The first guitar I ever got was a second hand one from Yugoslavia, back in 1958 I think. She's in a lot better shape than Yugoslavia is, but she's got a pretty lived-in quality.

I had to change from steel strings to nylon eventually because the neck was feeling the strain, and she rattles a bit if you shake her, and a few of the struts have fallen out, and the wood on the front is worn down so that all the ridges in the grain stand out.

But I think she sounds better than it ever did. The only time I take it out is when I'm going to a festival where the campsite is miles from the places where I'll want to play, because she's so small and light you hardly know she's on your back.

But most of the time I use my Angelica - that's the make on it, with a phony diamond stuck over the G next to the machine head. I came across her about six years ago in a Cancer Charity Shop in the High in Harlow. No strings, no nut, a couple of dents in the front and black marks all over, and a place at the side where a hole in the body had been patched up, not too well. But she had something about her. "How much" I asked, and the lady asks me back, so I offered £10, and the lady jumped at it, and I nipped out and got the money from a cash-machine.
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And she really is a lovely guitar, with the best action I've ever come across, and incredibly light for her size. If you go to the bbc resources you can see her. Still got a very lived-in look to her, mostly from before my time. I sometimes wonder about that - given where I got her, it seems likely she was passed on, after someone died. But she's with me for life, I hope. And then on to some other lucky soul.