Yamaha ‘FG 110’

This guitar is a joy to look, feel and smell. Based on the Martin 000,  It’s almost 50 years old and it sure looks its age. It’s fitted with a Fishman Rare Earth pickup and Argentine strings.

We guitarists often overlook strings when searching for that old-fashioned tone. The truth is, strings have changed a lot since the 60s and I believe a lot of the tone we associate with some of our favourite songs comes from the string, often old strings for that matter. Check pictures of Bob Dylan with his old Martin in the early 60s, those strings must have been there before the guitar was even built around them! Nowadays we tend to record with brand new strings, but perhaps we should relax a bit and let age do its thing!

I find that Argentine strings give me that old flavour, and to make sure they sound authentic, I haven’t changed them in a long time.

I used this guitar somewhere on the Crossing Borders album back in 2010/2011, and I think the strings are probably still the same.

Speaking of old strings, I read somewhere that great bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, who played with pretty much everybody that counts (Booker T, Otis Redding, Neil Young, Blues Brother, Bon Dylan, Eric Clapton etc), didn't changed his strings until they’d break.