Willie Nelson's Guitar "Trigger"

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 3 Jun 2011 7:09 am

I don't know if y'all knew this, but Willie got his guitar "Trigger" from Shot Jackson. The story behind it is this; Willie was playin' a show and somehow his Baldwin electric guitar broke, so Willie called Shot Jackson and asked him if he could fix the guitar. Shot tried several times to fix the guitar, but couldn't do it, so Willie went to see what kinds of guitars Shot had. He asked Shot what guitars he had, and Shot told him he had a Martin N-20 classical guitar. Shot took everything out of Willie's old guitar and put it all in the guitar that would soon be known as "Trigger". Today, Trigger still sounds awesome with the pickups Shot had installed.

Brett

Al Bettis · Post by **Al Bettis** » 3 Jun 2011 7:31 am

Here's a fuzzy photo of Trigger taken last week by Travis Bettis who plays guitar with Lee Brice, currently on tour with Willie and Jamey Johnson.

Certainly an iconic axe and piece of music history.

Back to work!

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 3 Jun 2011 9:48 am

Al Bettis wrote:Here's a fuzzy photo of Trigger

Willie's even fuzzier. They're a good pair.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 3 Jun 2011 7:13 pm

It's more hole than guitar, but I think that sometimes Willie regards it as his best friend. I don't doubt they've probably written more than one song together ….

Tom Keller · Post by **Tom Keller** » 3 Jun 2011 8:24 pm

Of course the thing that really makes the N 20 special is the Prisma Tone pickup by Baldwin. Shot simply took the Prisma Tone pick from the old Baldwin 801 CP and placed it in the N 20. Imho the N20 without the prismatone would not stand up against the the red label yamaha's of the late 60's.

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 4 Jun 2011 7:56 am

It looks like it was stepped on by "Trigger"!

Rich Gardner · Post by **Rich Gardner** » 4 Jun 2011 11:50 am

I saw Willie at the Ritz Theater in Tiffin, OH several years back, probably more than I realize. One older socialite lady was overheard to say, "You would think he could afford a better guitar". She has no idea about guitars and pickers!

Dana Blodgett · Post by **Dana Blodgett** » 4 Jun 2011 1:43 pm

Yeah, 1969 was a very good year!

Pete Burak · Post by **Pete Burak** » 5 Jun 2011 5:43 pm

I'm surprised no guitar company has issued a "Willie Nelson Tribute Guitar" that looks exactly like the real thing with the hole and all.

Roger Miller · Post by **Roger Miller** » 5 Jun 2011 6:44 pm

Was this the same guitar that Jerry Kennedy used on his album? He talked about this (same?) guitar signed by many that Roger Miller and Kris once owned. It was also a Martin and possibly the guitar that Dang Me was written and recorded on. If anyone knows about this guitar facts please post it.

Jason Stillwell · Post by **Jason Stillwell** » 6 Jun 2011 10:33 am

Oh, the irony of this post by Roger Miller...

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 6 Jun 2011 10:51 am

I just noticed this topic was posted by Brett Day. A wealth of steel guitar and music information. Out of respect for him, I've edited out my opinions and would just like to say, Thanks Brett for all the great information you dish up here for us all these years.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 6 Jun 2011 12:03 pm

Roger Miller wrote:Was this the same guitar that Jerry Kennedy used on his album? He talked about this (same?) guitar signed by many that Roger Miller and Kris once owned. It was also a Martin and possibly the guitar that Dang Me was written and recorded on. If anyone knows about this guitar facts please post it.

Willie's Martin was built in 1969, Dang Me was recorded on January 11, 1964. It was written, according to Roger Miller's official biography, in a motel room in Phoenix, AZ in four minutes sometime in the summer of '63.

So, as much as I enjoy and respect Roger Miller's creativity, I'm pretty sure he didn't have a time machine to use Willie's guitar six years before it was even built.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 6 Jun 2011 12:15 pm

Pete Burak wrote:I'm surprised no guitar company has issued a "Willie Nelson Tribute Guitar" that looks exactly like the real thing with the hole and all.

Martin did do a N-20WN, back in the late '90s, it was a Willie Nelson limited edition N-20 with a pickup but no body wear. So it just looked like a new Martin with Willie's signature inlaid on the fretboard.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 6 Jun 2011 12:32 pm

He's just waiting for the IRS to come after him again, then he'll sell it for $10,000,000 and buy an Epiphone.* Willie's guitar solos are a thing of... umm... well, they're a thing, for sure. You gotta earn the right to play like that.

*(couldn't sound much worse, could it?)

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 6 Jun 2011 1:09 pm

David Mason wrote:He's just waiting for the IRS to come after him again, then he'll sell it for $10,000,000 and buy an Epiphone.* Willie's guitar solos are a thing of... umm... well, they're a thing, for sure. You gotta earn the right to play like that.

*(couldn't sound much worse, could it?)

His solos are very Django influenced. Some are just like listening to a Django 78rpm played at 33RPM.

Roger Miller · Post by **Roger Miller** » 6 Jun 2011 2:51 pm

Thanks Alvin for the info. Maybe it wasn't the same guitar for Dang Me.

Brian Hunter · Post by **Brian Hunter** » 6 Jun 2011 8:27 pm

Willie can not conceive of playing any other guitar at this point. He has said that when Trigger's top gives in, he retires.

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 8 Jun 2011 10:00 am

When I was a recording engineer for Leon Russell,he and Willie did a record together called "One For The Road" and that guitar was around the studio for 2 weeks.It already had that hole in it from all that outta control flatpick thrashin.One day I came in early and was the only one there so I picked it up and played it for a while. It was set up horrible - was almost unplayable and that was back in 1978. As a side note: One night during those two weeks,we quit early and the whole entourage went down to the Palomino and Willie and Leon sat in with Jimmy Snider's band. Willie didn't have Trigger with him so he played somebody's Les Paul thru a Fender blackface and sounded better than I've ever heard him before or since.

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Willie Nelson's Guitar "Trigger"

Willie Nelson's Guitar "Trigger"

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