Well, Willie owns not only the original "Trigger," but at least a couple of the Willie Nelson signature model Martins, one version of which was available from Martin with a hole mimicking the original carefully cut into the top. I think even the autographs were carefully reproduced. It wouldn't surprise me if sometimes the real Trigger stays at home in an air-conditioned, humidity-controlled vault while Willie takes one of his signature model reproductions on the road with him.
What's more, several years before Martin came out with those signature models, I met a guy who had done some concert promotion in the Lower 48 states and who had worked with Nelson and visited him back in his dressing room. He told me he had held Nelson's guitar and examined it closely. He said that hole in the top wasn't jagged, as you'd expect, but smooth. To him it appeared to have been put into the top with a disc sander.
Now, I don't know if that's true, but the guy didn't appear to be trying to hornswoggle me or tell me a tall tale; he was very matter of fact about it.
What that suggests to me is not that the original Trigger was deliberately contrived and its pick damage faked, but that Willie Nelson had had at least one road version made for him and relic'ed to look like the original YEARS ago, when it became clear that:
A.) Trigger had become such an integral part of his image that his fans would be disappointed if he played anything else onstage;
and
B.) He got a replica made so that the original didn't have to withstand all the trials and tribulations of an everyday stage guitar, like the weather changes at outdoor festivals, and the humidity changes when traveling between cities to play.
This is nothing but speculation on my part, of course, but it makes all kinds of sense to me.
Anyway, I also suspect that Willie started buying up spares of that fairly rare Martin classical model a while back, and the one in the auction is just one of several he's owned.
Just a thought.
Wade Hampton Miller
Wade, This video may explain why "Trigger's" injuries are smooth and not rough. It regularly is maintained by Dan Erlewine. Check it out:
07-08-2019, 08:11 PM
