Riding the Waves to Eternity

Meet Amy and Gizmo!

I mentioned a few months ago that I was taking more shots in Black and White on the digital camera.  Just recently I’ve been taking them as TIF images (ie without jpeg compression in the camera).  If the camera was more up to date I’d use raw, but it isn’t so I don’t.   I’ve then been playing with them in Paint Shop Pro 9 (a legal copy which I bought with a laptop some years ago) and trying to recapture something of the feel of a platinum toned print on Agfa paper.

The end result isn’t quite what I’m after but I’m getting happier.

Here’s another one – me and the lads.  From left to right we have my old warhorse Ovation Ultra which I bought in  1983, my hand built Stew-Mac 000, my Martin 000-15 and I’m playing the Martin D16GT.  Not in the picture is my nylon strung Spanish guitar.

They are all very different instruments with different responses and I enjoy playing them all, although I have a deep attachment to the Stew-Mac.  As I may have written before, there is something special about playing an instrument which you have built yourself even if -or possibly especially if- it is your first attempt.

There is also a great feeling of satisfaction to be had from the process of building: going from some bits of wood and a bottle of glue to something on which you can make music.

In an ideal world I’d like to build a couple more guitars, however there are space considerations in the house which make that difficult.  If I were to build more my first would be another Stew-Mac 000 kit but this time put on a sunburst finish and build in a pick-up and pre-amp.  The next would be an attempt to scratch build – probably something based on the old Gibson LG2/LG3 design if I could get hold of some decent plans.  If I got as far as a third it would be another scratch build – something like a Gibson SJ200 but with rosewood and spruce rather than maple.

Well, a boy can dream can’t he?