"I usually use a violin made in Mittenwald, Germany in 1840 by J. M. Knilling. It is signed in pencil on the iside of the belly. For a long time I thought it was French, but an accident on stage, clashing fiddle with Daevid Allen's guitar, meant that the front had to come off. That's when we found the signature. I bought it from Fred Bartley on Christmas Steps in Bristol, back in 1985. Fred believed it was a Lupot, but it's really quite a bit too clumsy for him! Sounds great, though. Thick deep red varnish, and lots of wear. It looks good too. I like its range of tones. It can growl, and it can sigh. Strong treble notes with rich dark bottom notes. Very powerful, and it amplifies well. Fred's shop was just round the corner from the Colston Hall in Bristol. This is the main concert hall in the city, and all the great violinists have played there. Fred told me that people like Kriesler and Heifetz used to visit him there, and he had asked all of them to play his 'Lupot'!
"Before this violin, I always played an older instrument, labelled Antonio Pandolfi, Venetiis 1740. It was given to me when I first started to play by a man whose father had bought it from Georges Chanot in Manchester in the last century. It has a dark sound, not unlike a viola. Not surprising, as the width between the f-holes is the same as that of a viola, about an inch more than you usually find on a violin. It has golden brown varnish, and a one-piece back, into which I put a soundpost crack when I was 13. I knocked it out of my hand with my bow, and it landed right on its bridge.
"I also use a modern violin by Colin Cross, made in 1998 in my present home town of Buxton. It's based on the 'Alard' Guarneri of 1742, which is in the Museum of Musical Instruments in Paris, in the Parc de la Villette. The original is very yellow, and has more deeply scooped fluting than mine. Last time I was in Paris, I went to see the 'Alard', but of all the hundreds of violins on display, it was the only one missing. I think it was being studied. I take Colin's fiddle with me when I go abroad, or sometimes just for a change. It has some similarites of tone to my Knilling, and works very well.
"As for my bows, I use two very different ones. The first is an early twentieth century unstamped silver mounted French bow, great for everything, good tone producer and very elegant, 61.5 g. The other is a heavier (64g) gold and tortoiseshell Arthur Bultitude. It's a massive bow, and draws a huge broad sound, but is less manipulable. It plays great ballads or funk. Good for choppy chords and hard playing, but no good for be-bop!
"My guitars are both Gibsons. The solid body is a 1988 Les Paul Studio Lite, which I found in the House of Guitars in Rochester, NY. It is very unusual, in that the pickups are humbuckers on their side! Also, it has a Steinberger tremolo, and a coil tap. It's all black, with ebony fingerboard (like a violin!), and dot pearls. When I was a teenager, I began to customise a Hofner Club 40 solid body, and this Paul is exactly what I was trying to turn the Hofner into.
"The other guitar is a 1969 ES 150DC. It's just like a 330, but three inches deep. Glen Tilbrook of Squeeze uses one, and a chap in MC 900ft Jesus has one sprayed gold. It sounds so gritty, a friend of mine reckoned it was posessed by the spirit of a dead bluesman! It feeds back a treat, but can also play mellow jazz sounds.
"My bass is called Sally (my father's name for her). I don't know just how old she is, but I think she's English from the turn of the nineteenth century. She was repaired by the great Manchester maker William Tarr in the mid 1800's. She was given to my father in a sack, and he and my mum put her back together like a jigsaw puzzle! Whenever Dad would pass by the bass he would sing out loud (on a descending major scale) 'Of all the girls who are so sweet, there's none like pretty Sally!'