Diary Of A Busker Day 2425 Saturday August 24th 2024 Winchester.
A late start – after 4 o’clock, due to surprise, sur-fucking-prise, the rain. But I was determined to get a set in, besides, I promised Claire I’d make it in today if there wasn’t rain, or whenever it stopped.
Once again, the top spot is free and today I’ve got the show-stopping psychedelic double-neck; it’s third outing in 13 years. This time I’m a bit braver, playing the 12-string neck a bit more often, even featuring both necks during the same song, such as While My Guitar Gently Weeps, where I played the 12-string for the whole song except the end, where I switched to the 6-string which was quite effective, I thought.
Many people stopped to enquire of the origin of the guitar. A man came up and very old-rocker looking, he was, with long, dyed blonde hair, all black attire – ‘I used to be in a band…’ No shit, Sherlock!
Another man with his wife – ‘Wow, where did you get that? Is that an SG?’ ‘No but it’s the same shape. It’s a guitar kit I got from America. It was bare wood and I painted it…well, me and my partner did it. She did the difficult bits. There’s only one like this in the whole world…and this is it! It’s been out only three times in 13 years.’ ‘Yeah, I’m the same (looks at his wife and laughs. The wife remains silent and straight-faced throughout) ‘Sorry?’ I say. ‘Oh right, yeah.’ (I’ve suddenly cottoned on – he’s talking about his todger). ‘Anyway’ he goes on, ‘looks like you’ve got quite high action there, on the 12-string. You could maybe get that a bit lower.’ Alright, smart arse, and maybe you could contribute to the cause, and give me less of the fucking guitar tech talk?!
Around an hour into the set and I suddenly realise there’s no Claire. Strange. Anyway, a technical problem developed – something that happened last time with this guitar. It kept cutting out – something wrong with the jack socket or lead so I switch the lead around but it’s still there, cutting out the sound, which is very embarrassing. The socket on the guitar seems to be tight enough so I’m wondering if it’s the lead. Whatever it is, I’ll have to hope I can make the duration with it and sort it out at home. It actually gets extremely annoying, as I will hit a note and all sound will stop so I’ll fiddle with the jack, get it so it’s working, then hit the note and it’ll stop again. Or it will work for 30 seconds then stop, or I’ll get through almost all of a song, then at the climax, it fucking cuts out like some musical coitus interruptus situation.
In the end, I just made it to the two hour mark (still no Claire) before almost smashing the guitar to bits in frustration. At home I tried a different guitar lead and there was no problem so it’s the lead that’s faulty and not the guitar jack, thank fuck.