Tonnie van der Heide, gitarist / guitar player

At about age 11 I started playing on my father’s tenor guitar, a guitar with only the four highest strings of a regular (6-string) guitar. My father, who was an electrician, built a pickup from a headphone; every now and then it would pick up radio signals from passing police cars. I used a travel record player as my amp. Then my father built me my first combo guitar amp.

My first 6 string guitar was a Hagström solid body guitar, with a glittering red finish, somewhat reminiscent of their accordions, see picture below on  the right hand side. As soon as I had finished my military service I bought a Gibson ES 175 DN, I had had my eyes on for years.