Excerpt from the book: - "String" by Steven R. M. Acworth copyright 2006.

Alternative title: - "Guitars to The Stars (The other side of the Screwdriver)"

Shedding multiple layers of self-doubt, many guitar players lack a much-needed quality: - humility. This piece was written, admittedly in the depths of depression around 1995 (when I had good reason to be a bit "down").

It's called "Guitar Widow"...

She trails into my guitar-fixing workshop in tow behind the customer. She is, by now, expert at keeping the lip buttoned. She looks imploringly at the boy-man's guitar case, hoping against hope that he's forgotten to put the offending instrument in it; she looks at the watch, wishing it was tomorrow; she looks around the workshop walls for the tell-tale signs of an incinerator door... and then she looks at me. She's another "guitar widow".

It's not like being a vet or a Kwik-fit mechanic, this job. In those circumstances, the bothersome object in need of attention is subject to everyone's wishes of positive well-being. Here we have a crisis of faith! She knows she "loves" him - but she also knows that deep down inside him, even though he would strongly deny it, there is a spark that fizzles along, poking at his soul, whispering the ''S'' word in his ear. Stardom. Stardom. It's there - always. The denials, I can affirm, come thick and fast.

He spends so much time never quite getting in tune but carrying on playing anyway. He doesn't respond to speech. He always plays the same thing, always with that over-reverberated horribly duff tone. His mates are the same. He has all of the magazines. He's read all of the books. She looks over to me and her eyes cry "Help!"... I must grasp the nettle; quickly the dream breaks - "Guitar Widow, then?", I greet. She smiles. Somebody understands. We are on it. Now, we can start work...

Excerpt from the book: - "String" by Steven R. M. Acworth copyright 2006.

Alternative title: - "Guitars to The Stars" & "The other side of the Screwdriver"

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