Hank Williams

Hank Williams frequently played a Martin D-28 throughout his career, as seen in the "Cold Cold Heart" video on HankWilliamsVEVO. This 1941 Martin D-28 has an intriguing history, eventually becoming one of Neil Young’s primary acoustic guitars for both studio recordings and live performances for over 30 years.

Hank Williams owned quite a few guitars in his life and he was pictured with many of them. This guitar was a 1951 Gibson Southern Jumbo used by Hank Williams Sr. Later in life. There a many pictures of him with this guitar and one video of him with it.

Visible in this photo from an exhibit, found here.

The subject of this June 23, 2004 Christie's auction listing.

Details

HANK WILLIAMS, SR. OWNED AND USED GUITAR A Gretsch Model 75 acoustic guitar with six wooden frets (four are now missing) and a reddish-colored Bakelite pickguard owned and used by the country legend.

Provenance

An included 'letter of provenance' outlines this guitar's history as follows: Hank Williams gifted this guitar to Vinita Cravens (his long-time promoter who also handled many other Grand Ole Opry stars) who then gifted it to her grandson, Richard Sparger, who then sold it to Stephen M. Shutts who then sold it to the current owner. Included are two notarized and signed letters attesting to this from Sparger and Shutts.

The subject of this Carter Vintage Guitars listing.

In 1946, Hank Williams showed up at Acuff-Rose publishing in Nashville with pocketful of songs but no guitar to play them on. Fred Rose gave him $20 to buy a guitar and Hank found this S.S. Stewart archtop for $14. For the next six years he used it to write songs and record demos for Acuff-Rose. In 1953, after Hank died, Fred Rose gave it to eight-year-old Rita Faye Wilson (daughter of country singer Smiley Wilson) to celebrate her new contract with MGM Records. It is still in the same condition Rita Faye received it, with only four strings.

This important piece of country music history comes with a letter from Rita Faye, a letter from Don Helms (Hank's steel guitarist) and an article in the Gadsden, AL, newspaper about Rita Faye receiving the guitar. In the late 1950s, this guitar was put on display to raise money to build the Country Music Hall of Fame. The custom display case (included with the guitar) was built by country artist Billy Grammer.

In this article on Martins official website they talk about Hank’s Martin D-18. Although his main guitar was a D-28 he did own a D-18. “Hank was very fond of Martin guitars and owned several of them. This D-18 was purchased by Hank in 1947 from Art’s Music Shop in Montgomery, Alabama. The guitar was featured in at least one of Hank’s promotional photos. Hank ended up giving the guitar to his bandmate Curley Williams, who used it for several decades. The guitar eventually sold at Christie’s “Country Music Sale” auction, where Martin Guitar acquired it.“- from the article