Guitars That Doc Has Played

Doc's first guitar was a Stella, which he got at age 13. He called it "one of those ten dollar guitars - a pretty good thing to learn on, but hard to fret as a barbed wire fence." (Gary Govert, Carolina Lifestyle, August 1983). At 17, he purchased a Sears Silvertone mail-order guitar with money he earned chopping wood with his brother. A year later, he traded up to a Martin D-28 with money earned by street busking.



Gallagher Doc Watson model. (Photo courtesy of Gallagher Guitars) Gallagher Doc Watson model. (Photo courtesy of Gallagher Guitars)

By 1953, Doc was married and had two children. He started playing in a band with piano player Jack Williams to earn money to support his family. At that time he swapped his D-28 for a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar which he used with the band for the rockabilly style music they performed. Doc was still playing the Les Paul in 1960 when he was discovered by musician-folklorist Ralph Rinzler, who had come to the area looking to record Clarence "Tom" Ashley. It was Ashley who had suggested that Doc play guitar for the recording.

Rinzler knew that he had found a special talent in Doc, and convinced him that he had a future in the music business. His remarks in an early issue of Sing Out! (Vol. 14, No. 1, February-March 1964) proved to be prophetic:

"Doc's impact as a soloist will surely be profoundly felt, for there is hardly an artist in folk and/or country music who combines musical integrity with such total mastery of technique on several instruments, and such warmth and honesty of presentation."

Doc primarily used mahogany or sapele (African mahogany) guitars throughout his career. In his early recordings, Doc frequently used a Martin D-18, but in 1968 he began a long association with J.W. Gallagher Guitars. Doc began playing a Gallagher G-50 (serial #68001) in 1968 that earned the nickname "Ol Hoss." This is the guitar that Doc played on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will The Circle Be Unbroken album where Merle Travis comments that the guitar "rings like a bell."

Doc played "Ol Hoss" until 1974, when it was replaced by another Gallagher guitar. "Ol Hoss" was returned to the Gallagher company and was put on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee for a while after that. In 2012 the guitar was put up for auction at Christie's and was sold for $40,000.

Doc's 1974 Gallagher guitar featured a neck profile like a Gibson Les Paul, which is what he wanted. It also had a voiced top, herringbone purfling and rosette, and an ebony fingerboard and bridge. Doc was very pleased with this guitar (serial #662), and it was named the Gallagher Doc Watson Model. In 1991, Gallagher made a cut-a-way version of the Doc Watson model for Doc (serial #2067). This is the guitar that Doc referred to as "Donald."

Gallagher Guitars currently offers a Doc Watson Model. It is built with African Mahogany, with a Sitka Spruce top, scalloped bracing, ebony fingerboard and bridge and bone saddle.

Doc was given other guitars during his life, including one built for him by Wayne Henderson in 2006, which he often played after receiving it. Here is a video of Doc playing the guitar at Wayne's shop when he picked it up.