Rick Danko on a Guild F-50

[hansmoust]

My main objection to the guitar is the Grovers. I'm a fan of big ol' clunky looking enclosed tuners. Would they have been original on this guitar? No evidence of it having other tuners in the photos, and I sure have seen a wide variety of tuners on 1960s Guilds.

Pat. Pend. Grover RotoMatic tuners are the correct ones for that particular period.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[jciampa]

I always thought that Robbie Robertson was playing Danko's F-50 in this photo. It's from the recording sessions for the "Brown Album."

The guitar would've only been about a year or so old at this point, hence how clean it looks!

 

[musicofanatic]

I always thought that Robbie Robertson was playing Danko's F-50 in this photo. It's from the recording sessions for the "Brown Album."

The guitar would've only been about a year or so old at this point, hence how clean it looks!

Interesting! I have seen that photo for years. I wonder if that is Danko's. Certainly there are early photos of Danko, showing the guitar in it's pre-gouged condition. It might just be shadows, but the Guild Robertson has does appear to be a rosewood back&sides F-50(?). So much going on in this shot, taken in the pool house of Sammy Davis Jr.'s house that they rented for the recording. Looks like John Simon is at the mixing desk right in the room with them wearing headphones, as opposed to an isolated control room. Hudson involved here in patching in some sort of technological wizardry or another. You can see his Lowery organ with Hohner clavinet and some box of electronics on top, and Leslie speaker back behind him. Helm, in his book, says he got his Gibson F-4 (and the old, wood-hoop drums he played for years) while they were recording in LA, but he is still playing his Martin bent top mandolin here, so he had perhaps not yet acquired the Gibson. With Danko on fiddle, I will presume they are cutting Rag Mama Rag here...? I love this band (THE Band!) and everything about their history!

 

[musicofanatic]

Pat. Pend. Grover RotoMatic tuners are the correct ones for that particular period.

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

Thanks for your response and I am grateful for your freely given expertise! I did inadvertently omit a word from my original statement. It should have read: "I'm NOT a fan of big ol' clunky looking enclosed tuners". But good to know they are original and I would not let this deter me from the purchase should all else meet my criteria.

 

[Cougar]

...Looks like he had it a while....

It's a '67 F-50Sb that is located on page 105 of Han's book.

Well, he didn't put it in that condition playing like that.

 

[musicofanatic]

Well, he didn't put it in that condition playing like that.

Likely as not, but (as I understand it) these fellas would get fuuuuuuucked up and throw caution to the wind, whether it was competition drunk driving or dragging a plectrum across the top of a (formerly) nice guitar, so I believe we may presume that at some point in time, he did play in a fashion that would inflict such results...

 

[Rambozo96]

Likely as not, but (as I understand it) these fellas would get fuuuuuuucked up and throw caution to the wind, whether it was competition drunk driving or dragging a plectrum across the top of a (formerly) nice guitar, so I believe we may presume that at some point in time, he did play in a fashion that would inflict such results...

They wrecked cars quite often in the Big Pink era.

 

[musicofanatic]

They wrecked cars quite often in the Big Pink era.

That would be one of the events in the Competition Drunk Driving program. I believe they kept a tally. Y'know, upon relection, I think it was mainly the three singers engaging in the debauchery. Robertson and Hudson did not wreck that many cars (or guitars) by my knowledge.

 

[hansmoust]

Interesting! I have seen that photo for years. I wonder if that is Danko's. Certainly there are early photos of Danko, showing the guitar in it's pre-gouged condition. It might just be shadows, but the Guild Robertson has does appear to be a rosewood back&sides F-50(?).

Here's another photo by Elliott Landy taken during those same sessions clearly showing the back of the Guild F-50:

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

 

[musicofanatic]

Here's another photo by Elliott Landy taken during those same sessions clearly showing the back of the Guild F-50:

Sincerely,

Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl

There goes my rosewood F-50 theory out the window! Thanks. Off topic: I have always dug the black, white 'guard Telecaster of Robertson's. I have seen a shot of Robertson and Helm sitting together with Helm playing the guitar. Similar to (if not the same one) the Tele Dylan played on early electric tours with the Band...

 

[musicofanatic]

More footage of Danko with the F-50. Dunno f'sure what the situation is here but Helm and Danko sing great and Garth, when in the mix, sounds fabulous too. It appears that by 1989 the Guild had sustained most of it's characteristic top scarring.

 

[musicofanatic]

i tracked Danko's F-50 doggedly; found a fella in Ontario who said he got it from Danko's cousin and wanted to sell. By the time I got a response from him it was gone...so I got this one. Same year as Danko's (1967) and a bit less scarred, but give it time...I'll get it there!