THINKING about the amount of stuff we take to the USA…and the potential versatility of the ‘Dave Arcari signature’ guitar from National Reso-Phonic that we’ll be launching in California next week.

The result is the radical (for me!) idea that I use this guitar not just for both open tunings, but also for the songs in my set in standard tuning. And that means…carrying just one guitar!

I’d thought about it a month or two agoiand have come up with a slightly lighter version of my signature string set, but until now I’d thought about it as a ‘only if necessary’ scenario…I need to be brave and grab this by the balls and just do it!

Another factor in the decision in my idea of playing some of my set in an open D tuning rather than. open C. This would not only make the physical changing of tunings on stage easier, faster and more straightforward, but also make the string tension and pressure on the cone more consistent and therefore less prone to tuning issues.

Margaret’s not convinced, so I grab my old trigone that’s been strung with a test set of the new strings and run through some songs using open D, G and standard tunings. The strings are still relatively heavy and the standard tuning stuff a bit tough on my fingers, but it’s do-able and sounds good. Although fantastic for slide stuff, my current extremely heavy string gauges (.017 to .056 with a plain .026 for a third) don’t sound great played fingerstyle in regular tuning.

Bearing all that in mind I make up set lists for the USA tour dates – if I have time tomorrow I’ll run through an entire set to make sure it’s all feasible and works.

We start preparing the patches and baseball caps for the tour then I get back to the press/media stuff.

Like yesterday it’s slow progress but I do manage to set up an interview for a mid-West podcast for Thursday evening.

Its been raining all day but by late afternoon has lightened up a bit so I decide to brave the inevitable midge-storm and go a walk up the loch side and listen to a web design/strategy podcast.

Back home I good some burgers outside. There’s a local community trust meeting this evening and I’m short of time, so I use the gas grill and the burgers come out surprisingly good.

Onward to the meeting which is followed by some chat and a glass of red before we wander back home along the lochside.

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