[mplpost] Canadian Guitars etc

[Charlie Roby]

Hello

The first guitar I owned was a nylon strung classical guitar made in 
Brazil. Strings much too far from the fretboard.  My Mother and I 
bought it when I was 14 from a music shop in Liverpool. The Beatles 
bought the odd guitar at the same place, I think, but that's 
irrelevent, really...  Second guitar was an Italian EKO steel string, 
big dreadnaught type, thin sound, but easy to play.  It was good 
value and I was happy.  These two are at my parent's house in 
England, and I play them when we visit.

The guitar I continue to love to play is a Fylde, handmade in 
Northern England.  Lovely rich tone,  cedar top and a zero fret.  I 
bought it in 1982, it has had quite a bit of work done on it, some by 
the maker and some by the wonderful people at the 12th fret.  I have 
a flat back bouzouki made by Fylde also.

My one Canadian guitar is a Simon and Patrick maple dreadnaught (from 
the 12th fret) which I tend to use more in situations where I'm 
worried about the safety of the Fylde guitar.  I also play a Fender 
strat..

Which leads me to pickups - I've been using Sunrise soundhole pickups 
which aren't totally ideal but with some EQ can be good and you get 
tons of bottom end. I'm running that through the sunrise preamp and 
an LR Baggs D.I. box. With the Simon and Patrick I also have a 12th 
fret system in the guitar, so I can blend the two.  I was doing this 
via a Trace acoustic amp, but I'm trying to keep my amount of gear 
down.  I know the topic of pickups has been raised once or twice - 
any more thoughts, preferences, etc?

I was at Richard Flohil's most enjoyable Amos Garrett show last week. 
Richard was not wearing bells on his trousers.  I spoke with Bill 
Usher about me lurking on this list and he told me that he has an 
image of me hunched over the computer in the shadows wearing a dark 
overcoat.  So I'm now taking the coat off.

I've been somewhat quiet of late, but you can add me to that list of 
new CD's in 2002.

And I continue to play with Mel M'Rabet, that gifted oud player and 
singer from Morocco who lives in Ottawa.  We're playing in Montreal 
on Saturday (Feb2) as part of the Festival de Musique du Maghreb at 
the Kola Note , 5240 Av du Parc.

There, I've managed to mention World Music and electric guitars in 
this message.
I'll go away now and try and keep my lurking overcoat off...

Charlie Roby, in Toronto.

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