This project has a story.
A long time ago, there was a lad called Richard White. In his early college days Richard found himself surrounded by guitarists. They didn’t seem so bad. Richard decided that he should become one.
The journey was pretty cool. He learnt the basics and found he could sing at the same time. (A gypsy once heard a baby version of Richard crying as she was in the process of trying to sell his mum some lucky heather. She told Richard’s mum he’d be a good singer. Richard’s mum bought the heather, for fear of being cursed, as you do. But that’s another story. In fact, that was it.)
Richard did the whole busking and band thing – it was great, I’m told.
During the learning years, Richard found himself staring at a cool ass guitar case at a carboot sale in Devon. Inside was a guitar. A crap one. The pickups had been badly modified, but, worse than that, the previous owner had ripped the body to pieces and decided to scrawl permanent green marker over the entire guitar. Richard paid a fiver for the case, which included ‘the crap one’ inside and promptly went off to eat a terrible burger from an old man in a smelly old van. Just imagine.
The guitar stayed at his mum and dad’s house, promptly forgotten. You see, Richard didn’t know what to look for in a guitar back then. He was a bit dim about them. He simply left it.
*This is an interlude. Richard went and did loads of amazing things. He’ll tell you about them some day*
Here’s the thing: that guitar was rare. It was British made and went by the name of Hayman 30/30. And they were good. Built in the seventies by a chap called Jim Burns, the range was very popular. Sadly, his business skills didn’t match up to his guitar making. He went out of business and guitars like the one Richard had became quite rare.
So here I am (yes, Richard is I!), the owner of a beat up Hayman 30/30. I wouldn’t know about it at all were it not for a friend of mine spotting it sat in the corner of my room, looking like a piece of trash. He saw the Beauty though. And now I do too.
Please prepare yourself for the dramatic vow:
I WILL RESTORE THIS HAYMAN 30/30 TO ITS FORMER GLORY!
There’s a problem though: it’s going to be really difficult. Parts are rare (duh!), restoration of guitars is supposed to be taken on by people with a certain level of expertise, and worst of all, it’s in such a mess that only so much can be done.
But that isn’t your problem. As I go along I’ll post pictures. If you want to find out more about the guitar, check out the Shergold website: http://haymanguitars.co.uk/
Wish me luck…
P.s. If any Hayman fanatics find this page, I promise you I won’t do anything stupid. Let’s be honest, that part was done a long, long time ago.
