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Robert Godin went deer hunting in 1972 and came back with a guitar factory instead of a buck. Today, the company that bears his name is one of the largest stringed-instrument manufacturers in North America, and counts legendary players like John McLaughlin and Steve Stevens among its endorsees.
By tapping into classic concepts yet constantly adding new ideas and refinements, Godin Guitars has grown into one of the largest manufacturers in North America over the last 40 years. With an annual production of 175,000 instruments across its six guitar brands—Godin, Seagull, Simon & Patrick, Art & Lutherie, Norman, and La Patrie—the company is most decidedly not a small guitar maker. Certainly not when compared to solitary luthiers toiling away in basements, attics, and backyard shops. Yet the company retains a smaller, more boutique feel as a result of its constant striving for innovation, improvement, and responsiveness to player needs. And those characteristics are a direct reflection of founder Robert Godin’s personal attitude toward instrument experimentation.
6-Point Buck or 6-String Factory?
In the early 1960s, amateur guitarists everywhere
were struggling to replicate the sounds
they heard on records. Among them was a
15-year-old Canadian named Robert Godin.
Like many others, he was fascinated by the
tones of the Ventures and the Beatles, but he
found the majority of instruments available
to him weren’t suited to those styles. While
working at Harmony Lab, a Montreal music
store, Godin began experimenting with different
string gauges, employing banjo strings on
guitars, and modifying other instrument components.
His innovations garnered praise and
word-of-mouth testimonials amongst local
guitar players. Gradually, that fan base grew to
musicians from cities all across Canada.
“He ended up becoming the place [to get mods],” says Mario Biferali, sales and marketing manager at Godin Guitars. “He had people coming from as far away as Toronto and Quebec City. Toronto is, like, five hours away! People talked, ‘Oh, there’s a place to go … he’ll make that guitar scream.’”
Godin worker Daniel Picard operating a drill press at the La Patrie guitar factory in the mid 1970s.
Godin acquired a Conn Strobotuner, a gadget that he feels was the first in Canada, and that one purchase led to a major career realization for the young luthier.
“In the old days, tuners were the size of a refrigerator and cost thousands of dollars,” says Robert Godin—still president of the company that bears his name. “I was doing intonations on guitars and realized that guitars needed many modifications to get the sound I was looking for. That’s what really got me started on my dream of creating a guitar truly built with the player in mind.”
On a hunting trip in 1972, Godin came across the factory for Norman Windows—a wooden-frame window manufacturer that, strangely enough, also dabbled in guitars. Norman’s 6-string efforts had been disappointing, but Godin became convinced he could improve the instruments. Shortly after returning home from his travels, he solidified plans to take over the factory and focus on building the guitars of his dreams.
“Everyone else on the hunting trip came home with a deer,” Godin joked in a 2011 interview with Music Trades. “I came home with a guitar factory.” To this day, the Norman guitar line still honors the window-manufacturing facility where it all started.
In It to Innovate
As you’d expect, those early years were challenging
for Godin as he loaded up a van and began crisscrossing Canada in an effort to
establish personal relationships with guitar
stores. It didn’t help that some of his ideas
were kind of out-there. In fact, from the
beginning, many of Godin’s designs have
been unusual enough that the average player
expecting traditional appointments and
construction needed to have the concept
explained in order to fully appreciate it.
For example, one of Godin’s earliest breakthroughs—using thinner finishes so that his
instruments sounded and felt livelier—was
so simple that it’s a no-brainer by today’s
standards. But back then, most instruments
featured a heavy, shiny finish that seemed to
prioritize looks over tones.
The 40th Anniversary
Acousticaster commemorates
the instrument that put Godin
on the map. It still uses the 18
tuned metal tines under the
bridge to get its unique tones,
but it’s now available with a koa
(shown) or rosewood top. Sales
and marketing manager Mario
Biferali wanted to reissue the instrument
as is, but “Robert was
like, ‘No man, let’s slap a new
pickup in there—let’s bring it
to the year 2013!’ Even when
we do something historical,
we crank it up a notch.”
“He was getting more sound out of it,” says Biferali, “but it was hard, because everybody would say, ‘Man, I love your guitars but, dude, finish that thing!’ It wasn’t shiny—it wasn’t even semi-gloss. It was literally satin [finished]. They’re walking into a guitar store, trying to sell what people thought was an unfinished guitar—but after the dealers heard the guitars, they’d be convinced.”
Those seemingly plain finishes were an early hallmark of Godin’s Seagull brand—that and the trademark narrow, tapered headstock that makes them easy to spot from a distance. Like the satin finish, the headstock shape was a practical decision: Godin chose it because it facilitates straight string pull and purportedly minimizes neck torque. He felt the latter was a particular boon due to the growing interest in alternate tunings.
Another early breakthrough was the Godin Acousticaster, which has 18 tuned metal tines mounted under the bridge to create its unusual sound. “There were a bunch of electric players that wanted an acoustic sound,” says Bifareli. “That’s how the Acousticaster differentiated itself. Here’s this thin, Telecaster-looking guitar with an electric guitar neck. But wow, it sounds acoustic when you close your eyes!” The company recently released a 40th Anniversary version of the Acousticaster that includes either a rosewood or a koa top.
Godin’s acoustic-electric Multiac
Inuk Ambiance HG features 11 strings, including
fi ve unison pairs, is derived from the
popular Multiac Multioud Ambiance Steel—which is based on the Middle Eastern oud.
Its chambered mahogany body is mated to
a solid spruce top, a mahogany neck, ebony
fretboard and bridge, and a Fishman Aura
Pro system with 3-band EQ, tuner, blend
and volume knobs, and four selectable
sound images.
Like the plainly finished and unadorned Seagull tops, the Godin Multiac series took some time to catch on among players and music-store owners. Today’s Duet Ambiance models feature Fishman Aura electronics driven by an undersaddle transducer. And the SA (synth access) models utilize an RMC Poly-Drive pickup and transducer-equipped saddles under each string. Producing a wide range of tonal options, the instruments are easily identifiable visually by the sliders and controls on the upper bout.
“Even the Multiac—one of our biggest success stories to date—wasn’t, like, an immediate ‘Okay, I get it,’” says Bifareli. “It was something that had to be explained. We did a lot of product training on it. But with the sliders on the face, that’s just logic. Why put the knobs closer to the bottom when you can keep your eyes on the knobs and the neck if they’re closer to the top?”
Over time, Multiacs have gained a solid following and are some of Godin’s most well-known guitars. And locating the controls on their upper bouts has carried over to numerous other Godin models. The design has proven so successful, in fact, that there are 23 nylon- and steel-string models in the Multiac range, including the brand’s innovative take on ouds and ukuleles.
Mondo MIDI
Today, the Godin brand arguably might
be most well known for its extensive use
of MIDI-compatible technologies and
components. Once again, this characteristic
grew out of Robert Godin’s insatiable
hunger for innovation and doing
things differently. He experimented with different woods and setups, identifying what worked well and what didn’t. For
example, the harder density of an ebony
fretboard made the fundamental note
emerge quicker, allowing it to track and be detected by the synth more efficiently. Bolton necks also proved to be more effective because they yielded less resonance—which
can often confuse a synth that’s trying to
accurately track a pitch.
The LGX-SA appeals to both
traditional S-style and LP-style fans with its
25 1/2" scale, maple-on-mahogany wood
complement, and dual Duncan humbuckers,
and to that already-potent mix it adds undersaddle
transducers and switching that yield both
impressive acoustic sounds and the ability to tap
into limitless synth-powered tones.
That heritage of solid connections to MIDI technology has become a calling card for the brand, and a reason why many guitarists continue to pick up their instruments. Steve Stevens—guitarist for Billy Idol, Kings of Chaos, and others—has used Godin for more than a decade. Today, he counts 12 Godin instruments in his collection, but it was the MIDI capability that caused him to originally approach the company at a NAMM show. Initially he was skeptical that a nylon-string guitar could track MIDI but he’d heard of the company’s instruments and introduced himself.
“I had come off the road with Vince Neil and was getting ready to do a flamenco-based record,” says Stevens, “and I needed a nylon-string guitar. But I was also going to be encompassing some dance elements and drum loops and things like that. When I found out there was a nylon guitar that I could trigger synths with, I was all over that. Having that Godin guitar really helped me do Flamenco A Go Go [Stevens’ 2000 solo album] in a big way.”
Dennis Davis, director of guitar studies and coordinator of music technology studies at Eastern Kentucky University, shares Stevens’ opinion of the unusual compositions, tones, and textures that Godin’s MIDI instruments facilitate.
For the last several years, iconic fusion guitarist John McLaughlin has favored a Godin Passion RG-2 onstage. The 25 1/2"-scale double-cutaway
features a bound spruce body with a figured-maple top, a hard-rock maple neck with a 12"-radius rosewood fretboard, the company’s Tru-Loc tremolo,
custom Godin humbuckers, and synth-access circuitry.
Genesis guitarist Daryl Stuermer onstage with his Montreal Premiere and a Multiac Nylon SA waiting in the wings (bottom right).
“Godin makes classical and jazz guitars that let me use MIDI input,” Davis says. “It’s a lot of fun to perform classical works using a piano sound or using the marimba sound or to play a jazz solo on electric guitar using a flute sound. It really changes the way I think creatively and interpretively.”
Stevens adds, “Man, their guitars are just rock solid—they’re roadworthy, and I’ve not found a company that really puts that much love and attention into the nylon-string instrument as Godin does. There are other companies that build nylon-string guitars—and some might even do MIDI—but right from the get-go, Godin put a lot of attention into nylon instruments.”
Dedicated Factories
Based entirely in North America, Godin Guitars has five factories in Quebec and one in New Hampshire. The factories are dedicated to building specific instruments entirely, as opposed to making necks in one place and bodies in another, and then assembling everything in yet another. This focus provides an overall understanding of the craftsmanship that goes into each guitar they build rather than silo-ing workers into a single component. The facilities are also located in smaller cities, which breeds more long-term employees and a family-like atmosphere.
“Some people stared with Robert 40 years ago,” says sales and marketing manager Mario Biferali. “Their wife and kids work there—it’s more of an old-school mentality where you go there, you work hard, and you build a life with this company.”
But Godin has also attracted a burgeoning following with its solidbody instruments, and it’s been energized by a number of high-profile players, including John McLaughlin, Marcus Miller, Brian May, Ritchie Blackmore, Bruce Cockburn, Peppino D’Agostino, and many more. Steve Stevens uses a 25 1/2"-scale single-cutaway LGXT with humbuckers when performing a number of Billy Idol songs live. “I use that for things like ‘Eyes Without a Face’ and ‘Flesh for Fantasy,’” Stevens says. “All my trem-bar kind of stuff.”
Daryl Stuermer, guitarist for Genesis and Phil Collins, is also a fan of the LGXT. His relationship with the brand dates back to a 2004 tour when Phil Collins’ bass player introduced him to Godin executives. Now when he hits the road, he takes the LGXT, a Godin Multiac Steel, and a Montreal Premiere. “I originally wanted a good electric guitar that would let me switch from an electric sound to a good acoustic sound,” he says. “The other bonus is that it has a 13-pin output for synth.” All the instruments remain pretty well stock to the way they are sold in the store. “I changed one LGXT and left the other one stock. It was more aesthetic than anything: I put on Schaller M6 tuners, chrome volume and tone knobs, and a chrome toggle switch. Other than that, they are fairly straight ahead.”
Canadian Ingredients and
Craftsmanship
A recent addition to Godin’s line is the
Montreal Premiere, a thinline semi-hollowbody
that takes acoustic guitar principles
and incorporates them into an electric
instrument. Many similar instruments
feature a center block of solid wood all
the way down the middle. However, the
Montreal Premiere takes Canadian wild
cherry top, back, and sides, and merges
them with a “breathe-through carved
spruce core” that only touches at the
specific pressure points demanded by structural
integrity. From a distance, the Premiere
appears to be a classy, fairly traditional
guitar. But inside, a surprising amount of
technical advancement is apparent.
“It looks like a bridge—it has these arches inside,” says Biferali. “So what happens is that there is more acoustic resonance because the air column is bigger. It’s extremely light, extremely advanced, and that’s why you can get the same dynamics as an acoustic—because your pickup is only going to get what the guitar is giving it. It’s like having a $10,000 microphone but if the singer can’t sing, it’s not going to help.”
Besides demonstrating how Godin incorporates its acoustic expertise in its electric products, the Montreal Premiere exemplifies the company’s use of local wood supplies. “Some of the wood we use to build our guitars is literally less than a kilometer from our factories,” says Bifareli. “The maple and the silver leaf and the spruce—it’s right here. Our artisans have grown up in the woods, knowing how to dry wood, knowing how to cut the wood.”
The Montreal Premiere is built within a section of the factory called the Godin Premiere Atelier—a sort of boutique shop or mini factory within the larger production facilities in Richmond, Quebec. Dedicated to achieving the heights of craftsmanship, the Atelier features a hand-selected staff of less than 10 employees identified specifically for special projects. The Passion RG-2 and RG-3 S-style instruments are also constructed in this high-end laboratory where craft takes precedence over economics.
Godin’s 40th Anniversary Party at Winter NAMM 2013. BACK (L to R): Jimmy Papadimitrios, Richard
Bunze, Norm Arduini, Janet Godin, Robert Godin, Craig Skala, Marc Lamarre, Robert Richer, Franco
Contrino, Daniel Fiocco. FRONT (L to R): Patrick Godin, Simon Godin, Katherine Calder-Becker, Fred
DiSanto, Mario Biferali.
Fundamentals and New Ground
Godin’s electric lines benefit from being
familiar, yet different. Stylistically, they’re
recognizable yet reserved and free of cliché.
The bodies—whether single-cutaway, double-cutaway, or another shape—follow lines
associated with iconic instruments, but the
brand’s new interpretations of those tried-and-true ideas have helped the company
carve out its own niche.
“When you pick up a Les Paul, you play it a certain way,” says Biferali. “And then you pick up a Tele and, all of a sudden, you think you’re in Nashville, right? With a Strat, you end up pulling out your Jimi Hendrix riffs. I find that Godin allows the artist to shine through because it doesn’t have any preconceived notions of what it is supposed to be.”
Godin works hard to strike a balance between breaking new ground while also being rooted in proven fundamentals. “We push, we push, we push, and then we reel it back in,” says Biferali.
Harkening back to the brand’s early days when Robert Godin himself was driving a van around the country, selling to guitar stores, Godin continues to listen to musician feedback and provide instruments that ignore conventional wisdom and preconceptions. After more than 50 years in the business, the man who started it all continues to be inspired to innovate by the sounds he loves from around the globe. “When I travel, I love to collect world instruments,” Godin says. “The folk instruments from all the many world cultures truly fascinate me.”
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Guitarist, songwriter and bandleader Grace Bowers will independently release her highly anticipated debut album, Wine On Venus, August 9.
The new album adds to a breakout year for Bowers, who was recently selected as a U.S. Global Music Ambassador as part of the U.S Department of State and YouTube’s Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, is nominated for Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2024 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards and will make her debut performance on the legendary Grand Ole Opry on her eighteenth birthday, July 30, 2024. Other performances this year include shows supporting Slash, The Red Clay Strays and Brothers Osborne as well as stops at Levitate Music & Arts Festival, Floyd Fest, Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion, Bourbon & Beyond, XPoNential Music Festival and Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival. See below for complete tour itinerary.
Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge - Tell Me Why U Do That (Official Video)
Produced by John Osborne (Brothers Osborne), Wine On Venus captures the electric energy of Bowers’ live performances with The Hodge Podge. The record consists of nine soul-infused tracks including a new version of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Dance to the Music” as well as previously release single, “Tell Me Why U Do That,” of which Forbes praises, “an infectious, joyous party and a worthy introduction to Bowers.” Additionally, The Bluegrass Situation declares, “an exceptional breakout talent who seems primed for a long career to come,” while RIFF Magazine calls her “The next generation’s star of American rock, blues and funk guitar.”
Of the record, Bowers shares, “I’m so excited to share my first album with the world in August! It’s been a long time coming, and I’m proud of what was created with the incredible Hodge Podge and John Osborne producing. We recorded everything live, as it should be, for this sonic journey. I hope you love it as much as I do.”
Additionally, of the title track, she reflects, “My nana was 100 years old when she passed away last year. She would always tell me that when she died, she would be drinking wine on Venus. She was a little eccentric but thought that was just something so cool. When she passed, I wrote a song about it.”
In addition to Bowers (guitar), the record features Joshua Blaylock (keys), Brandon Combs (drums), Eric Fortaleza (bass), Esther Okai-Tetteh (vocals) and Prince Parker (guitar) as well as songwriting collaborations with respected artists such as Ben Chapman, Meg McRee, Maggie Rose and Lucie Silvas.
Originally from the Bay Area and now calling Nashville home, Bowers began garnering attention after sharing videos of herself playing guitar on social media during the pandemic. In the years since, she’s been featured on “CBS Mornings” in a piece focused on a new wave of young female guitarists, performed alongside Dolly Parton as part of her Pet Gala special on CBS, joined Lainey Wilson as part of CBS’ New Year’s Eve Live celebration, performed as part of the “Men’s Final Four Tip-Off Tailgate Presented by Nissan” and been sought after by everyone from Devon Allman to Tyler Childers and Susan Tedeshi to Kingfish. Of her 2023 Newport Folk Festival debut, Rolling Stone declared, “Her 20-minute performance gave the distinct sense that everyone lucky enough to have attended was witnessing a star in the making,” while The Tennessean calls her “a 17 year old Blues guitar prodigy,” with a, “heart as big as her talent is vast.”
Most recently this summer, Bowers performed alongside Billy Idol at the Fired Up For Summer benefit concert and raised $30,000 for MusiCares and Voices for a Safer Tennesseewith her 2nd Annual “Grace Bowers & Friends: An Evening Supporting Love, Life & Music” benefit show. With the release of Wine On Venus (distributed by The Orchard), Bowers will further establish herself as one of music’s most intriguing new artists.
For more information, please visit gracebowers.com.
Johnny Cash on the front porch of the Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Cash initially shelved the album in 1993, but now his son, John Carter Cash, has spearheaded a project to revamp and release the recordings, with the help of Marty Stuart, Dan Auerbach, Vince Gill, and other notables. Read on to get the details and see a gallery of vintage instruments and other artifacts from the Cash Cabin studio.
“The Man Comes Around” is a much-played song from the final album Johnny Cash recorded before his death in 2003, American IV: The Man Comes Around. Now, the Man in Black himself has come around again, as the voice and soul of a just-released album he initially cut in 1993, titled Songwriter.
For fans who know Cash only through his much-loved American Recordings series, this is a very different artist—healthy, vital, his signature baritone booming, his acoustic playing lively, percussive, and focused. This is the muscular Johnny Cash heard on his career-defining recordings, from his early Sun Records sides like “Cry! Cry! Cry!” and “Folsom Prison Blues” to “Ring of Fire” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” to later, less familiar hits like “The Baron” and “That Old Wheel.” In short, classic Cash—the performer who became an international icon and remains one 21 years after his death.
In addition to theSongwriter album, it’s also worth noting that there is a new documentary, June, that puts June Carter Cash’s life and under-sung cultural legacy in perspective. Johnny wasn’t the only giant in this family. Just the biggest one.
“I think it’s important to support my father’s legacy in the world in which we live,” says John Carter Cash, who, in addition to his own work as an artist, is the primary caretaker of his family’s estimable body of work.
I recently visited the Cash Cabin—a log cabin recording studio on the Cash family property in Hendersonville, Tennessee, that was originally built as a sanctuary where Johnny wrote songs and poetry—with PG’s video team of Chris Kies and Perry Bean—to talk about Songwriter with John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash. [Go to premierguitar.com for the full video.] In this shrine of American music, Johnny Cash recorded most of the American Recordings series, and many others, from Loretta Lynn to Jamey Johnson, have tracked here. It’s also where John Carter Cash and co-producer David “Fergie” Ferguson took apart the original Songwriter sessions and put them back together, stronger, with musical contributions by Marty Stuart, Dan Auerbach, Vince Gill, a blue ribbon rhythm team of the late bassist Dave Roe and drummer Pete Abbott, backing vocalists Ana Christina Cash and Harry Stinson, percussionist Sam Bacco, guitarists Russ Pahl, Kerry Marx, and Wesley Orbison, keyboardist Mike Rojas, and John Carter himself. Johnny’s vocals and acoustic rhythm guitar, and guest vocals by Waylon Jennings on two songs, are all that was saved from the 1993 sessions, cut at LSI studios in Nashville.
In addition to getting the lowdown on Songwriter from John Carter Cash, he showed us some of the iconic guitars—including original Johnny Cash lead guitarist Luther Perkins’ 1953 Fender Esquire and a Martin that was favored by the Man himself—that dwell at the busy private studio. [Go to the video at premierguitar.com for an eyeful.]
Only 44 of these Rosanne Cash signature model OM-28s were made by Martin. John Carter Cash says it’s his favorite guitar to play, and he and house engineer Trey Call attest that it’s probably the most frequently chosen instrument by guests recording in the studio.
Photos by Perry Bean
Only Johnny Cash’s original vocal and guitar tracks, and Waylon Jennings’ performances, were kept from the 1993 sessions. Marty Stuart, Vince Gill, Dave Roe, Dan Auerbach, and others contributed new tracks.
Speaking about Songwriter, John explains, “In some ways, these recordings fell through the cracks. I was in some of the sessions and can hear my guitar on some of the original recordings.” Dave Roe was also on those initial sessions, but he’d just started to play upright bass and didn’t have the finesse he lends to the revamped album.
The idea with Songwriter, John Carter relates, wasn’t to do anything more with the music than make it stronger. His dad was initially unhappy with the overall playing on the LCI recordings. “We didn’t add elements to make it about the ‘now’ or more ‘Americana’ or whatever,” he says.
The amp room at the Cash Cabin studio has some small but potent combo treasures.
Photos by Perry Bean
Nonetheless, Songwriter does take the Cash legacy to some new places, including the realm of psychedelia. Although the song “Drive On,” about a trucker who survived the Vietnam war with internal and exterior scars, was written for the 1993 sessions, it debuted in 1994 as part of the American Recordings album. The Songwriter treatment is radically different, from the panned amp, beating with tremolo, that opens the song to the concluding lysergic odyssey of 6-string provided by John Carter and Roy Orbison’s son, Wesley. It might well appeal to Johnny, who was a musical maverick—insisting that then-controversial figures like Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger, as well as a just-emerging Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt, appear on the ABC network’s The Johnny Cash Show, which aired from 1969 through 1971.
This is June Carter Cash’s piano—an antique Steinway upright that still earns its keep as one of the studio’s active instruments. Nothing in the Cabin is a museum piece.
Photos by Perry Bean
John Carter, who is a singer-songwriter and producer, and is currently at work on his own fourth solo album, notes that the sonically spacious Songwriter opener “Hello Out There” resonates with him most, emotionally, as its lyrics balance the possible end of humanity with a message of hope. But every song on the album brims with empathy and kindness in strong measure. “Like a Soldier,” which blends Johnny’s patented guitar thrum with an introspective story about his battles with addiction, and “She Sang Sweet Baby James,” about a struggling single mother singing the James Taylor song to comfort her infant, are two more examples. And the guitars are always prominent, whether they’re Russ Pahl’s steel providing ambient textures or Marty Stuart’s hard-charging country licks, which breathe fire into the album.
A stained-glass portrait of Mother Maybelle Carter with her autoharp. Mother Maybelle invented a style of guitar playing, where melody was executed on the bass strings and rhythm on the high strings, that influenced Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, and a host of other famed pickers.
Photos by Perry Bean
For Stuart, who toured with Johnny Cash for six years and played on many of the Man in Black’s recordings, the experience of working on the retooled Songwriter, as well as his time with the senior Cash, was “mystical—everything about him was mystical. Even after I left his band, anytime the chief called, I was available. To the day he passed away, he was the boss. So when John Carter called and said he needed guitar on some of his dad’s tracks, I went over there. It’s so natural to hear that voice in the headphones. What I always loved about playing against him is that his voice is like an oak tree. You can put anything you want next to it, and it still stands out.”
From father to son: On his 10th birthday, Johnny Cash drew John Carter Cash this chord diagram for “I Walk the Line.”
Photos by Perry Bean
The exterior of the Cash Cabin—one of the sacred places of American music and still a busy working studio.
Photos by Perry Bean
This 1953 Fender Esquire belonged to Luther Perkins, who was a member of Cash’s first recording bands and played on all of the Man in Black’s foundational recordings for Sun Records—likely with this guitar.
Photos by Perry Bean
Stuart’s instruments of choice for Songwriter were a ’50s Telecaster owned by Clarence White that bears the first B-bender, a 1939 Martin D-45 that Cash used on his ’60s/early ’70s TV show and gifted to Stuart, and a silver-panel Fender Deluxe, in addition to John Carter’s ’59 Les Paul, another of Johnny’s old Martins, and a baritone that resides at the Cabin. And Stuart’s focus was getting back to the template of Cash’s original Tennesse Two and Tennessee Three bands, and the guitar style created by Luther Perkins, Stuart’s first guitar hero. “They had their own language, and it’s a foundational sound inside of me,” he says. “With Johnny’s voice and the thumb of his right hand on the guitar as a guide, that architecture was all there. I heard the album the other day for the first time, and I thought, ‘Man, John Carter and David Ferguson worked their hearts out to honor the real sound.’”
John Carter Cash bought this 1959 Gibson Les Paul at Gruhn’s in Nashville. It has a neck that is atypically slim for its vintage and appears as part of the psychedelic guitar interplay on the Songwriter song “Drive On.”
Photos by Perry Bean
John Carter Cash remembers this Martin 40 H from his childhood as the guitar Johnny kept around the house to play on a whim or when he was chasing a song idea. The year is unknown, but as a guitar that Johnny Cash played, it is priceless.
Photos by Perry Bean
Here’s the headstock of the Stromberg that Mother Maybelle Carter used on the road while touring with Johnny Cash and her daughters. Her main guitar, dating back to the first recordings of country music, which she made as part of the Carter Family, was a Gibson L-5, but she judged this instrument hardier for travel.
Photos by Perry Bean
Fishing was a favorite pastime of the Cash family. This is June Carter Cash’s fishing reel and tackle box—one of the many personal and historic items in the cabin.
Photos by Perry Bean
When Johnny Cash completed his novel about the apostle Paul, titled Man in White, he commemorated the occasion by scratching his initials and the day into the arm of the studio’s rocking chair—his favorite place to sit.
“In so many ways,” John Carter allows, “my father is always with me. People everywhere still love my father’s music. For instance, a 15-year-old kid wrote saying that without the strength through hardship my father expressed in his songs, he would not be alive. So, I think it’s important to support my father’s legacy in the world in which we live.
“My father made a distinction between the business of Johnny Cash and himself,” John Carter notes. “It’s almost like I’ve studied Johnny Cash my whole life, and so I can tie the two together somehow and still go through the healing process of losing a father while embracing him and his work on a level that spreads his music’s joy and brilliance to the world. I believe that his goal for his music and his life was to share with other people out there who connect on a level of the heart.” And that echoes, boldly, throughoutSongwriter.The new destination on Reverb will feature an always-changing collection of new and like-new music gear from top brands for at least 20% off retail prices.
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- Has a minimum 7-day return window.
“With economic pressures making it harder for music makers to invest in music gear, it’s more important than ever that the music-making community has access to affordable musical instruments. We launched the Reverb Outlet to make it easier for music makers to find the best deals on the instruments that will inspire them,” said Reverb CEO David Mandelbrot. “Now that players can shop discounted outlet music gear alongside our huge range of affordable used music gear, it’s easier than ever to find the perfect instrument for your budget.”
Visit the Reverb Outlet today and check back often, as new deals will be added regularly. Please note that as of now, this is available to those in the US only.
For more information, please visit reverb.com.