Guitar
“I only remember a Martin D28 and his Spanish guitar- that is not to say he did not have others. I think he sold the D28 after Pink Moon, but before the last 4 songs, in part exchange for the smaller 00015 (or was it the 00018). Brian Wells has this Martin and Gabrielle still has the Spanish.”
-Robert Kirby, via www.nickdrake.com/Robert_Kirby_Q__A.html
According to Peter Hogan (The Complete Guide to the Music of Nick Drake), Nick bought a “Martin D28 guitar, to supplement his trusty Guild F-20” (page 43)
Richard Thompson, who accompanied Nick in his first two albums, said “I only ever saw Nick play his small-bodied Guild guitar.”
Brian Wells also confirmed that, “I own Nick’s Martin D28… I don’t think it ever appeared on an album, because I think a lot of Pink Moon was done with a gut string, I don’t think it was done with a steel string… I think he bought the Martin after Pink Moon, because when he died it was quite new- perhaps he sold the Guild to buy it. It had a normal tuning, which was quite rare, as most of Nick’s guitars were tuned to some funny tuning.”
“The song was created in a Southgate bedsit where Gilbert Gabriel had a room. We wrote it while sitting on a floor. Just two guitars - one nylon strung with just three strings on it, while the other was the same guitar that was on the cover of Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter. We had the idea, even before we sat down, to write a folk song with an African-style chorus. We started it and when we got to the verse melody, there was something about it that reminded me of Nick Drake, who I had been turned on to in 1972 by Roundhouse DJ Jeff Dexter. It was Jeff who first informed me what a brilliant record Bryter Layter was. He claimed, ‘I know where that guitar is and one day we’ll get hold of it.’
“I never saw Nick play anything other than a Martin D28 (until durning Pink Moon when he sold everything and got the Martin 00018, which Brian has now.”
-Robert Kirby
- Laird-Clowes, Mojo Magazine, Feb. 2011
Short version: The ideas of which guitars Nick owned is unclear, especially because he may have sold one at one point.
The Martin D28, which Brian Wells has. (Which conflicts with Kirby’s idea of Nick selling his D28 and Brian ending up with the 00018.)
The Spanish guitar, which Gabrielle has.
Guild F-20 (Or M20, according to other people)
He also borrowed two guitars for photo shoots: The guitar on the cover of Bryter Layter (now owned by Jeff Dexter), and the Yamaha from this shoot:
(Don’t know who owns this one atm…)
