Repairing Willie Nelson's Trigger

December 24, 2017 3:48 PM

Since the mid-seventies, Mark Erlewine has been patching up Willie Nelson's guitar Trigger to keep it going for another year. Here he shows the sorts of things this entails: fixing a crack, cleaning and applying laquer. In part two he glues the top where it is separating from the body, restrings and gives it a test. Previously.
posted by 445supermag (36 comments total)

Awesome. Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar tech Rene Martinez is another unsung hero of music.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:04 PM on December 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is beautiful
posted by Annika Cicada at 4:09 PM on December 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

When Willie finally leaves us, Trigger better get burned, buried, or shot into space with him. Anyone else owning it would seem like an abomination.
posted by mrjohnmuller at 4:22 PM on December 24, 2017 [8 favorites]

What are those weird stumpy little guitars in the case behind Erlewine?
posted by Rumple at 4:23 PM on December 24, 2017

Rumple, those look to be Hawaiian lap steels.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:26 PM on December 24, 2017

Sun Kik Moon/Mark Kozelek has a wonderful song about his old guitar tech.
Song for Richard Callopy.
posted by misterpatrick at 4:27 PM on December 24, 2017

Thanks, mandolin conspiracy, for the (vaguely eponysterical) answer.
posted by Rumple at 4:34 PM on December 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

What are those weird stumpy little guitars in the case behind Erlewine?
Chiquita travel guitar
posted by thelonius at 4:34 PM on December 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

What are those weird stumpy little guitars in the case behind Erlewine?

Those are probably the Chiquita guitars you're referring to. Erlewine designed and has been selling them since at least the early 80s. For a while, Japanese brand Hondo licensed them in the early years. They made an appearance in Back To The Future. They're pretty nice, and I've always wanted to own one. They're not prohibitively expensive. Maybe I should get around to it.
posted by 2N2222 at 4:35 PM on December 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yep! I stand corrected. My mind automatically went to lap steel since they kinda look like that too.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 4:37 PM on December 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh cool, I kind of want one now too, even though I don't even play guitar.
posted by Rumple at 4:41 PM on December 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

I hope Willie's doctors take as much care with him as this guy does with the guitar
posted by thelonius at 4:43 PM on December 24, 2017

Guitar geeks' side-note: Mark's cousin Dan is well-known to StewMac customers as the guy who creates all those guitar repair tools, books and videos.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:47 PM on December 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

Calling that gouge "a second soundhole" made me like this guy a lot.
posted by ardgedee at 4:54 PM on December 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

> Those are probably the Chiquita guitars you're referring to.

You can see what looks like the master form for them hanging on the wall in a couple shots in the second video.
posted by ardgedee at 5:09 PM on December 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Flagged as fantastic. This was completely delightful!
posted by mochapickle at 5:49 PM on December 24, 2017

I think Mark owned the shop in Austin that I bought my acoustic and electric guitars from back in the early 80's. I was a young college kid without much money and he recommended guitars that were cheap and diamonds in the rough. I still play them today.

Thanks for the reminder!
posted by jabo at 6:04 PM on December 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Now I know kids feel when they watch the play doctor take care of their stuffed animals.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 8:35 PM on December 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

It's like the ship of Theseus.
posted by mecran01 at 9:32 PM on December 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

That guitar has more character than most people I know.
posted by dazed_one at 12:17 AM on December 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

When Willie finally leaves us, Trigger better get burned, buried, or shot into space with him. Anyone else owning it would seem like an abomination.

Anything, as long as it doesn't get loaned to Tarantino.
posted by tommasz at 6:07 AM on December 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

I wouldn't call his sister, say, owning it after his death an "abomination".
posted by thelonius at 7:56 AM on December 25, 2017

I thought musicians had a million replicas and were exaggerating about playing old guitars. I enjoyed playing other instruments, but never learned the guitar. They're cool, but intimidating due to all the technical options and issues involved.


I just need to buy my own guitar tech and I'm set!
posted by Freecola at 8:22 AM on December 25, 2017

I thought musicians had a million replicas and were exaggerating about playing old guitars.

Well, some of them do tour playing replicas of their old beloved guitars but I guess Willie doesn't care for that. I could understand that; he wants to perform with his guitar, not a copy of it. Or perhaps it's not as do-able to make an acceptable (to high standards) replica of an acoustic guitar.
posted by thelonius at 8:43 AM on December 25, 2017

Calling that gouge "a second soundhole" made me like this guy a lot.

Me too, but the funny thing is - it really is. There's no way to do a double-blind test, but it has probably changed the sound of the guitar a lot. It's an amazing testament to Erlewine's work that the "second soundhole" has stayed about the same size since the '70s or so, especially when the customer sticks his fingers in the gouge sometimes (9:30 or so in this video).
posted by randomkeystrike at 9:18 AM on December 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Or perhaps it's not as do-able to make an acceptable (to high standards) replica of an acoustic guitar.

In the first video, he relates a story of them having an exact replica of Trigger made for Willie, and, after strumming it a bit, he simply put it down and never picked it up again. So...yeah...it would seem to be a more difficult task than it appears. Acoustic instruments like guitars (and violins, violas, etc) are famous for being highly individualistic creations, even when made in a factory.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:19 AM on December 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Or perhaps it's not as do-able to make an acceptable (to high standards) replica of an acoustic guitar.

Or even some magical electric guitars, like Peter Green's Les Paul:
“‘I asked if I could check out the wiring,’ remembered Dantzig, ‘and I carefully examined the pickups and their controls. Everything looked totally stock—the pickups were wired in phase—but I knew they didn’t sound stock when played together.
“‘The I used a compass to measure the pickups’ magnetic polarity. I discovered that one magnet was oriented north-to-south while the other was oriented south-to-north. The pickups were magnetically out of phase—this was the secret we’d all been searching for!’

Don't believe it's magic? Listen to Green Manilishi with a two pronged crown.
posted by 445supermag at 12:13 PM on December 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Ha, that's fascinating. I have see people spreading misinformation, about reverse winding/reverse polarity in Strats not actually existing, and have checked those pickups with a compass my own self, and seen that the middle pickup made the needle go to South, not North.
posted by thelonius at 12:33 PM on December 25, 2017

Pickup polarity and phase made simple. The Strat pickups I checked were a Seymour Duncan set, so they were behaving, I suppose, as described in that link.
posted by thelonius at 12:35 PM on December 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

When Willie finally leaves us, Trigger better get burned, buried, or shot into space with him. Anyone else owning it would seem like an abomination.

It belongs in a museum!
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:35 PM on December 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

It belongs in a museum!

Sadly, though, it will probably end up in a Hard Rock Cafe.
posted by Paul Slade at 3:25 PM on December 25, 2017

Sadly, though, it will probably end up in a Hard Ro

Better than in the possession of someone like Trump.
posted by notreally at 4:55 PM on December 25, 2017

Better than in the possession of someone like Trump.

Or Shkreli.
posted by 445supermag at 5:45 PM on December 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is awesome. Stewart MacDonald is one of those wonderful holdovers from the days of buying things through catalogs, and it's excellent to see them showing off some of the luthiers who use their stuff.

Trigger is iconic. Willie playing any other guitar sounds like Willie, and I'm sure if anyone else is allowed to play Trigger, they don't. But that's the guitar, for that man, in the time he's played it.
posted by aspersioncast at 6:21 PM on December 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Mark's cousin Dan is well-known to StewMac customers as the guy who creates all those guitar repair tools, books and videos.

Watching him at work in a couple of videos, fixing a valuable instrument just right, is to appreciate how relaxed real mastery looks! Very enjoyable.
posted by Twang at 9:07 PM on December 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Lovely.

Why isn’t there a TLC show about the Luthiers who keep the iconic guitars playing and working hard? I’ve heard tale of telecasters with grooves worn into their maple fretboards. I want to know what makes Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat his preferred instrument, or B.B. king’s Lucille. J. Mascis’ Jazz master. Sting’s single coil P-Bass. Joe Strummer’s Tele. What is it about Glen Hansard’s now skeletal Takamine guitar that makes it so essential for him that he’d play an instrument that is literally disintegrating at the Oscars and how does his luthier keep it alive?

I have a number of guitars that I enjoy playing , each has a different sound, a different identity. But the one I keep coming back to is this old 70’s Japanese Strat. White, with a maple fretboard, it’s just one of those magical guitars that has “it” — fits perfectly and almost plays itself. Others who have played it have commented on it, it’s just a smooth perfect extension of your hands and as cool as I think the Jaguar or the Rickenbacker look and sound, I have always used that old Strat when performing on stage, because there is no joy like a musical instrument whose every nuance you know, that fits you like a well worn glove, and removes every barrier between thought and expression.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:22 AM on December 26, 2017 [5 favorites]