{"id":142471,"date":"2023-11-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=142471"},"modified":"2023-11-17T11:09:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T19:09:17","slug":"great-acoustics-reverend-gary-davis-1949-gibson-sj-200-finds-a-new-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/great-acoustics-reverend-gary-davis-1949-gibson-sj-200-finds-a-new-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Acoustics: Reverend Gary Davis\u2019 1949 Gibson SJ-200 Finds a New Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometime in the 1950s, the Reverend Gary Davis<\/a> acquired several Gibson SJ-200s from Eddie Bell Guitar Headquarters on New York City\u2019s famed Musician\u2019s Row. This marked the beginning of his love affair with the jumbo-bodied \u201cking of the flattops,\u201d which he affectionately called Miss Gibson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rev.
Rev. Gary Davis’ 1949 Gibson SJ-200. Photo: Mike Spicer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-1960s, the legendary singer-songwriter and bluesman played one of his SJ-200s in a concert at Le Hibou Coffee House in Ottawa, Ontario. Following the gig, Davis and local poet Bill Hawkins apparently went on a two-week bender. When Davis finally sobered up, with no money to pay his pal back for their hefty bar tabs, he left his Gibson as collateral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened to Davis\u2019s SJ-200 in the ensuing decades is as murky as a Louisiana swamp. But it\u2019s now owned by an artist who respects its history\u2014Canadian singer-songwriter Tom Wilson, who had the good fortune of scoring the guitar several years ago from an Ottawa politician. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rev.
Rev. Gary Davis’ 1949 Gibson SJ-200. Photo: Mike Spicer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When Wilson received the SJ-200, it was not in playable condition, so he took it to local luthier Mike Spicer, at the Peghead in Hamilton, Ontario, for some repair work. Spicer reglued the guitar\u2019s loose braces and sealed several top and back cracks, while also performing a much-needed neck reset. He left alone some previous repairs that are a part of the guitar\u2019s rich history. Spicer\u2019s biggest challenge was making a new moustache-style bridge in Brazilian rosewood and mother-of-pearl as the original part was long gone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once restored, Wilson took what he now dubs \u201cthe Rev\u201d on the road for a pair of tours with his folk-rock band Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. Today, he reserves the guitar for composing and recording. He and his bandmate Colin Linden decided that \u201canything written on the Rev should include Davis\u2019 spirit and sometimes a line lifted from his writing,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cWhen Colin plays the SJ-200, Gary Davis\u2019 spirit fills the room. The guitar is a luxury liner, and I\u2019ll play it till the day I die.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Acoustic<\/a>\n

This article originally appeared in the January\/February 2024<\/a> issue of Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story behind Davis\u2019 SJ-200 is as murky as a Louisiana swamp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":142474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"The story behind Davis\u2019 SJ-200 is as murky as a Louisiana swamp.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1146],"tags":[524,1932],"ppma_author":[1649],"class_list":["post-142471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vintage-and-collectible-guitars","tag-great-acoustics","tag-january-february-2024"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Rev-Gary-Davis-1949-Gibson-SJ-200-photo-Mike-Spicer-IMG_0653-e1699031303231.jpg?fit=750%2C555&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1649,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"david-mcpherson","display_name":"David McPherson","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/author_fallback.png","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/author_fallback.png"},"user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142471"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142754,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142471\/revisions\/142754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142471"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=142471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}