A Martin N-20 nylon-string acoustic with the serial number 242830, Trigger dates to early 1969, which means it was brand-new when Willie Nelson obtained it that same year. Why was Willie in need of a new guitar? Because he had laid his beloved Baldwin 800C acoustic on stage between sets and, as the story goes, a drunkard stepped on it.
With Nelson’s Baldwin broken, he took it to luthier Shot Jackson, who indeed deemed the guitar unsalvageable. Instead, he sold Willie a brand-new Martin N-20 for $750 – which current inflation puts at more than $5,600 – and installed the Baldwin’s PrismaTone and preamp into it. But rather than remove the Baldwin’s pickup and install it into the Martin’s bridge, Jackson removed the entire bridge from the brand-new Martin and replaced it with the Baldwin’s, which already had the mounting holes drilled into it.
Willie and Trigger, which wouldn’t get its nickname until many years later, formed a tight bond. The sound of an amplified nylon-stringed instrument played, unconventionally, with a pick was unusual. Since they were traditionally played fingerstyle, classical guitars such as the N-20 didn’t even come with pickguards.
The N-20 was first catalogued in 1969, though Martin began building them in 1968. The model wasn’t a bestseller by any means. Only 262 were made in 1969, making it quite rare.
Trigger wears the scars of more than 50 years of life on the road. The frets are all original but have worn down, meaning some notes thump or buzz. Rather than fixing the issue, as is standard procedure, the artefacts have become part of Trigger’s ageing sound through the years. Just as our voices age over time, the tone of Trigger can be tracked over decades of recordings and live performances.
“Trigger’s like me,” Willie once said with a laugh “Old and beat-up.”
Source: Justin Beckner / Guitar
Photo: Platon
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