Don Mackie's Guitar

This is Don's guitar. It is a 1930s vintage Radiotone. Clearly he did not take it with him during his service with 14AOD, as it does not appear in any of the photos of the band. It had a very high action which made it quite difficult to play; in later years Don played mainly a nylon-string guitar which was much kinder on the fingers. When he died in 1982, my mother was reluctant to part with it, so it spent 22 years at the bottom of a wardrobe. When I retrieved it, it was not in the best condition. The back had started to split from the sides, there was a nasty crack on the front, the tailpiece was broken and the pick guard had crumbled. I took it to Graham Noden, who has a repair workshop in the basement of Andy's Guitar Shop in Denmark Street, London. Graham did an excellent job of restoring it and I think it now plays much better than I remember it when dad was alive. You can read more about Graham here
http://www.andysguitarnet.com/about-us/about-us.html