitar for a year, although it’s a small miracle it survived so long, considering the abuse I gave it. Thankfully, I eventually learned that a performance is made no better by smacking your guitar into the stage or throwing it at your amp at the end of every set and, by the skin of its teeth, it still survives to this day.
When I started writing this I looked online to see if there was any mention of this model of guitar. I was quite surprised that, not only was there plenty of information about it, but a lot of people had left comments on Harmony Central saying how much they liked theirs. One of the most common notes of praise for it was how robust it is; I can certainly attest to that.
Marshall Park G15RCD amp.
They called it 'Park' cause it was for kids playing - clever |