Original subtitles

hi guys gus here and in this video we're

going to be looking at the guitars

of skydog dwayne norman was born on

november the 20th

1946 in nashville tennessee dwayne's

brother

greg saved up enough money to buy his

first guitar

silver tone while dwayne bought a highly

165 motorbike

and became the terror of the

neighborhood tearing up and down the

road

the two brothers took it in turns to

play this guitar and they were often

fighting over it

dwayne's interest in guitar soon became

greater than his interest

in dirt biking not long after this he

wrecked his motorbike

and traded it in for a silvertone guitar

of his own after he saw bb king perform

he told his brother greg

we got to get into this dwayne learned

to play very quickly

and soon became the better guitarist of

the two brothers

both dwayne and greg were born

left-handed but the two brothers

taught themselves to play right-handed

at the end of 1960 dwayne's mother

bought him

a cherry red 1959 gibson les paul jr in

1963

dwayne and greg formed their first band

called the shufflers

greg played league guitar and duane sang

in 1964 after seeing the beatles on the

ed sullivan show

duane formed a new group called the

escorts

and in 1965 the escorts opened for the

beach boys

duane used his gibson les paul jr from

around 1961

until 1964 or 1965.

then apparently he pawned it and some

years later delaney bramlett walked into

a pawnshop

and randomly purchased a red les paul jr

later he showed this guitar to dwayne

who supposedly

recognized the guitar as his own by a

gorge

or scratch on the back of the body there

is of course no way of actually

confirming this

and many aspects of this story seem too

random to be true

but that's what happened at least

according to delaney

after 1965 greg and dwayne formed the

band

ormond joys and they went on the road

performing throughout the south

east and eventually were based in

nashville after this the allman joys

became hourglass

here we can see dwayne norman's 1960s

gibson

es335 this is the guitar that he played

in one of his earliest bands called the

escorts

he also used this guitar with the almond

joys until 1966

before switching to a 1954 finlay

telecaster

this guitar spotted a cherry red finish

block inlays and a big speech tremolo so

in this photo here we can see the

escorts

opening for the beach boys and you can

spot

dwayne norman here with a 335.

this next guitar is a 1950s fender

telecaster

he acquired this guitar when playing

with the allman joys around 1966

and he used this as his main guitar

until 1967 when he was playing

with the hourglass obviously the first

thing you'll notice about this guitar

is it's a telecaster body with a strata

caster neck

the neck is most likely from a 1954

to a 1958 fender stratocaster this

guitar originally featured a black

pickguard but was replaced with a white

one

another interesting thing about this

guitar was the fact that it had a fuzz

or distortion box actually built in and

connected to two

broom holders and these were screwed

into the body unfortunately this

telecaster was

stolen during the power of love tour in

early 1968.

greg allman states in a guitar world

acoustic magazine interview

dwayne traded his main road axe in 1956

telecaster body with a 53 hog back

stratocaster neck

with some kind of crazy booster on the

side for a gibson j45

i couldn't believe he did that for me

because he loved that guitar but he had

seen

legitimate signs of a successful

songwriter in me

and he knew i needed a boost this next

guitar is a 1950s

fender telecaster it was originally

owned by the bass player in the band the

hourglass

pete carr this guitar originally was

bought from sylvan wells a friend of

pete and dwayne's

dwayne set this guitar primarily up for

slide

and he also played the first renditions

of statesboro blues live on stage with

the hourglass

in 1968 on this guitar looking at the

guitar the metal cover of the neck

pickup has been removed

the date of manufacture of this guitar

would be around 1956

to 1957. at one of the concerts duane

actually managed to snap the neck of

this guitar

and so pete carr took it back to his

father to get it fixed and it has

remained with pete ever since

okay guys let's talk about how dwayne

began slide guitar so around his

birthday

in 1968 dwayne was recovering from an

injury to his left elbow

caused from a fall from a horse for his

birthday brother greg bought him the

debut album

from taj mahal and also a bottle of

coridison pills

he left them on the front porch and rang

the bell as dwayne was angry with him

about the injury

about two hours after i left the phone

rang greg recalled

dwayne had pulled the pills out of the

bottle washed off the label

was using it as a slide to play along

with the album track

states for a blues dwayne had never

played sly before greg said

he just picked it up and started burning

he was a natural the song became part of

the allman's brother's repertoire

okay this next guitar is a 1957 gold top

gibson let's pull standard i'm first

going to read you a quote from

tommy compton who was the original owner

of dwayne's 57 gold top

i bought the 57 gold top out of the

local paper

guitar and amp for 250 dwayne saw it in

our apartment in

early 68 when the hourglass came through

town

he later called from jacksonville

florida and asked to borrow it for a gig

johnny sadly was here for military

physical so he carried it to dwayne

long story short the hourglass broke up

and dwayne disappeared with a gold top

my dad was about to put out an apb on

dwayne

so i called greg at his mum's and had

him

send a wurlitzer electric piano to my

brother for the guitar

dwayne was one of the first folks that i

saw when i got back to macon

he kind of dropped his head and said he

was sorry then he grinned and told me

that he had to have it when folks

through the years asked me why i didn't

have dwayne arrested or whatever

i asked him if they had ever heard him

play it

so as you can see in this photo this is

dwayne with

his goal top les paul whilst playing

with the hourglass

i also want to point out that dwayne

allman's daughter says

that this was not the same gold top les

paul that dwayne played

whilst in the ormond brothers scott

lamar who now owns the guitar

says allman acquired the gold top in

late 1968

or early 69 very likely from lipper

music

in gainesville florida so this gibson

les paul gold top had the serial number

seven three three one two you can see in

these early photos of dwayne with the

gold top

that it has both pickup covers and also

the toggle switch ring

and in later photos you can see that

both the covers

and the toggle switch ring were removed

the gold top was used by dwayne on the

allman brothers debut album released

in 1969 as well as the second album

released in 1970

the albums featured the original

versions of whipping post

in memory of elizabeth reed midnight

rider

and revival and you can see this guitar

here on the lomia dime studio sessions

most notably it was also used on the

historic

layla sessions with eric clapton on

august 1970

and this guitar was also known as the

studio guitar at around this time

dwayne used this guitar the most in the

studio

a few weeks after the layla sessions on

september the 16th

1970 the allman brothers played a show

in duane's hometown

of daytona florida the opening act was

stone balloon and the guitarist was

called rick stein

who played a plain top sunburst 59 les

paul standard

whilst making the layla album with eric

clapton dwayne had fallen in love

with eric's cherry sunburst list pool

derek and the domino's keyboard player

bobby whitlock recalls that layla was

done before dwayne left the sessions

he also states that the gold top was a

main instrument dwayne used in this

period

and was very adamant about it being the

guitar on layla

the gold top had some pickups that

dwayne had rewound that he loved

those were put into the cherry sunburst

when he traded the gold top

the stock pickups that were in the

cherry burst by roadie's red dog

and joe dan while dwayne went to get the

cash with the owner or broker

dwayne likes rick's guitar so he trades

his gold top

200 cash and a 50 watt marshall head for

the burst

however dwayne did not want to part with

the pickups already on his goal top

so he had one of his roadies put them in

the sunburst

a common occurrence at a time when the

word vintage wasn't applied to old

guitars

rick stein who now had the gold top

later sold the guitar locally

and somewhere along the line the gold

finish was sanded from the top

fast forward to 1977 and coastal music

a small store in daytona beach where

owner

jim ombi takes it in trade local player

billy bowers sees the guitar and calls

his friend

scott lamarr who buys it later that year

lamar took the guitar to groon's guitar

in nashville

to have the top refinished in gold and

have a bit of wood replaced on the back

of the headstock

where a dog had apparently chewed it not

really liking the refinish

in 1997 he took it to tom murphy

at gibson's historic division

this next guitar is a 1960s coral

electric sitar

the band the hourglass emerged from two

southern bands one of them was the

almond joys featuring both the brothers

relocating two los angeles for their

shot at the big league the renamed

hourglass

wound up recording two albums in 1967

1968 you can hear dwayne playing the

coral electric sitar

on their cover of the beatles song

norwegian wood

an hourglass recording session in early

1968

at fame studios in muscle shoals alabama

caught the ear

of rick hall the owner of fame studios

in 1968 rick hall

bought allman's contract for ten

thousand dollars dwayne's first session

date

was with wilson pickett guys i would

check out the song hey dude by wilson

pickett

dwayne plays some amazing guitar at the

end of the track and it's actually that

guitar playing that brought him to the

attention

of eric clapton who after hearing it

said

i remember hearing wilson pickets hey

jude and being astounded by the lead

break at the end

i had to know who that was immediately

right now

this next guitar is a 1960s fender

stratocaster which dwayne used for most

of his session work

and this includes studios such as queen

v recording studio

sheffield fame recording studios muscle

shoals and atlantic recording studios in

manhattan

and you can hear this guitar on songs by

artists such as wilson pickett king

curtis and aretha franklin

the first photos of dwayne with this

guitar date back to 1968

when he was playing with the hourglass

dwayne painted the pickguard

and the pickup covers black and you can

see dwayne has painted his own horoscope

sign

a red scorpion on the pickguard the

stratocaster was a replacement for the

fender telecaster

he played with the almond joys and

hourglass this strap featured a rosewood

fingerboard

and also a larger headstock at the

earliest it would have been made in late

1965.

okay this is a 1954 fender stratocaster

which is actually on show at the hard

rock cafe

the hard rock cafe state that dwayne

norman played this guitar

but i personally can't find actually any

evidence of it

the serial number of this guitar is

quite interesting as it's number 19.

this is an alpine white 1963 gibson

firebird

and in this photo you can see it being

played by dwayne betts

the story goes that dwayne allman fell

in love with this guitar

and he bought it off wilson pickett's

guitar player there's no certainty that

it was actually used

on a session or anything like that so if

you have any information about this

guitar or dwayne in a photo

or a photo with rain playing this guitar

would be great to hear from you

this is a photo of dwayne playing a

sunburst gibson es335

as you can notice from the photo the

pickguard and pickup covers have been

removed

this would have happened around june

1970

by all accounts dwayne used this guitar

with the ormond brothers around

1970 and he used it at the same time

that he owned the gold topless pool

for the record guys in my opinion dwayne

norman never played a gibson

semi-acoustic es345

however dickie betts actually early on

in the olmer brothers did use an es345

with a trapeze bridge

so this gibson es335

next sunburst model would have been a

guitar that he owned in the early days

of the allman brothers

apparently years later dickey betts gave

it to a young

eddie shafer along with dickey's 55

strat

which would become eddie's workhorse

guitar after eddie's death in the year

2000

the guitar has now ended up with willie

nelson and apparently willie keeps it in

his safe

here we can see dwayne with the 1950s

gibson les paul jr

this is footage of the ormond brothers

playing a concert

at love valley festival in 1970. it's

quite possible that this was his backup

guitar

as you can see from this photo it is a

tv yellow

color it comes with one single pickup a

tone knob and a volume knob

not much is known about this guitar and

there's not a lot of photos with

dwayne playing it this is a 1966

fender coronado 2 guitar apparently

dwayne bought this from the

makon music store and traded it for a

yellow les paul jr in the late 60s

notice in this photo of hourglass

performing

duane is holding a telecaster but behind

him to his left

is a fender electric 12 12 string guitar

this would really suit the music that

the hourglass were playing at the time

there are no photos of him actually

playing this guitar but it's quite

possible that he would use this for

concerts and recording

here is dwayne playing a 1968 fender

rosewood telecaster this was the very

guitar that george harrison used on the

let it be movie

during the abbey road studio sessions

george gave it to delaney bramlett in

1969

and here you can see dwayne playing this

guitar which i think is kind of cool

two years after george harrison died

bramlett put the guitar up for auction

and it was purchased by harrison's widow

olivia for more than four hundred and

seventy thousand dollars

this is duane with the 1968 gibson les

paul custom

serial number five three seven eight

three seven it was owned first by dwayne

allman and then later his brother greg

in 1993 it was bought by larry english a

former executive vice president

of gibson guitars on the back of the

body it reads donna i love you

carved into the body by dwayne the

pickup covers have both been removed and

the neck pickup seems to have been

replaced

past it quite possibly with a dmr zero

pickup here you can see dwayne playing

the

guitar in 1970. as you can see from the

photo

installed are what are called amp knobs

and these were used by gibson on guitars

from 1968 onwards

as discussed earlier this is the 1959

gibson les paul standard cherry burst

which dwayne traded in september 1970

with stone balloons guitarist rick stein

for his gold top

a marshall head and 200 dollars and as

stated before dwayne wanted to keep his

original path pickups from his goal top

as you can see this is the cherry

sunburst finish dwayne always preferred

to

remove the pickguards from his les paul

guitars the pickups from the gold top

didn't have covers

so the common belief is that duane

installed covers before he put

these pickups into his cherry sunburst

pool so from september 1970

until the end of dwayne's career this is

the guitar that he played

dwayne played this guitar until he died

you can hear it most noticeably on the

live album at fillmore east recorded in

1971.

this is a photo of how the les paul

looks like now and as you can see the

red has completely faded

this guitar is now owned by dwayne's

daughter galadriel

in order to keep it safe it is kept with

the rock and roll hall of fame museum

the cherry burst les paul became

dwayne's main guitar as you can see from

the photo the tuners are the original

klusons

one thing to point out is path pickups

from 1957

were normally lower output than those

installed in 1959

yielding greater clarity and

articulation as was usual for 1957

these pickups had fatter wire double

black bobbins and were both wound with a

dcr

of approximately 7 ohms when gibson

custom shop had this guitar in-house for

replication

the resistance decided on was 6.97 k

in the neck and 7.04 k

in the bridge here you can see a photo

of dwayne and his cherry burst

with eric clapton together for the album

sessions for derek and the dominoes

so my question to you guys is is this

the guitar that was used on the song

leila or was it the gold top the dway

norman went back for a last session

and that included the song layla where

he laid down some overdubs

recently when the cherry burst was

examined guitar tech tommy alderson had

this to say

about the pickup setup on the cherry

burst less pool they are set different

than anything i've ever encountered he

said dropped down a fair amount below

the pickup ring the pickup pole

adjustments had the screws turned up

so they would pick up the signal also

unusual

the bridge pickup is a lot weaker than

the neck pickup i plugged it in

and put it in the middle and it was the

one way out sound it was just crazy to

hear

here's dwayne with the 1961 gibson sg

les paul as you can see it's finished in

cherry red this is a guitar that he got

from dickie betts who himself played it

in the early days of the um brothers

what happened back then was i had this

sg when we started the band

and then i got a les paul my 57 and when

dwayne wanted to play slide

he would always have to retune his

guitar every time

and i got tired of it and said here take

this guitar tune it and leave it tuned

and gave him my sg he loved that guitar

this guitar was bought in early 1970

from the lipper music store in

gainesville duane started to use it in

mid-1971

as you can see from this photo there is

a snake bite as this guitar originally

featured a gibson's sideways

rib roller tremolo and you can see that

it's been modified with a stop tail

piece

it featured two gibson paf humpbacking

pickups

the original small pickguard however the

truss rod cover does not feature the les

paul

logo dwayne would have set this guitar

up for slide so it would have been in an

open tuning

dwayne mostly tuned this guitar to an

open e

so load to higher that would be e b e g

sharp b e the design of the sg with its

double cutaway body

was well suited to his slide work

allowing easy access

to the upper regions of the fretboard

duane chose to wear the sg high on his

body

to facilitate navigating the board

overall in this photo you can see

dickie betts with the guitar when he

featured the sideways tremolo which was

later removed

the sg is the instrument that was played

on the live recording of statesboro

blues

from the allman brothers bands classic

at film east this guitar went for sale

at auction fetching 591 thousand dollars

making it one of the most valuable

electric guitars ever sold

after dwayne orman's death the guitar

was acquired by former member of the

holly's graham nash

nash bought the guitar after fred walaki

the owner of the guitar store in

possession

of the instrument made him aware that

the instrument was available prior to

the sale

nash had this to say about the guitar

this is the famous from one brother to

another

guitar traded between dickie betts and

dwayne on all their live shows

like at beacon theater in new york this

is a very special guitar

dwayne was obviously one of the great

guitar players in the world to be able

to hold this guitar

and humbly play an a minor that's about

the best thing i can do

i don't want to play slide who would

want to do that this is a great guitar

the guitar was supposed to be buried

next to dwayne but greg

supposedly remembered that dwayne had

told him that he wanted jerry groom to

have the guitar if anything ever

happened to him

years later jerry sold it to graham nash

of the hollies

since that time the guitar was featured

at the rock hall of fame exhibit hosted

by nash

okay this last guitar is the guitar

known as hotlanta

this is quite probably a 1959 gibson les

paul standard

and it's known as a dark burst in june

1971

guitar dealer kurt linhoff sold away in

the dark burst

which became his main guitar until his

death on october the 29th

1971. dwayne met kurt lindhoff through

billy gibbons of zz top cz top was

opening for the allman brothers

dwayne was looking for a tobacco burst

dwayne's terms were

i'll pay you the cost of the guitar plus

half plus half of that

plus half of that and half of that it

became a running joke

the rest of the almonds also gave curt a

shopping list of gear they were looking

for as well

when kurt found and first acquired the

less pool it had already had a

replacement headstock

peghead on it because the original had

been broken off

and the owner had it fixed because of

this accurate dating of dwayne's les

paul becomes almost

impossible therefore it's difficult to

determine that this guitar was made in

1959.

kurt had the guitar for a couple of

months before delivery

during this time he switched the pickups

the rhythm pickup was switched to the

bridge position

and the bridge to the rhythm this was a

common practice amongst early burst

connoisseurs

as the les paul was designed originally

as a solid body jazz guitar

hotlanta pickups measured 8.7 ohms in

the bridge

and 8.3 ohms in the neck curt says

he has only come across one path that

was hotter than hotlanta

and that was a path reading 8.99 k

fittingly it was scoots who traveled to

cleveland to transport the guitars to

new york

kurt linov states wayne was flawed and

in love

dwayne tried out the tobacco burst

against the cherry burst

others have stated that this guitar is a

1958

tobacco sunburst and that originally it

came from san antonio

and belonged to christopher cross even

though this is sometimes called the

tobacco burst

it has a dark red ring around the edges

it's not known if the headstock has

actually been replaced or just repaired

those who have personally examined the

tobacco burst

believe it is a 1959 model when the

guitar needed

refretting twig slide and didn't want

even to let the original frets go

so he just hammered them into the back

of the guitar spelling dwayne

after dwayne's death greg had the dark

burst but the band's road manager twix

linden

was worried about its fate a classic

card aficionado

lyndon traded greg in 1939 ford

opera coupe for the guitar determined to

hold it for galadriel

he took the guitar on tour with the

dixie dregs and it was on the road with

him and the band when lyndon died in a

skydiving accident in 1979.

drex guitarist steve moore safeguarded

the guitar for over a decade

recording several tracks with it on

april the 2nd 1990

twig's brother scoots lyndon met donna

orman at dwayne's

macon grave and presented her with the

guitar for her

daughter many thanks indeed guys for

watching this video

we're going to be back with much more

very soon until then don't forget to

subscribe

this is goose signing out god bless take

care