QUIET STORM

For even the most devout worshipper at the altar of the electric guitar, there is something deeply personal about the connection between flesh, wood and string that occurs when playing a great acoustic instrument. The resonance, the spectral halo of harmonics that surrounds the notes, and the lack of places to hide – this is guitar playing at its most exposed, its most direct and its most visceral.

The strange events of 2020 have seen many of us reconnect with our acoustic guitars and come to appreciate them like never before. Although he’s best known for wielding his 1959 Les Paul Standard on such hard-rock anthems as Here I Go Again and , Bernie Marsden is no exception. Though he doesn’t consider himself an acoustic specialist and self-effacingly cites Martin Simpson as an example of a “real” acoustic guitar player, Bernie’s collection contains an array of spine-tingling vintage acoustics – and he certainly knows his way around them.