Singer-songwriter Gillian Welch talks about how a guitar she bought just after she released her first album has been her touring mainstay ever since.

Here’s what Welch had to say:

I'm Gillian Welch, and this is my 1956 Gibson J-50. I've been playing it since we put out our first record [Revival, released in 1996]. We were on the road opening for Mary Chapin Carpenter, and we'd done a month, and then we came home to Nashville, and Dave [Rawlings, her musical partner] went down to Gruhn Guitars in our 48 hours at home, and he called me, and he said, "You should come down here. There's a really good J-50."

And I was playing a Guild D-25M at the time, which is my first guitar. So we went back out on the road — I bought [the Gibson J-50] — and I took both guitars for the first show and played this one, and then never went back.

So the thing I love about the J-50 is, you know, I'm not much of a strummer. I sort of boom-chang. I don't really strum across, because I have to be the bass player and the drummer and the rhythm guitar player and establish the harmony for Dave to do everything else. And this, the bass notes on this guitar just were a little more solid than my old Guild, which has a lovely brushy top, but this one has just got a little bit more of a nose and I'm able to be just a tiny bit more forceful.

Part of what makes this guitar so good live is it has slightly high action, and so I can, you know, kind of bear down on it, and it won't really fret out. But that makes it not a great writing guitar. I will [write with it], obviously; I travel only with this guitar, so if I'm in a hotel room with a day off and trying to write, I pick up this.

Credits

Guest – Gillian Welch
Producer – Mike Pengra
Video Director – Evan Clark
Camera Operators – Evan Clark, Josh Sauvageau
Audio Mix – Cameron Wiley
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Links

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings – official site

Gibson Guitars – official site

Gruhn Guitars, Nashville – official site