Pat Barret’s Gibson

During our first time serving at Big Church Festival (2018) we noticed 2 guitars in Carlton Cases sitting in the corner of our tent. On further investigation, they were identified as Pat Barret’s Gibson acoustic guitars. We were told that he had already played and had quickly flown back to the States for a family commitment before he was playing at Big Church Festival North (near Manchester).

We kept looking at the guitars wondering whether Pat would mind if we opened the cases and took a look. We decided that he wouldn’t mind, so we opened the first case which held his black Gibson Customshop Hummingbird. Much to our surprise, we noticed that it had not been set up and that in fact, the action was so high near the sound hole, you could put your hand between the strings and the fingerboard! The neck was also far from being straight, and in fact, looked more like a roller coaster ride.

At this stage, it was decided (by us!) that we needed to assist Pat with this virtually unplayable guitar. The decision began a restoration of Pat’s guitar that took from May 2018 to August 2019. Every time we saw Pat at either Big Church Festival or David’s Tent during that time, he allowed us to keep tweaking the Gibson, so that eventually the neck became straight again. As a result, the sound and quality of tone greatly increased and the playability also improved. The straightening of the neck and lowering of the action to Pat’s requirements brought the guitar into a new dimension.