Diary Of A Busker Day 284 Saturday September 15th 2012 Winchester High Street 1. Opposite O2, Time: 3:16-4:22pm, 2. Opposite Vodafone, Time: 4:32-5:41pm
The second outing with my eye-catching, very psychedelic and very heavy double-neck guitar, although I’ve discovered it’s not too bad if I sling the gigbag on my back, thereby distributing the weight. However, sonically speaking, I’m still not too sure about it as it’s so different from my trusty Casino. I think it’s the low strings more than anything else – the bass part of fingerstyle playing. They sound completely different from what I’m used to. I think I might put some chrome flat-wound jazz strings on the six-string neck, to mellow the sound out a bit.
I finally see Henry Gray and I haven’t got his photo to give him! I have to ask him for his address and say I’ll put the picture through his letter-box tomorrow. After a short chat, he’s off so I do Somewhere Over The Rainbow, switching to waltz time…and messing it up completely. After he’s disappeared, I wonder if he’s noticed my guitar; he didn’t say anything. I don’t know, maybe when you’re a hundred years old and lived through two world wars, seeing a colourful guitar doesn’t mean that much. Anyway, it doesn’t matter, as a lot of others have; there are a few, ‘that’s one cool guitar’ comments, said either to me, or to whoever the speaker is walking with. And they’re mainly young kids…maybe colour means more when you’re young. Some of the older ones take photos and some even contribute to the cause. So it’s a visual success, certainly. I’m still not sure of the sound, though, and the two times I’ve been out with it, I haven’t sold any CDs – something that makes me rather paranoid. Hmm…maybe I should stick an Epiphone pickup on the six-string bit. Sod it, I’ll never get any peace as long as I’m playing all these guitars!
Earnings: £26.53