I caught the episode on DVR, so maybe it was a day or two old? Jeff Tweedy and his son were on to promote their new album and played a song. It wasn’t bad - good Americana pop.
But Tweedy has been getting into older guitars and it showed tonight - he was playing a fun, funky small-bodied acoustic with a couple of Art Deco-ish birds painted on the front. It was a Kel Kroyden - made by Gibson in 1929 or 30 when the Depression had come on and Gibson was making private label guitars. Kel Kroyden was a toy distributor.
The guitars are amazing - lightly built and the first example of Gibson using Martin’s innovative X-Bracing - Gibson made their own version, the L-1, but Kel’s are wonderful - I love the birds. But Gibson never outfitted their private label guitars with their innovating truss rods, which are commonplace today and enable the amount of bowing in the guitar neck to be adjusted. Only Gibson’s own guitars got the truss rods! I have another private label guitar by them, a Kalamazoo, and nope - no truss rod!
A rare and interesting choice - and not cheap. Probably worth $5 - $8,000 - so it was a little scary to see a pickup mounted in the soundhole - did I mention those guitars are very lightly built? But it sure shows that he’s a guitar geek!
Agreed - thanks for sharing the link. And someone on a guitar board mentioned that when they saw him in Brooklyn, he had a couple of 1930’s Martin 0 and 00 sized small bodies which are just wonderful guitars…
Fun. And that first guitar Tweedy is playing is an old small-body Martin, likely one of the ones referenced in a post above. Looks like a 1930’s 0-size. Mmmmmm, wonderful guitar.
Hmm, and the guy playing the Les Paul - that looks like a real, old late 50’s Les Paul with a Bigsby. Good be a great relic, but looks pretty real. Interesting.
I wondered about that first little Martin. And then I wondered if that old looking LP and the Epiphone (I think those old ones cost quite a bit too) are from Tweedy’s collection?
The first little Martin is probably late 30’s or early 40’s - it has the Martin decal on the headstock, which they introduced in that timeframe.
I don’t know Tweedy’s collection other than what I’ve seen and what folks mentioned when I brought up the Kel Kroyden. The LP just looks about right, so I would be open to hearing its the real deal. The Epiphone Casino looks new. The 60’s ones have Beatles appeal and are going for a few thousand $ these days - I love the thought of them, but they are known for having very narrow necks.
