I bought some strings last week.

I actually found an Irish company that sells just strings at the somewhat appropriate address of strings.ie.

I ordered two sets – a set of 12 and a set of 6. They duly arrived with a nice little thank-you note, a wee pack of sweets and a couple of plecs. Nice service?

I should explain to those of you who have forgotten. I used to play the guitar. In fact I used to play a lot. I played Folk, Irish Traditional and a drop of contemporary [usually when I was pissed] in different groups. I played a couple of festivals – Kilkenny, Bennettsbridge and Cambridge – and in just about every pub in Ireland. It was great craic and ultimately led to my meeting Herself [but that’s a different story].

I had three guitars – a Spanish, a six-string acoustic and a twelve string acoustic. The six string acoustic has vanished. I think I gave it to Daughter about fifteen years ago. The other two have been gathering dust around the Manor as I haven’t played them in many many years. It’s about forty years since I last played them seriously and haven’t plucked a single string in over twenty years.

Herself has been nagging me about this. She says I should take them up again as I need a hobby [hah! I don’t have time for hobbies]. I pointed out that my fingers had gone soft. A serious guitar picker will have hard callouses on the tips of the left fingers [and very short nails] while the nails on the right hand should be a bit long. If I started again after forty years my fingers would hurt like fuck for a long time. This hasn’t stopped the nagging.

So anyhows it was time to restring the guitars to see what would happen. I thought I would string the Classical first as the strings are nylon and a lot softer on the fingers. I opened the packet and realised I had made the most basic error, signifying either that I was a total beginner or that I was senile. I suppose it was the latter, but I had just bought acoustic strings [made of steel] instead of classical strings [make of nylon]. Fuck! Maybe I’ll try to scrounge my old acoustic back off Daughter is she hasn’t lost/broken/sold it or given it away.

So I turned my attention to the 12-string. Then I discovered it had been slightly damaged at some stage. Two of the little pins, or nuts or whatever they are called that hold the strings had lost their heads and the rest look pretty old and fragile. It’s a very simple job to replace them but I have forgotten what they’re called so can’t order them. Senility strikes again. I’ll have to contact Strings and plead senility. Then I can order twelve of them and a set of nylon classical strings.

In the meantime I have discovered the two guitars I do have are worth a few bob.

Maybe I’ll just flog ’em?

Incidentally, I gave the web address of the company above simply because I liked their service [and also so I’ll remember] and not because they wanted a link. Instead of writing out my full explanations and queries again I suppose the easiest thing is to point them at this page? I’m not looking for any favours and they can’t give me any as they don’t know my address until I complete the order. Heh!