A 'young' Rod Godwin strutting his stuff and showing of his wonderful Vox AC30 amps  in the mid 60's. Prizes given for guessing the wherabouts

Spot Rod on the right of the above picture

Welcome to my website, or at least its beginning.

Hope to keep on top of it as I go along, with the help of 'Tricky Dicky' - aka Richard.

Well, I've been a working Guitarist now for 40 plus years and not only can I not quit this crazy business, I seem to be as interested in it now as I've ever been - how mad is that? (When Jigsaw quit the road in '81 I was 'idle' from Jan till April but my wife had clearly had enough and said "get out from under my feet", or something similar).

Initially I picked a guitar up 'cos my mate Seymour had one - he'd heard the Shadows - and I've have been 'Stroking the Strings' ever since. "Got my 1st real 6-string" he said!  Yes, and mine was a Hofner with the bottom two strings only on it.  I learnt 'Ghost Riders in the sky' that night, moving up the neck 'cos I couldn't move across it. I thought "this is cool, and not too difficult' (anything to avoid school stuff I guess). So the ball was rollin'.

Till then I'd only heard records that my sister Sue had bought, Jimmie Rodgers, Buddy Holly and the most memorable 'Diana by Paul Anka - now it was Bert & Hank that I wanted to hear. Soon sister Sue became my 'financial Backer' too, she not only seemed to encourage me, but she also signed the finance when I part-exchanged my blue plastic topped Futurama for a  Gretsch Country Gent guitar. £220.00 inc. case was a load of dosh in those days.  Dad said I should get a 'proper job' and stop 'wasting my time' - how many times has that been said to a young Muso?  (Sorry dad).

Times have changed dramatically since then. Starting out with the Hofner, we couldn't get proper wire-wound strings - there were 'tape-wound' of course, and 'Banjo' strings so we had to make up a suitable set from what we could get. How different to today's world where dealers throw anything and everything at us.

Fast-forward to 2012 and I'm a 'died in the wool'  Strat man, got my 1st Fender, circa 1968 when I had to sell my Gretsch to pay a Tax bill, there'd be more of that to come too!, Grrrrhhh! Used two Strats on the last CD and the new one - a custom shop relic & my trusty Strat-Plus. Sound fabulous with my ‘doctored’ 57 twin amp. Also used a Peavey Delta blues 2x10 and a new Genz-Benz Black Pearl 30 (very nice tool).  

Spot Rod on the left in the 70's group Jigsaw when they played greats like SkyHigh and If I have to go Away.

The band sadly disbanded in 1981.

Jon Fox, Rod's long time song writing partner can be seen peering over Rod shoulder probably at page 3. Des Dyer, the bands drummer can be seen in standing in the background and the late Clive Scott, Keyboard player in the foreground

Rod now with a few wrinkles still strutting his stuff, now with a 'proper' guitar

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