Diary Of A Busker Day 2598 Friday September 12th 2025 Winchester.
Before I came out I was having a go on the old Rickenbacker 12-string and quite enjoying it so I decided to give the Squire a rest and do a session with the Rickenbacker, which I’m pretty sure I’ve never done before. The problem was finding a case for it; doesn’t fit in the case I’ve been using so I got a Gretsch case down from the attic, which I knew it would fit…but that case doesn’t have any strap hinges so I’d have to walk into town with it, which would be safer than cycling, but with the guitar in it, it was so heavy I bottled out. In the end I settled on a flimsy tweed-ish gigbag and prayed I wouldn’t have an accident on the bike because that Rickenbacker, from late 1996, is now considered “vintage” and worth around £3,500. Not that I’d ever sell it.
So I changed all the laminated stuff, advertising the CDs, books and Paypal link, from the usual case to the tweed-ish one, stuck the guitar in it and set off. Big mistake. The ride went without a mishap but the minute I started playing, because it was a really windy day, the laminated bits (not to mention the business cards and CDs) started flying off the gigbag so I had to stop and put the guitar down and get them before they blew further away.
The culprit was the inside lining of the case; the stuff just wouldn’t stick to it! In fact, most of the time, it was other people who picked up the stuff and gave it back. And it wasn’t just that. The case kept blowing shut because it was so light. In the end, I lasted an hour before I’d had enough. The last song was Life On Mars? and the case blew shut during the second verse and I just thought “bollocks to this” and that was it. Shame really, as I could have gone on a bit longer, and at least the guitar was noted; two young-ish blokes walked past and one said ‘Wow, a REAL Rickenbacker!’ I mean, how many buskers do you see with a Rickenbacker, let alone a 12-string?! I’ve never seen any. One weird thing; I would occasionally reach for the vibrato arm, like during the Gymnopedie, and there was nothing there!