First of all an explanation of why it's taken so long for me to post again. As you may have guessed there have been some family issues, involving doctors and hospitals. Nothing life threatening but complicated and time consuming. However I now feel able to resume the blog and I will be posting again on photography and music, my two passions in life.
Firstly a couple of links to some new music I have produced -
https://soundcloud.com/david-taylor-hughes/sets/make-a-note
https://soundcloud.com/david-taylor-hughes/sets/the-last-chord
Above are the last three guitars I have bought. You may be aware they are all 'offset' guitars. i.e. non symmetrical. They seem to be in vogue currently and are usually derived from earlier (and usually not very popular) designs. Left to right in the top pictures are a Fender Jazzmaster clone from Harley Benton, a Guild Surfliner and a Squier (by Fender) Starcaster.
Offset guitars are not everybody's first choice. I mostly like them myself, with some exceptions. I'm not a fan of Gibson Firebirds or Explorers for example, as I find them very difficult to play. But generally I find them intriguing and something different. As to the three guitars above there is a specific advantage, they are cheap!!!! All three cost me less than £1000, letting me add to my small (but perfectly formed) guitar collection. This of course means I have more sound choices for my library music.
I am not going to do any kind of review because there are lots out there. And the last thing you probably want is me talking to camera, playing the same old licks and doing sample tones which usually means turning on some fuzz box and thrashing away for several minutes!!
What I would say is that for relatively cheap guitars they look good, play good aand sound good. These days with the lack of musical instrument shops, it's becoming more and more difficult to try guitars out. Buying stuff online is certainly more convenient and often cheaper, but you never know what you are going to get. In fact I had to do some fret smoothing on the 'Jazzmaster', but it only took me ½ hour and now it feels just fine.
New guitars always tend to 'freshen up' my playing and give me a different perspective on what I'm playing and I'm particularly impressed by the Starcaster as it's a joy to play. So hopefully these guitars will add some new ideas and new pleasures to my playing.
