Diary Of A Busker Day 2583 Wednesday July 23rd 2025 Winchester.
First thing’s first, today’s the debut appearance of a new guitar. And it actually really IS a new one, not second or third or fifth hand. The reason; I used the white Squier at a private gig and it sounded crap through my Fender Champion 40 amp. I couldn’t work it out so I went round the corner and asked Mr. Hayward why it sounds really good out of the tiny MicroCube but crap out of a proper normal-sized amp. He said it’s because the pickups are crap but you’ll only notice that when it’s plugged into a bigger amp. The bigger the amp, the more the bad things will be amplified. Oh well, I suppose he knows! I thought about upgrading the pickups but considering the cost and also the cost of getting them fitted, I decided to spend a bit more and get a new guitar! So I’ve now got a Fiesta red Classic Vibe 50’s Squier Strat for £350. Initially, I thought I’d keep it for the proper paying gigs where I use a proper amp but then I thought “fuck it, I might as well bring it out on the streets.” The only problem is it’s not as loud as the white one so I’ll have to dig out the graphic equaliser pedal which I used to use years ago, so I’ve now got more to carry and another battery to keep charged up. Oh well, you can’t have everything.
Anyway, in town the top spot’s free and the first order of the day is to pay my respects to Ozzy Osbourne, who died yesterday, and begin the set with the killer three note riff to Black Sabbath, the first song from the debut album. I don’t even bother with trying to sort out some distortion as the riff is so good; a low G on the E string, another G an octave higher then the killer; the evil C# on the A string. Then into La Vie En Rose. Now there’s a contrast! A few minutes later, someone else is paying their respects. That young bloke with the long hair and hat who often chats with me, he walks by sporting a Sabbath T-shirt.
The new guitar attracts a bit of attention…
A young woman says ‘I like your orange guitar.’
‘Oh thank you, um, it’s Fiesta red but anyway, thanks.’
‘You could paint your fingernails that colour!’
‘Yeah…I think I’ll just stick with the guitar.’
‘Is it easy to learn the guitar?’
‘No, it’s really difficult!’
‘Oh right, OK, see you then’ and she’s off down the alleyway.
Then it’s Don Lavelle, who’s on his way home after another day painting…
‘Is that anew guitar, Marvin?’
‘Yeah, it is. How does it sound? (I know I’m taking a risk asking him this).
‘It’s a bit bright (and he pulls a face indicating he doesn’t mean “bright” in a good way)…but good, and it looks good’ he says somewhat diplomatically. Unusual for him, haha.
In fact, the guitar holds up pretty well and keeps in tune better than the white one. I didn’t have to stop and adjust the tuning once, even after tuning down doing Yellow Bird and Wheels and then up again after.
Speaking of Wheels, I’d done a minute of it when a man my age suddenly jumps in front of me, lifts his T-shirt and proceeds to do that weird thing with his stomach that the muscleman in the old TV ad did, the one they had Wheels in. On the right side of me is his wife, filming him. I say ‘I wish you’d warned me about that!’ She says ‘Sorry, I couldn’t stop him!’
I did the Sabbath riff a couple of more times during the set, which was 2 hours and 20 minutes, then ended with it. Again, the coinage, at £27.87, wasn’t impressive – at this rate it’ll take a while before this new guitar pays for itself.
Oh, I almost forgot, near the start I was given a little purple thistle-ey like flower by a little girl who was with her mother sitting on the monument behind me. I stuck the flower in the headstock of the guitar, in between the Low E machine head and the nut and it lasted pretty well the whole time until near the end when it started to wilt.
Something else I almost forgot. A young Chinese bloke comes up and hands me a photo of myself and that clarinet player who did Here Comes The Sun with me awhile back at this very spot. ‘I was looking for you. I’ve been carrying this around with me to give to you but I never saw you until now!’ I bloody well hate photos of myself but I thanked him anyway, and profusely. He was a nice chap and donated as well. His wife or girlfriend stood at a distance, watching.