You are correct Pete. That story of my "survival technique" was 27 years ago when I was just starting out, and had only been on my own (as in leaving home) for about 6 months. Eventually I connected up with the right bands, and worked steadily.

To get the seed money to leave home in the first place (because my parents were horrified that I was "going to be a full time musician", I had to sell the only asset I had at the time which was a 1946 Herringbone D-28, formerly owned by Ian Tyson (and also owned at some other point by our illustrious Rick Fielding as I found out later.)

Things improved, and for the past several years I've been fortunate in feeding my terminal G.A.S. with some fine old Martins.