Amphion.

My Father gave me my first guitar when I was six. A classical guitar. It had steel strings on it. I have no idea why as classical guitars always have nylon strings. I managed to learn a few chords and my father taught me “Nights In White Satin.” by the Moody Blues. Like a lot of kids who start playing guitar, the finger pain just wasn’t worth it. Not when I was six years old anyway. I cut the ends of my fingers regularly. Once I gave up, I didn’t really touch it again until I was fifteen. My Father always had a guitar around and played his folk music on and off throughout my childhood.

Picture the scene… Its late 1990, I have one year left of school. The neo hippy movement was starting to fizzle out. My peers and I were all into reggae and things like the Happy Mondays. My best friend, Mr Loc and I had been mostly into pop, reggae and rap. Mr Impotent used to work as a paper boy at the same newsagents as Mr Loc and I. A couple of years older than us and from a troubled home, he had flown the nest and disappeared for a couple of years. When he popped back up again, we started hanging out together. In his absence, Mr Impotent had got into thrash metal. Mr Loc had caught the same bug off him and before long they were both nagging me to get into it but I was obsessed with UB40 at the time. They would come round and put on Slayer’s latest offering, “Seasons in the Abyss.” I was a fluffy, recently loved up for the first time, pretend hippy listening to love songs like “Homely Girl” and “Tears From My Eyes.”

So as you can imagine, I found the dulcet tones of “Dead Skin Mask” somewhat disturbing. From newfound love to serial killer horror!

Before long though, I too had caught the bug. My Fathers record collection was full of classic rock among other genres. Once you get the metal bug, it drags you into rock history pretty quickly. My Father laughed when he found half his record collection had disappeared into my room. Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix… You get the picture.

Being the teen fans we were, instead of the hairbrush bands most of us played at some point as a child, playing air guitar was enough at first. None of us had any chance of owning an electric guitar any time soon so in the end, we all “borrowed” our parents acoustics and started shredding. Or so we told ourselves. A lot of people say you can’t play metal on acoustic guitars. We did. It’s hilarious looking back. The three of us looking like we’re playing some fluffy folk song but chugging away and headbanging like crazy people. Absurd! We were “There” though. Playing “Dawn Of Eternity” by Massacre. Swing those heads!!

A few months later, Mr Impotent purchased a white Charvette electric guitar. To give context, at the time, most of our favourite bands and guitarists were using Jackson guitars.

The Charvette was the cheaper ‘baby’ line from Jackson/Charvel. Much like Fender’s Squire Stratocaster. The only thing that mattered? That gorgeous, legendary pointy headstock.

Mr Impotent was so obsessed with this guitar, he didn’t even have enough for an amp. Muppet. Mr Loc and I were green with envy, and abused him rotten for months.

Not long after this my girlfriend, also a thrash fan, fell pregnant and I had left home to be with her. I got my first job, and saved for a while. Then… Oh happy day… Oh glorious day… It was MY turn. Back then, there were quite a few guitar shops in the Mouth and they all had several second hand guitars. So I spent the day visiting each one to see what they had. Then I found it. Not only was it a Charvette, but it had the reverse headstock. In blue. Reverse headstock? I’d never heard of it at the time and got so excited I nearly wet myself, bless me. I only have one photo of it.

After about a year later, I traded it in for a black, Floyd Rose style, humbucker equipped Charvette with the traditional headstock. Dive bombs here I come!

I played this guitar into the ground. Literally wore it out. I recently performed necromancy on the old girl and blow me if she wasn’t still playable. She needed a few days to settle as she hadn’t had any strings for years.

Smoke Without Fire. c 2000

She finally died in 2000 when I was in a band with Mr Loc, Mr Straight, Mr Impotent and the Hodgemeister. We had gigs at least a couple of nights most weeks and I had no time to save for a replacement so I did the one thing you should never do… Purchase a guitar without trying it. On credit. From an home shopping catalogue. Well, I got away with it. I chose a Yamaha Pacifica as it had a traditional look with a high output humbucker. It was a gem. Setup perfectly out of the box, I didn’t have to do a damn thing to it. To this day it still rocks and plays beautifully. It’s my go-to when I want to mix it up. You can play everything from Pink Floyd to Metallica on it.

We lasted about 2-3 years before the inevitable ego war/cheating broke out. Shame. We were just getting into our stride with our original stuff. The above track is my favourite.

Since then I’ve gone through various phases of playing lots, on and off. My friend Wolverine and I teamed up with Mr Straight a few times to do a few covers in the intermission of My Lady’s play’s. Since we moved to roundabout city in 2009, I’ve hardly jammed with anyone let alone joined/formed a band. My Lady always bemoaned the fact I didn’t play much. Fair enough though. I won her heart with a Pink Floyd song. She loved my playing, always did.

After My Lady passed away, my muse came back with a vengeance. I purchased the purple Jackson and lost myself in the music. It’s only having to find a job that’s got in the way of my progress this year. Even so, I’m a thousand times better than I was. I’m no guitar god to say the least but I’ve learned so much this year. I’ve got into many new bands and sounds. After all this time playing, I’ve started using drop tunings. I have Machine Head to thank for that.

When I still had a job, finance on the Jackson wasn’t a bad idea…

This guitar was everything I had hoped it would be. I felt my playing was at least 30% better just because of how easily it played. I’ve already worn the plating off on the low E saddle! I’ve been breaking picks too…