Nice guitar

Mine arrives on Tuesday, but you can get a rough idea of how the guitar sounds from this clip, perhaps not when I play it though...

That looks the biz, Paul. I'd love to be able to play bass.

Lined fretless?
No frets, but their positions are marked, is that it?

Thanks.
I can see how that might be a massive advantage to someone learning. Not 'alf!

Looking good, Paul. I hope there was more packaging than that?

That looks very classy, Paul. What sort of knobs and why did you decide to change them?

Slinger - been saving up for the Dave Gilmour guitar collection auction ??

Some very serious valuations here ... 

I'd forgotten about this thread.

I have owned a piano for many, many years. Originally it was bought, some time in the early 60s, by my mother from her sister for my sister to learn on, but my sister lost interest after a couple of years. And that is when I started to learn, and I persisted from the age of 6 until 18 despite an obvious lack of talent! When my parents moved house some years later they passed the piano on to me and, being very attractive and from the 1860s, it fitted in well with the decor of the Victorian house I owned at the time. And there it stayed even after myself and my partner parted ways, and she even took it with her when she moved to the north east of England. However, eventually she needed to get rid of it and so it found its way back to me.

The only problem with this piano was that it had a wooden frame and the tuning pins were loose in the top frame member and so it would not hold its tuning any more. It is a John Broadwood cottage upright and was bought originally on a sort of early version version of a hire-purchase arrangement from John Broadwood by an ex Captain in the British Army (I have his name and address somewhere - he lived in Southampton I seem to recall) and at some point it ended up in Copthorne House near Gatwick and lived in the morning room for many years. In the early 60s the family who owned the house and estate sold / passed it on to the wife of their head gardener, the husband of my mother's sister and that is how it came to us.

So now I ended up with an attractive piano that couldn't be played and, although a nice piece of furniture, it really needed to earn its place in my small cottage! So I contacted John Broadwood, who still just about exist (and are the worlds oldest makers of pianos - with a customer list that reads like a who's who of classical composers!), and they confirmed that it could be restored. And so, even though totally non-cost-effective, restored it was, beautifully by Dr Hilary Martin (who originally worked for John Broadwood and now does their restorations on an independent basis) at his workshop behind the National Instrument Museum in Kent.

Now there is a reason why I wanted it restored aside from sentimental reasons and that is to learn to re-play the piano (it is most certainly not like riding a bike - you do forget: pretty much everything in fact!), but mainly to ensure my right-hand keyboard skills are as good as I can get them because I have an aspiration to learn to play a piano accordion! The problem with progressing this is partly finding time when I'm in the UK and not being able to play / practice when I'm in Germany. To solve this I have bought fairy recently an electric / stage piano (a Kawai ES110 for those interested in such things) for Germany as I can pack it out of the way when I'm not using it (I bought a stage stand and seat and case for it as well). And, so far, I am making progress and even enjoying it.

So after that ramble, I do have a number of musical instruments. They are:

John Broadwood Cottage Upright Piano
Kawai ES110 Stage Piano
Hohner Arietta IM 72 Bass Piano Accordion
Firotti 12 Bass Piano Accordion


One day I might even be able to play them!