BLUERIDGE TENOR GUITAR BR-40T

After hearing the beautiful tone a Tenor Guitar can produce after watching two of my favourite roots artists ‘Steve Knightley’ and ‘Martyn Joseph’ play this little instrument, I could not wait to get my hands on one!

A new music shop called the Hobgoblin opened in Canterbury and I found a Blue Ridge Tenor in there. I had a play and just loved the feel and the sound. You can find simple chord shapes that sound great for strumming and when picking you get cool drones from the bass string especially.

I have already written four songs with it and hope to carry on finding new sounds out of this little wonder. Although my Tenor guitar is a lot smaller than my Martin J-15, it is in fact a lot louder.

I tune it to, C, G, D, A. You can tune them lower if you use a thicker gauge set of strings, it depends on what tone you like! I say the 4 string Tenor guitar beats a ukulele any day!

Crafter ‘Clip On’ Chromatic Tuner

This tuner is very small and very precise. It simply clips onto the headstock of your guitar and picks up the vibrations from the strings allowing you to tune the guitar.

A worry I had about this tuner was that if you were using it in a room full of noises and vibrations it would affect the precision when pitching the notes, but through experience I can safely say that this is not a problem in the slightest.

It is very quick at finding the notes and doesn’t take long to pick up the vibrations and it’s ideal for me because I don’t use many different tunings, so it does the job I need it to do to a great standard.

 Sometimes just, for comfort if I am playing a longer gig, I use an inline Boss chromatic tuner, which is also very helpful and precise but it’s a rare occasion for me to bring it out of my guitar case!

Dunlop Jazz 111 picks

The first thing anyone says about these plectrums is ‘These are very small’ and they are not wrong! The Jazz 111 picks are indeed small and very thick plectrums, but this is what I love about them.

I started playing with these plectrums after having a guitar teacher who used them. I first played electric guitar and they worked like a charm with the lighter strings but when I moved to acoustic, I found that the Dunlop Jazz 111 picks would create a lovely thud on the bass strings and a clean twang to the treble strings, I just loved the tone these plectrums would produce.

Now after using these picks for years, I physically cannot play with a different one without dropping it after a few bars.

Although these picks are becoming hard to find locally, I own a little tin full of them and will not go a day without one being nestled in my pocket.

Martin J-15

After wanting a Martin guitar for years, I finally found one, which seemed perfect for me. After playing a Crafter guitar, which always seemed to be too big for me, I wanted a guitar, which was all of the following; loud, had a good bass, a good treble, nice looking and not too big, the Martin J-15 seemed to tick all the boxes. I found this guitar in a shop in Canterbury with a small Martin guitar section.

The J-15 had caught my eye every time I had been in there previously so on the day of purchasing one of these guitars, I had already decided what one I wanted to take home. I have never felt as though I made a wrong choice on selecting my guitar because it becomes more powerful and beautiful everyday.

When I first got the guitar, it was a completely acoustic Martin, which meant I had to get a pickup fitted into it. After doing some research on what are and what are not good pickups, I ended up buying a Fishman pickup, which is fitted inside the top of the sound whole, allowing you to control the treble and bass and the overall volume of the guitar.

Neither the guitar nor the pickup have let me down so far and I could not be more pleased with the image and sound both of them have delivered.

G7th Capo

The best thing about the G7th is that it is both easy to use and reliable. I have gone through many capos that cause fret buzz or a certain string to stop giving its full sound, but this has never been a problem with the G7th.
To put this capo in position you simply place it over your chosen fret and clamp it onto the neck of the guitar and when you are done, there is a small leaver to push down and it gently pops off the guitar neck.

I found out about these capos because one of my favourite folk artists ‘Richard Thompson’ uses one and seeing as he is an incredible guitarist I thought he must know what he is talking about! I have had my G7th capo for about a year now and it still has not let me down. I use many different capo positions for my songs so it is a good job it doesn’t!

Elixir Coated Acoustic Guitar Strings

I started playing acoustic guitar using 'extra light' strings but changed to 'light' because they produced a better bass sound, I now use .012-.053. I found with most sets of average acoustic guitar strings they would start getting rusty very quickly after being played. I wasn’t sure if this was due to the environment my guitar was in or whether it was based on the amount I played my guitar, but to stop this from happening I now use Elixir coated strings.

This helps prevent rusting because the strings have a thin layer of coating over the windings, which protects them, and supposedly makes them last 3-5 times longer. With basic guitar strings, I had to change them often but with the Elixirs, I change them around once a month and although they are more expensive, in the long run I will end up saving money.

Elixir coated strings don’t only last longer they also sound great, producing a loud bright sound and they feel lovely to play, the layer of coating makes it easier to slide your fingers up and down the fret board. I would strongly recommend them!