What was the first serious guitar you bought with your own money?
"My first guitar was a Telston semi-acoustic that my mother bought me when I was 14, and which I've still got hanging on my office wall. It was from a pawnbroker and it cost £12 and 10 shillings in old money. Then I got a hire purchase agreement for a Telecaster, which is one of those that I wish I still had, but I had to exchange it for a Les Paul Black Beauty, which I had flown over from Kalamazoo to a shop in Bournemouth called Eddie Moors Music.
And, really, that's the first one that I actually bought with my money because I took a job for a year in an export company up in the City of London. I said to my mother, 'Look, once I've paid off the HP agreement I'm going to be a professional musician for life. And that's exactly what I did - paid it off in a year and on the last payment I went, 'Bye!' and never looked back."
What was the last guitar you bought?
"I'm in a very fortunate position where they give them to me! I don't think I've bought anything for ages. I mean, I've got sponsorship with guitar makers. At the moment I'm playing Carparelli guitars made by Mike Carparelli in Toronto, Canada. I take them on the road because I got fed up with taking out all my old Gibsons and things like that because they were getting battered. But these Carparellis are good - roadworthy, sound great, play great - so I use them and Furch acoustic guitars. They're beautiful guitars."
What's the most incredible find or bargain you've ever had when buying guitars?
This story is from the February 2023 edition of Guitarist.
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This story is from the February 2023 edition of Guitarist.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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