Guitar obsessed

So, I decided to start a blog. I have a large guitar and bass collection by most standards.  I have been acquiring them for over 30 years. I never really intended to have so many guitars but, like most obsessive gearheads, I bought and sold a few over the years. Some of those I sold I look back at now and regret. Like my beautiful 1980s blueburst stingray. It had a great birdseye maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and I think I sold it for about £300...not a lot of money even then but I was a poor(ish) student desperate to buy the next bit of kit. I am not entirely certain but I think I just had to have a Roland R8 drum machine, a great thing at the time but long since gone.  I would definitely prefer to have my Ray now.

The Stingray was sold about 20 years ago and the Aria before that and I don't have pictures so these 2 aren't my actual guitars. My Stingray had a transparent scratchplate and 2 band EQ. 

I learned my lesson the hard way, selling in haste and regretting at leisure.  Sveral other nice instruments passed through my hands, such as an original Aria SB1000 bass, stupidly sold to fund some other hi-tech toy that became obsolete within a week or so.  I realised that I didn't like to sell my guitars so I decided to keep them. As time passed and I had a bit more money I acquired more and inevitably my collection grew.
So, what do I collect? I only ever buy guitars or basses I want to play, never as an investment. I don't have any really old guitars The oldest are from the 1970's. None of them are seriously expensive although they have all appreciated modestly in value over the years and I like to buy secondhand so they have been a reasonable investment, should I ever decide to sell - which I cannot! However, they are all professional instruments, mostly well maintained and I have gigged them all at some time or another. Which brings me to introduce myself. I have been playing music since I was a child. It has been my obsession ever since. I am not a professional musician although I have done hundreds, if not thousands of gigs and I play every day so it is more than a hobby to me. By profession I am a lawyer. Oh yeah! you might say...no wonder he can afford all of those guitars. It is true that I probably couldn't have afforded them if I was a pro musician but many of them I bought before I was a lawyer. However, I am fortunate to have my own business so I can weave music into my job as I want.  Anyway, I am nothing like as rich as Keith Richards...

I remember a friend of mine, Slim (Jim) who used to listen to jazz rock such as Allen Holdsworth and Bill Bruford. He bought an early CBS white strat with the large headstock and 3 bolt neck.  I was an envious teenager particularly as I thought I was a better guitarist and deserved a Fender more than he did, which I am sure wasn't true. In fact, I don't think it was a great guitar and I don't think Slim thought so either. He took it to a guitar shop to have the action sorted out but it was stolen from there. The guitar shop gave him a Peavey T60 as compensation. I didn't think that was a great deal at the time and today a 1960s strat would have been worth quite a bit more than any Peavey. However, Slim sold that T60 to me when he was a student in London. I kept it for a few years. It was actually a very well made guitar but to me it was too polite and I didn't like the look so I sold it on. I believe they are very popular so  maybe I should have kept it.

Anyway, I intend to blog mostly about one guitar in each blog and I will post pics, talk about how I came to have it, who made it, gigs it has done or anything else I want to chat about. Some blogs might veer off onto other topics - amps, pickups, pedals, rants, EBay, recording, gigs etc.  Please feel free to comment and discuss with me and let's see how it goes...