Well i'm always going on about 'biloo' or 'Maribelle' or other funny names so it's time you knew. These are my musical companions. These are my axes.
Biloo:
My beautiful K Yairi baritone guitar. This is something special. I had to search all over England and eventually go to Leiciester to find this guitar. And even then I just tried one that had aready been sold. I knew as soon as I played it though that it was perfect and put an order in for a new one on the spot. It took three months to arrive but was worth the wait. Made in Japan and beautifully crafted this is my main writing and live guitar. I need a baritone to suit the lower tunings that I like to use. I use lower tunings so that I can use the full range of my voice with the chord shapes that I like to play. For example playing a G shape chord on a guitar tuned to C Sharp puts my voice in just the right place. And I love the sound of a G shaped ring!
Maribelle:
The sweetest sounding guitar I have ever heard. A Martin D35 that was love at first hear for me and trouble ever since! It is a bit of a lady and a throuroughbread so needs tender playing and looking after. I've had intonation problems with it and the neck moves a lot. My playing is a bit brusque so I often loose my tuning on this guitar. But I tell you what - when I get this guitar right I have never heard a sweeter tone. It is a studio guitar and is worth every penny when I get these golden takes from it. I spent a while mucking around with different string weights, would have liked to use heavy, but this thing fought back. I need to use light's to get the most out of the sweet treble tones it has. At the moment it is in high strung Nashville tuning, and when layered over Biloo on recordings they combine for a brilliant and huge acoustic guitar sound.
Cassie:
Spent two intense weeks trawling London's electric guitar shops to find this Telecaster. I've wanted a tele for about ten years, but never had reason to buy a good electric guitar until I got into recording my songs for the album. What a gorgeous deep red colour! This was playing like a pig when I found it in the shop, but something about the way it sounded and the range of great tones I got from it on trial showed enough potential and I knew that a good techie could pull it into shape. It felt like it had been neglected because of the way it played and had been in the shop for quite a while. A rough diamond certainly, and it has rewarded me because it sounds so good and is so reliable!
Yamzin:
A Yamaha FG461 which was my first normal sized acoustic steel strung guitar. This guitar has aged beautifully and is my reserve low tuner in case Biloo develops a problem. A great all rounder, it has mellowed really nicely with age. Obviously built to a brilliant factory standard because it has taken a whole load of punishment and somehow stayed true to me!
Sinbad:
My second guitar and the one I played live and took on tour for many years. A Simon and Patrick 6 Cedar Cutaway, the top is varnished really lightly so the wood is open and has been scratched pretty heavily over the years and the look has a lovely tale to tell! Somehow it has remained in ok shape and has become a valuable studio weapon. Although it had a tendency to get moody and throw it's tuning. It has a really warm, and not very bright, classic 'strummy' sound so sits back really nicely in a mix when you need the acoustic guitar to be there but not dominate.
Baby T:
A really cute little Baby Taylor made of mahogany that I bought to travel with. Spruce looked nicer but this one sounded so much better (it looked kind of lonely as well!) You know what, this guitar might just be worth more than all the others put together because I have written so many of my songs on it, everywhere from sandy beaches, to Frisco bay, to gardens in France and cold but cosy cottages in Scotland! | 
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