Back to Me - After 'Royal'.....
When
I had to stop work in 1989 due to ill health - I was 'lost'.
I spent the next 18 months having physiotherapy at hospital
three days a week, which did however give some sort of routine. In July 1991 I discovered
Archery, which I took up as my own form of physiotherapy.
I had heard that it was used for this at Stoke Mandeville Spinal Hospital near London, England. I became quite good at it, and archery took the place of work in a way, I spent a lot of time
practicing, and also got involved with Zen through archery too - Archery, or Kyudo as it is called in Japan, is one of the Japanese Zen
Arts.
Even
if you have no interest in archery at all, I would recommend that you read a wonderful little book by -
Eugen Herrigel
called
"Zen
in the Art
of Archery",
..... which dates from the 1930's. It is available in paperback published by
ARKANA
( ISBN 0-14-019074-0 ).
It
is 'truly' wonderful - quite short, fascinating, magical and very enlightening book that will stand being read over and over again !
* * * * *
I became a qualified Archery Coach in 1993 and then later joined the Great Britain Disabled Squad in 1994 as a shooter. I shot for Great Britain twice - In Belgium in early 1995 when I won a European Bronze Medal and in France in the summer of 1995.I also had the honour of being invited to the annual shoot of the Worshipful Company of Fletchers for three years running.
I shot for Wales at 'full international
level' at the
Home Internationals in Birmingham, England in late 1995. It was a great year for me, culminating in being nominated for the - Welsh Sports Personality of the Year Award for 1995, which was held in Cardiff, Wales in January 1996.
I was invited on to the Great Britain
'Paralympic' Squad who I had been training with for some time anyway, and was hoping to get to the Atlanta Olympics
('Paralympics') in
1996. Unfortunately for various reasons, I didn't make it. I had been struggling physically by then anyway and I completely packed in shooting in late 1996, although I did do quite a bit of coaching for the kids at our local club over the next two years.
After that I
needed something else to occupy myself with and I 'sunk'
myself into electronics, which has also helped me a lot by keeping me busy, and my mind active for the past few years.
In 1996 I got
back into playing guitar again after quite a few years through which I had lost interest completely !
There are quite a few people who have helped us out over the years, they all know who they are, and "Royal Guitars" wouldn't have happened without them. So I've done a thanks page and have thanked all those who immediately come to mind - If I've left anyone out, I'm sorry..... drop us a line, it would be great to 'hear' from you. Cheers, Kevin and Lyn.
See.....
With
Thanks to.....
GUITARS
Tokai
'58 V
('80s)
I got this guitar from 'Big Norm' about 10 years ago.
I love her - And I will be keeping
her always.
Betsy
(1989)
She is the only Royal
I have left. She is pretty basic - a single old Gibson
P90, basic Schaller
bridge, a 'Bigsby'
(copy) tremolo and
Grover
machine heads which are a little heavy so I'll probably change them for some re-issue Klusons
sometime - other than that
She's Great
!
and
Jasmine
D-Type Acoustic
A great guitar
to have around the house or to take out. The Kids can have a 'strum' on it too, and if it gets a bit battered, it doesn't really matter. I swapped some equipment for it - good deal !
Gibson
GA 10
(1959)
10w from two 6V6 valves in
single-ended configuration through a 10" Jenson alnico speaker. MO : - There is only one volume and one tone
so turn up to full and Go ! "Orgasmic Overdrive" is the only possible description. A hint of valve reverb sweetens the sound even more.
Try it through a 4x12.....
Mmmmm ! (Class A - This amp runs very hot)
Lyn
bought this from Paul Day
in 1986 - and keeps reminding me that it is actually..... HERS
!
and
Marshall
JCM 800
(Early
'80s)
100w Split channel Reverb (2210), lovely amp with a great
clean channel - although probably 'sacrilegious' to many, I prefer to use the clean channel only, with reverb, and get overdrive from either a Big
Muff, Marshall Guv'nor / Blues
Breaker or Boss BD-2
/ DS-1.
Essentially - it's a Marshall, so you don't need much else !..... apart from a 'Roadie'
! ;0) ( This one is actually mine !)
Electro Harmonix Big
Muff
('70s)
Amazing
fuzz/overdrive
- THE BEST..... which I have now repaired. Both the op-amps 'went down'. Great
to have it back.
Electro Harmonix Small
Stone
('70s)
Vintage
Phaser which
is great sounding and
easy to use but the 'colour' control can get a bit 'OTT' !
Looking For.....
I am still on the look out for a few 'particular' bits of gear, but they are not a priority -
Amps
A nice Fender Dual Showman Reverb
Head, Twin
Reverb, Deluxe
Reverb or Mesa/Boogie Mk I head or combo.
Guitars
A Cherry Gibson
'64/'67 Flying V
with maestro tremolo, SG Standard (Type 1) or 'TV' Double Cut Special
and
A nice Fender Strat
- Either ..... Sunburst with Maple neck or Vintage white with Rosewood fingerboard - '50s/'60s/re-issue.
You
never know..... !
The Future..... ?
Well,
at this moment in time it is very hard to say what my future will be. I am still attending various hospital clinics at the moment, and will continue to do so for some considerable time to come.....and until I can raise '$6 million' so they can rebuild me ;0)
.....
..... or perhaps there is some sort of medical breakthrough, I'm not going to be able to do much at all for the foreseeable future. I am currently waiting for a.....'Spinal Infusion'.
I am not expecting miracles, as I have already been having extensive treatments for 12
years (now 14 years), am never without pain and have considerable difficulty in walking - which all in all, has made 'life' a 'very long
haul' indeed and as yet none of the treatments (and there have been many and various) have been successful !
Like
everybody else I have a 'need' to for-fill, and hopefully
may once again 'weald my
draw-knife' ! In the past, I have 'literally' bled on every instrument I've made, and it would be great to leave a bit more of my DNA on..... .....some more guitars - maybe
"Royale" Guitars.
.....watch this space !
Now, since 2003
the first
Royale Guitar
is 'out there'...
Serial Number 001..... and
she is currently being toured all over the world by Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash.
When Andy picked her up, it was The Crowning Moment
of my career as this meant that my lifetime's ambition of building a
Flying V for Andy Powell had happened... which is
not what I would have expected... as dreams tend to be dreams... and we never
really usually come around to thinking that a dream could possibly become a
reality.
So, I count myself extremely lucky as an individual (and this would apply to
anyone in any career or vocation) that something that I had wished to do or
accomplish as a teenager would happen and also be a very successful part of my
career - and I was 44 at that time.
Since then I've made another Flying V for Andy (Chamille - the Cherry V) and
also a 'Chilkev' Bitocaster (Essentially a bolt on neck S-Type guitar) both
completed in 2004.
I have a few more projects to do for Andy and I've also perhaps got a couple of
projects in the process for other members of Wishbone Ash - we'll see.
So lets leave things here for now and perhaps I can say that the next part is... a work in progress.
So...
Please Go to the Royale Guitars
Page for some pix
and the continuation of the new venture.
2005
is the
25th
year since I built my first guitar - well I started three actually - 2 Acoustics
and an Electric...
...there are pictures of these in the
Royal Guitars/Early Days
section.
I am building a few commemorative guitars for my 25th anniversary year - there
will be information on these on the new
Royale Guitars
website which is mentioned below:
There is another website dedicated to the new venture
Royale Guitars where there will be more
information as the project matures.
You can get to this site by clicking the link below:
www.royaleguitars.com
THANKS
This is a page dedicated to all of those that I can think of right now that
have helped me over the last 25 years.
PERSONAL PART I
Back to Personal Pt 1