In 1962 I bought my first guitar for three shillings and six pence. It was all plywood and had a Stauffer type adjustable neck. It had no strings, bridge, tail piece or tuners. It cost 15 shillings to put all that together and I had my first guitar. My dad was right, it was all downhill from then on.

40 odd years on at a Sunday morning car boot sale I picked up an unbranded guitar for £5. Stauffer type again, 24" string length but all solid wood. I removed the single bolt holding the neck on. There was no fretboard. The whole neck was a single piece of maple with the fretted part painted a different colour. It was intended as a classical guitar, too wide for me but 30 minutes with a belt sander put that right. A generous coat of black gloss and it has been my cooking guitar for years. I have several much better guitars but they all live in their cases. The old beater is the one that gets played most.