The story of how Willie Nelson’s iconic guitar earned its name
While Willie Nelson is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic country musicians of all time, there is a little counterpart to his set-up that makes his sound all the more memorable. We’re talking, of course, about Nelson’s famous guitar, affectionately named Trigger.
“One of the secrets to my sound is almost beyond explanation,” Nelson once noted. “My battered old Martin guitar, Trigger, has the greatest tone I’ve ever heard from a guitar.” He had bought the Martin N-20 nylon-string classical acoustic in 1969 after his Baldwin was damaged.
Discussing his love for Trigger and why he called it such, Nelson noted: “I think that this particular guitar has the best song of any guitar I’ve ever played. It’s just got a good sound. The only thing I can say about old Trigger is that it was a good day when I got him. I named my guitar Trigger because it’s my horse, you know. Roy Rogers had a horse called Trigger.”
Nelson had been talking about Trigger’s origins in a short Rolling Stone documentary and noted that he felt that even if he played the world’s best and most expensive guitar today, it would not play half as well as Trigger can. According to Nelson, he would feel like a poor caricature of himself.
“If I picked up the finest guitar made this year and tried to play my solos exactly the way you heard them on the radio, I’d always be a copy of myself, and we’d all end up bored,” he said elsewhere. “But if I play an instrument that is now a part of me and do it according to the way that feels right for me. I’ll always be an original.“
As for the moment that Nelson decided to buy the guitar, he remembered: “I had broken my other guitar and [a shop in Nashville] had a new one for $750. I said, ‘Well, I don’t know, it sounds like it might be worth it’. He said, ‘Yeah, it’s a good guitar.’ It was a pleasant surprise, I’d been playing this Guild that had a tone that I kinda liked, but this one had a little more Django [Reinhart] in it.”
Evidently, Django Reinhart is the major influence on Nelson’s playing, and he possesses a profound love for the legendary guitarist. Nelson added: “That was what I was really striving for, that tone that Django got. He did it with just these fingers. His method of playing, the tone, and the speed was incredible. I think he was the best guitar player ever.”
