Woody Guthrie's Guitars

In the folk music world, there are few artists who cast a shadow as great as Woody Guthrie, except maybe Pete Seeger. Though the image of Woody Guthrie's Gibson L-00 with the phrase “This Machine Kills Fascists” has become iconic, Guthrie was known for playing a number of acoustics over the years.

Tracking them has become a full time hobby for many, as Guthrie was a generous man and often performed only a handful of times with a guitar before giving it away. Guthrie considered his guitars to be nothing more than a tool of his trade, and had little emotional connection to any of his instruments beyond how they played.

Gibson Guitars

Guthrie is most closely associated with Gibson guitars, namely the L-00, J-45, and Southern Jumbo. The L-00 is a small bodied guitar with 14 frets. He played an L-00 for much of the 30's and into the early 40's, before Gibson introduced the J-45 in 1942. The J-45 was an attempt by Gibson to replicate Martin's successful dreadnought guitars. In 1943, Woody acquired his first Gibson Southern Jumbo. 

The Southern Jumbo was more or less a J-45 with updated trim. Woody's recordings on a Southern Jumbo for Moses “Moe” Asch on Stinson Records in 1944 are some of his most celebrated recordings including “This Land is Your Land,” “We Shall Be Free,” and “Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad.”

Martin Guitars

In addition to the L-00, Guthrie often performed with small bodied Martins throughout the 30's and early 40's. Guthrie identified strongly with the working class. He slept on the floor in his New York apartment and lived simply, ready to travel at a moment's notice. Similarly, he preferred smaller, more affordable guitars over more costly and harder to transport larger bodied instruments.

So it's no surprise that during the 30's, when Guthrie traveled the country performing for migrant workers and striking miners, he would choose Martin's 00 sized instruments. Throughout the late 30's, he frequently traveled with actor and activist Will Greer, who would later go on to play Grampa on “The Waltons.” Guthrie borrowed Greer's wife's Martin 0-17 during much of their travels and beat it up until the instrument was nearly unplayable.

In recent years, both Gibson and Martin guitars have issued designs inspired by Guthrie's guitars of choice. Martin's 000-18WG is a design inspired by the 00-15 and 00-17 guitars Woody often played during the late 30's and early 40's. The small bodied guitar has a crisp pure tone, and is made of mahogany. 

Gibson's SJ is more a true attempt at reproducing Guthrie's Southern Jumbo, his so called “big Gibson.” Created in collaboration with Woody's son (and a great folk singer and activist in his own right) Arlo Guthrie, the Gibson Woody Guthrie SJ is a close approximation of the instrument Woody used on some of his best loved recordings. 

But for the budding troubadour looking to ride the rails, there's only one real way to follow in Woody's footsteps. Borrow a guitar from a friend, scrawl your message on the body, play it until it barely plays anymore, and give it away to another budding troubadour you meet along the way. Repeat until Bob Dylan writes a song about you.