LottonEn S-3

“It’s so easy to play and I don’t have to be too precious about it – it’s got some dinks in it for sure and that doesn’t bother me”

Ihave a lot of guitars at home and it’s a question of, when you’re touring, you don’t always have time in-between gigs or tours to really get back into another guitar that’s been in the case for a little while. You tend to pick up the guitar that you probably haven’t unpacked since the last gig but you know your stuff is in there, and you know it works, and you might want to change strings when you get to the hotel. But, basically, if you’re moving a lot, like I’ve been doing lately, you’re going to use a guitar that’s going to be easy to travel with, that’s not going to be too fragile.

“This guitar is made by a fine luthier in Finland; his name is Juha Lottonen. It’s got a redwood top and, as you can see, it has been pretty beat up. It’s even got some cracks that I need to actually get off the road to repair, but it’s holding up fine because it’s a very well-made guitar. But it’s so easy to play this guitar and I don’t have to be too precious about it – it’s got some dinks in it for sure and that doesn’t bother me. But I’ve played it a lot, so it’s really opened up.

“I need to have two guitars at least, because, you know, if you break a string you don’t want to be fooling around. Josh White can do it, he can entertain the audience, he can smoke a cigarette, keep playing the same song and tune. But I can’t do that, so if something happens, I need to be able to switch to another guitar.

“If I’m using two different tunings, basically if I do some tunes in open G, it’s nice to have the one guitar that I keep more or less there and don’t have to keep changing. So, yes, two guitars is minimal, three is better, four is best. I’m trying to find some cases that can carry two acoustic guitars in one – I’m probably going to have to get that custom made.”