58597: Tony Rice and his Holy Grail Martin D-28

[bluesfreek]

While surfing the Google I found this cool article about Tony Rice's well known D-28.

Enjoy!

https://www.fretboardjournal.com/fea...l-martin-d-28/

[nitram]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

[archerscreek]

That’s a fantastic and very entertaining story. I knew of the guitar’s connection to Clarence White, but all of the other stuff is equally fascinating. It makes me want to go buy a beat up old Martin.

[Placida]

He shot it with a pellet rifle!

[Erithon]

Great read - thanks!

[bluesfreek]

Originally Posted by Placida

He shot it with a pellet rifle!

I know! What kills me is Clarence and Roland White paid $25 for it! Then Tony Rice paid $550 for it and now that guitar is priceless. Sadly from what I am reading is that due to health problems Mr. Rice can't play anymore.

[Placida]

Here's Clarence playing the guitar on the Andy Griffith Show, early 60's along with his brother Roland on the mando. They were known at the time as The Kentucky Colonels.




More Clarence picking, April 1965.

[bluesfreek]

Originally Posted by Placida

Here's Clarence playing the guitar on the Andy Griffith Show, early 60's along with his brother Roland on the mando. They were known at the time as The Kentucky Colonels.




More Clarence picking, April 1965.

Oh yeah! I love me some Kentucky Colonels!

[sjh111222]

Originally Posted by bluesfreek

I know! What kills me is Clarence and Roland White paid $25 for it! Then Tony Rice paid $550 for it and now that guitar is priceless. Sadly from what I am reading is that due to health problems Mr. Rice can't play anymore.

This was a great article. I knew some of the history of the guitar but not this amount of detail. I was also not aware that Tony Rice couldn't play guitar now. I knew he had the throat polyp issue years ago that stopped his singing. I just did a quick search and saw that he suffers from Lateral Epicondylitis, or tennis elbow, and needs surgery to correct the problem. There is a Facebook page requesting donations to cover his medical expenses since he cannot perform now to raise the funds.

[bluesfreek]

Originally Posted by sjh111222

This was a great article. I knew some of the history of the guitar but not this amount of detail. I was also not aware that Tony Rice couldn't play guitar now. I knew he had the throat polyp issue years ago that stopped his singing. I just did a quick search and saw that he suffers from Lateral Epicondylitis, or tennis elbow, and needs surgery to correct the problem. There is a Facebook page requesting donations to cover his medical expenses since he cannot perform now to raise the funds.

I too suffer from tennis elbow in my picking/strumming arm and understand how much it hurts and in some cases it can be debilitating to a guitarist. I also have it a little in my other elbow as well. I wear two velcro straps around my forearm just under my right elbow during the day while I do stuff which seems to help. I also ice it a little from time to time to help with inflammation. Right now I can still play but the good thing is I could never play as good as Tony Rice and never will...

I hope Tony gets the help he needs. He was always a working musician and though world famous he is not Bruce Springsteen with an endless supply of money.

[PHJim]

Originally Posted by bluesfreek

I know! What kills me is Clarence and Roland White paid $25 for it! Then Tony Rice paid $550 for it and now that guitar is priceless. Sadly from what I am reading is that due to health problems Mr. Rice can't play anymore.

When Clarence and Roland's dad bought the guitar, it already had the enlarged soundhole and no one seems to know who did it or why. I have read that article, but it was a while ago and I'm not sure if it mentioned, but Clarence didn't use that guitar for lead. He preferred an old D-18 and later used a Mark Whitebrook (now owned by Roland). He used the D-28 for rhythm.
Tony said that the guitar was not a great instrument when he got it and it needed a lot of work to make it a player, but it was worth it to own a guitar that had belonged to one of his heroes.
I'm sure it's a great guitar now but I believe that a lot of what makes that old Martin sound so good is the guy who's playing it.

When Clarence played it on the Andy Griffith Show, someone thought it looked weird with no position markers on the board so they used little stickers to confuse those of us watching in the future.

[Placida]

Originally Posted by PHJim

When Clarence played it on the Andy Griffith Show, someone thought it looked weird with no position markers on the board so they used little stickers to confuse those of us watching in the future.

Yet, you can tell it's THE guitar by the large sound hole.

[bluesfreek]

Originally Posted by PHJim

When Clarence and Roland's dad bought the guitar, it already had the enlarged soundhole and no one seems to know who did it or why. I have read that article, but it was a while ago and I'm not sure if it mentioned, but Clarence didn't use that guitar for lead. He preferred an old D-18 and later used a Mark Whitebrook (now owned by Roland). He used the D-28 for rhythm.
Tony said that the guitar was not a great instrument when he got it and it needed a lot of work to make it a player, but it was worth it to own a guitar that had belonged to one of his heroes.
I'm sure it's a great guitar now but I believe that a lot of what makes that old Martin sound so good is the guy who's playing it.

When Clarence played it on the Andy Griffith Show, someone thought it looked weird with no position markers on the board so they used little stickers to confuse those of us watching in the future.

Yep that's the same story I read about Clarence only using the D-28 for rhythm playing since the action was so high. It's had a lot of work done to it since Tony bought it.

[davidra]

I'm glad someone resurrected this thread. Several of us are having an argument. Tony got the grail guitar in 1975. That's pretty clear. But there are number of Bluegrass Alliance clips from the early '70s that show him playing what appears to be the same guitar: enlarged soundhole, plain fingerboard extending into the sound hole....but without a pickguard. It looks like the Gretsch neck that was put on the guitar. Does anybody know anything about how this happened? No doubt Tony was a mystical guitar player...but playing one before he even got it is....strange. Here's a clip of the Alliance and Tony playing what looks to me like the grail guitar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utpPWAi-tJ4

[L20A]

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