![]() ![]() Most of Neil Young’s electric work is done with Old Black – a 1953 Les Paul Goldtop that has been heavily customised over the years. The Twang Machine was styled after the rectangular cigar box guitars that he and other blues musicians had been playing, but was filled with state-of-the-art electronics.ĭiddley played The Twang Machine, and other oddly shaped guitars right up until his death in 2008 at the age of 79. In 1958, Diddley approached Gretsch requesting a custom, and The Twang Machine was born. These guitars later became known as cigar box guitars and are still popular among folk and blues musicians to this day. Micawber is still a go-to for Richards after all these years, and the butterscotch finish has become synonymous with the legendary rocker.īlues legend Bo Diddley was a pioneer in more ways than one, but made a name for himself playing rectangular guitars, the first being one that he built himself in 1945. Other mods include converting a brass bridge to a five-string tuning and taking out the low E string. ‘Brown Sugar’, ‘Honky Tonk Women’ and Before They Make Me Run’ are just a few of the legendary Rolling Stones songs that Keith Richards recorded on his Micawber 1950s Telecaster.Ī gift from Eric Clapton, it originally boasted a single coil pickup in the neck, but following the 1972 tour, Richards replaced it with a ‘50s Gibson PAF humbucker which he turned backwards so the magnet poles are facing the guitar’s tail end. It was used by Clapton almost exclusively for over a decade in hit recordings such as ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ and ‘Wonderful Tonight’. He bought six 1950s Stratocasters, and after giving one to George Harrison, Pete Townshend, and Steve Winwood, he took the best parts of the remaining three to Nashville luthier Ted Newman Jones, who assembled Blackie.Ĭlapton played Blackie for many years, until it was retired in 1985 due to issues with the neck. In the same year, Clapton found the Sho-Bud guitar shop in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1970, Clapton switched from Gibson to Fender, largely due to his influences of Jimi Hendrix and Blind Faith bandmate Stevie Winwood. King custom model based on his ES-335.īlackie is the nickname Clapton gave to his favourite Fender Strat. He went on to write a song called ‘Lucille’, in which he talks about how the guitar got the name, and released an album of the same name. It was evacuated, but once outside King had realised, he’d forgotten his beloved $30 Gibson, so he ran back into the burning building to retrieve it.Ī few days later it was revealed the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille, so upon learning this, King decided to coin the name for his guitars, as a reminder to never run into a burning building or get into a fight over a woman again. In those days, dance halls were often heated by a burning barrel of kerosene in the middle of the dance floor.ĭuring a performance, two drunken hooligans began to fight, eventually knocking the barrel over and setting fire to the hall. The name originated when King was playing a gig in Twist, Arkansas in 1949. King gave to his guitars – usually black Gibson models, like the ES-330 or ES-335. Lucille was the name legendary blues musician B.B. The guitar would go on to define his sound, used in the recording of his acclaimed albums Shotgun Willie, Red Headed Stranger, and Stardust. ![]() Twenty years later he named it after Roy Rogers’ horse ‘Trigger.’ Shot Jackson, a luthier in Nashville, Tennessee, offered Nelson the Martin N-20 classical guitar as a replacement, and Nelson bought it over the phone (unseen). ![]() In 1969, after a concert at Floore’s County Store in Helotes, Texas, a drunk man stood on Nelson’s Baldwin, breaking it beyond repair. Trigger is the Martin N-20 nylon-string acoustic played by country legend Willie Nelson. Read all the latest features, columns and more here. Here are 10 musicians with famous guitar names, and the incredible stories behind them. With this in mind, it’s not uncommon for them to give their guitars a name, they’re quite sentimental to a lot of them. When Jimi Hendrix set fire to his Strat at the Astoria Theatre in 1967, he said it was an act of love: “You sacrifice things you love… I love my guitar.” Musicians love their guitars – it’s like they’re a part of them. Words by Harry Connell From Trigger and Lucille, all the way through to the Red Special
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