Diary Of A Busker Day 287 Saturday September 22nd 2012 Winchester High Street 1. Opposite Oxfam, Time: 3-4:13pm, 2. Opposite Vodafone, Time: 4:36-6:30pm
My third public outing with the double-neck…and I’m STILL not sure about it, and I’ve spent whole evenings trying to make it sound like my Epiphone; playing them one after the other, plugging in one, playing it for a few seconds then unplugging it and quickly plugging in the other, back and forth, lowering the pickups…then raising them, changing the string gauges, altering volume and tone settings, in short, driving myself BONKERS. And today I’ve taken the spring from my Epiphone’s Bigsby unit and put it on the double-neck, having ordered a similar one from China, but I can’t wait for that one to get here. It STILL doesn’t sound the same, though. I’ll probably end up changing the pickups. I’ll never have any peace with these guitars…
On Thursday, during a non-playing day, I went into Oxfam and the woman behind the counter said, ‘Will you be entertaining us today?’ I told her I wouldn’t, but maybe tomorrow. She said that was no good, she’s only there Wednesdays and Saturdays so I need to play on those days! Anyway, today she comes out and gives me a £5 note. She said she made a collection from the other people who work there, which was good, as before that, my own collection was rather below the usual hourly rate.
In the cathedral grounds, I have a snack and watch a mother playing with her baby and think, ‘When that baby’s my age, I’ll be dead!’ and other death-related thoughts. I don’t know…maybe it’s my age. Back on the street, I get my first comments concerning the sound of the double-neck. I actually ask a couple of people who’ve heard me before what they think. One man says he thinks it’s good but not as good as the other one; ‘this one’s more clunky.’ Another man just says it’s ‘different.’ Hmm…my next course of action, when I get home, will be to raise the action on the treble strings; the melody wasn’t coming through very well on Yellow Bird and the Bach one. The guitar’s a winner on the visual front, though; lots of people take photos and some even ASK if they can take a photo…some even contribute. I also get several groups of young girls coming up – ‘We love your guitar…It’s really COOL…Where did you get it?’ One bunch, all wearing the same colour lipstick and all looking about 8 years old, come up. ‘Why are you all wearing the same colour lipstick?’ I ask. ‘We wanted to buy a twelve (12) DVD, from HMV. We thought we’d be able to but they asked for our ID.’ ‘Really? And what DVD did you want?’ ‘Any!’
A bit later, three slightly older girls come up. Apparently, according to the one who speaks the most – the others don’t really get a chance, I’m ‘more friendly than the man up there (she points up the road), he was horrible.’ ‘Really? Who was that, then?’ ‘He’s sitting in mid-air, up there.’ ‘Oh, I know – the guy who levitates. I’ve seen him before. So he’s here today, eh?’ ‘Yeah, he wasn’t very nice to me.’ ‘Why’s that?’ ‘Well, I was talking to him, standing beside him, and after a while he told me to go away. He said I was making his brain turn to MUSH.’ I get them to pose for a photo…after I convince them it’s not for ‘a porno film.’ ‘How can it be for that?’ I ask them, ‘you’re all wearing clothes?!’ ‘Oh…yeah.’ I get them to write down their names; Alex, Rae, and Dana – the one who turns levitators’ brains to mush.
Earnings: £45.26 + 1 CD