Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Guitar With Famous Previous Owner/s


BluesKing777

Recommended Posts

I dragged out Neil Young's video "Heart Of Gold" at the Ryman Auditorium to play tonight, but I had another sneak peak at Hank's D28 where Neil plays it on "This Old Guitar".

 

 

Phew (or Phew-eeeeeee). Great video, great, great recording, great gig, great band and all the rest.

 

 

Anyone here have a famous one?

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As some of you know from an old thread my 1939 J55 came from Jay Geils collection. He says he may have recorded with it but I can't imagine where. It's certainly not on "Freeze Frame". [biggrin] I have known Jay since 1964 when we went to Northeastern U in Boston. I was talking to him about looking for a vintage J45 when he told me he was selling the J55.

 

Rich

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I owned a Frank Gay ( Made in Edmonton Ab) Webb Pierce Acoustic ,, ended up selling it to The Country music hall of fame in nashville. Im noty sure if its still being displayed or if it was damaged in there flood they had a while back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We traded several guitars with Norman Blake in 2005. We ended up with three -- c. 1895 Almcrantz, c.1930 Larson Brothers, and 1934 00-40H. All of these were used for recording, but I would say only the 00-40H was "famous" because Norman used it heavily for a bunch of years. Here they are:

 

guitarss.jpg

 

nf.jpg51Q3JD0RYVL._SY300_.jpg

normans.jpg

 

We also have a 37 RSSD we bought on ebay -- after we bought it, the seller said it had once belonged to Garnet Rogers, the Canadian folk singer and brother of Stan Rogers.

 

smecks.jpg

 

It is this one.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTaG9vQKs6I

 

Let's pick,

 

-Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rich,

I remember seeing that guitar on eBay a while ago along with some other of his instruments. It had a thinned down neck, right? How do you find that affects the feel and playability of it?

 

Phil

Phil

 

That was the J-100 he was selling at the same time. It had many mods and he advised the J-55 was a much better deal. The J-55 is original other than having been re finished a "long time ago". It was done before he had it and he had it for quite a while. Both of the guitars were listed with "Mr. Music" in the Boston area which is owned in part by a friend of his. I bought the J-55 directly from Jay.

 

The J-55 is nice, but honestly my Sherly Crow SJ sounds better to me. I'm going to change strings on the J-55 today and see if that helps.

 

Rich

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a very nice Ibanez FA-800 that was a prototype for The Ibanez GB20. This guitar was owned by George Benson for three years before he sent it back to Hoshino for the updated prototype he eventually approved. I also have a J-45 that Bob Dylan owned. His guitar tech sent it to Gibson for repair and they replaced it with a new guitar. I bought it from Gibson as one of my friends said they were going to band saw it. The G.M. sold it to me. Most of the folks from the "Homecoming" have played it when they come to Bozeman.

 

One of my Advanced Jumbos was owned by Vince Gill and the other was owned by Ricky Skaggs. They came back for repair and were replaced and I bought them as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, but back in the days when gigging and hanging out with John Prine in Chicago, he played my '72 Guild F-30R many times, as did Greg Lake of Emerson Lake and Palmer who wanted to buy it. I think Steve Goodman played it once when showing me a new song he was working on at a show we were doing. So....not owned by, but touched and played by. :)

 

Interesting stories by others here and I look forward to hearing more. Now how cool would it be to play....or even touch Hank's D-28.

 

DC

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never snagged an instrument from anybody known outside of a small circle of musicians. Several "famous" folks like John Hammond, Jr. David Bromberg, and Jay Unger have played one of mine though. A long time back Rev. Gary Davis even once played one of my guitars.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a very nice Ibanez FA-800 that was a prototype for The Ibanez GB20. This guitar was owned by George Benson for three years before he sent it back to Hoshino for the updated prototype he eventually approved. I also have a J-45 that Bob Dylan owned. His guitar tech sent it to Gibson for repair and they replaced it with a new guitar. I bought it from Gibson as one of my friends said they were going to band saw it. The G.M. sold it to me. Most of the folks from the "Homecoming" have played it when they come to Bozeman.

 

One of my Advanced Jumbos was owned by Vince Gill and the other was owned by Ricky Skaggs. They came back for repair and were replaced and I bought them as well.

 

That Dylan J-45 is really banged up and scarred but is actually a pretty great sounding guitar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I dragged out Neil Young's video "Heart Of Gold" at the Ryman Auditorium to play tonight, but I had another sneak peak at Hank's D28 where Neil plays it on "This Old Guitar".

 

 

Phew (or Phew-eeeeeee). Great video, great, great recording, great gig, great band and all the rest.

 

 

Anyone here have a famous one?

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

 

In case anyone is interested?, here is the Hank 28 from the show above, but I don't know why the video has German subtitles.....hang on to your hat for the tone, tone, tone of this one.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCiGbOW9QTE

 

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not terribly famous folk but I once owned a Hofner Beatle bass that was owned by Marshall Crenshaw (played Buddy Holly in the movie La Bamba, was in Beatlemania and had a few minor hits):

 

1a2b4aa95f92364faa08f7d1018eb607.jpg

 

and a 69 Tele Thinline that was owned by Narvel Felts:

 

$_12.JPG

 

I currently own a guinea pig 1958 Gibson C6 that R&D in Kalamazoo used to apply a weird polyester Vox-like finish to. They gave it to banjoist Eddie Collins and I bought it from his son. Here he is with Eddie Peabody:

 

EddiePBanjoline.jpg

 

I did some repair work on an ES-5 for a guy who was in the 80s incarnation of Bill Haley's Comets. That was cool.

 

The exact opposite of the subject, but I gave an old Goya electric to David Lindley back in '84.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In case anyone is interested?, here is the Hank 28 from the show above, but I don't know why the video has German subtitles.....hang on to your hat for the tone, tone, tone of this one.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCiGbOW9QTE

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

Man oh man: two great performers, two great guitars, one great song. Love Emmylou's CW. Not sure I've seen her with it before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bought my J-45 owned by David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and my J-200 from the wizard RF. The J-45 was stolen from DH, recovered in the back of a truck on the LA Freeway, large (now repaired) side crack. Sounds great and is the most funnest guitar to play. The other required a bit of arm twisting. Its a phenomenal example of a loud, chimey trebles with strong bass and mids J-200 Standard. A great strummer. Stands out in a crowd. Though I rarely use a pick, I find that the thin ones (60?) sound best on the 200, and thick ones on the 45 (2.00)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well, it's not the D-28, but here is a picture of me playing Hank's D-18. It lives in the museum at Martin Guitar.

 

 

HankD18_zps9f54b2bc.jpg

 

 

Keith, that's about as cool as it gets! You wonder what songs may have been written on that guitar...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not a guitar but I used to own one of Gene Krupa's snare drums.

I'm guessing some of the younger folks here don't know who I'm talking about.

Gene was a friend of my dads and arguably one of the best drummers ever to hold a pair of sticks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

well, it's not the D-28, but here is a picture of me playing Hank's D-18. It lives in the museum at Martin Guitar.

 

 

HankD18_zps9f54b2bc.jpg

 

 

 

There have been some big names mentioned above, but Modoc has the photo evidence!

 

 

Big Hank fan here, too!

 

 

(There are a lot more Hank fans than you realise - I was at a large outdoor winery concert and before the bands started, they were playing the usual pop drivel over the PA. Everyone was ignoring it and talking loudly amongst themselves. Fogerty was on later and he must have said to the road crew...."Put something better on, will you?"

 

'Honkytonkin' sounded sensational through the outdoor rig and people stopped talking and some started dancing!)

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not a guitar but I used to own one of Gene Krupa's snare drums.

I'm guessing some of the younger folks here don't know who I'm talking about.

Gene was a friend of my dads and arguably one of the best drummers ever to hold a pair of sticks.

 

 

Gene Krupa was the Keith Moon of his day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yes, i was VERY fortunate to have played that one. I was at the Martin plant on a business trip. they pointed out the guitar. I mentioned that since my store is in Alabama (the home of Hank) many of my customers would be jealous of me because I was able to see this guitar. Then the guy asked me in a very casual way, "do you want to play it?" it was a stupid question! of course i wanted to play it! Haha! he called for the keys to the display case and there i was holding history! For the record, it was exactly as you would hope.... it stank of beer and cigarettes. one of the nastiest guitars i have ever held. but it was Hank's! and i would expect no less! it actually had good strings on it and i played a few tunes. Man, it really was a good sounding guitar.

 

after that, we went through the Martin museum and we kept the keys with us. I could go on and on about all of the cool stuff i got to play. nothing was off limits. An amazing day to say the least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a 1954 J-185 that was owned by Jumping Bill Carlisle.

 

I also have pictures of Doc Watson and Leo Kottke playing a guitar that I built for David Holt.

 

I can't get any more pictures to load. It says that I have met my quota of 500K.

 

James

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...