Day 2678
Wednesday April 22nd 2026
Winchester
The debut of a new bit of kit, namely my brand new Hartwood acoustic amp. It’s well dinky, about the same size as the MicroCube but ten times as loud AND there’s an input for a mic so I can do my own songs, if the fancy takes me. It doesn’t have batteries but needs charging up with a wire (like so many things we find indispensable these days) so I have to remember to do that! With the MicroCube I only have to remember to carry a spare set of double A’s.
Anyway, the Hartwood is quite stylish – it looks like an early 70’s radio…unfortunately, it’s already received it’s first dings – three small ones that it incurred while being stored in the case which I dragged into town. So it’s damaged goods even before its debut out on the street. I just felt the MicroCube was getting a bit tired and even with the equaliser pedal to boost the volume, it sometimes wasn’t enough, especially for the noisy spots in Southampton. And that was another thing – apart from the batteries for the MicroCube there is always the battery for the pedal that has to be checked. With the new amp, there’s no pedal required, so that’s one less thing to think about. My brain hurts if I think too much. Also, the Hartwood is angled, so I can hear it a bit better.
Having said all that, an hour and a half with the new amp (and the by now omnipresent 12-string) down at the crossroads earned me a disappointing £9. I was aiming to set up at Nando’s but there was a man sitting down on the pavement opposite Sainsbury’s blowing through a penny whistle. I won’t say “playing” it because he wasn’t. Maybe he was blowing through it to get some small object out that was preventing him from actually playing and perhaps he regaled passers-by with Beethoven’s 9th just after I left. In fact, I think I’ll use that somewhat antiquated but effective (and accurate) word “tramp” to describe the chap.