But the story of Andy Griffith’s guitar started long before the actor who played the fictional Mayberry lawman joined up with Deputy Barney Fife on the popular 1960s sitcom whose hilarious black and white repeats still fill the airwaves today. I watch some them myself on MeTV.
The 1956 Martin D-18 first appeared when Griffith starred in the 1957 movie “A Face in the Crowd.” It was the story of how an unknown country boy named Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes was plucked from obscurity to become a famous and influential person. When the nefarious character hits the big time his old instrument is replaced by the Martin guitar that was reported purchased by the prop department, painted black and adorned with sparkly sequins befitting a superstar.
The story goes that Andy rescued the abandoned Martin from the prop room after the filming concluded and spent a lot of time working on it, removing the sequins and sanding off the black finish. He relied on a guitar shop to do the refinishing. Two things they didn’t do, however, were to restore the Martin & Co. branding to the headstock and replace the pick guard under the sound hole, according to an article on the MeTV website. Those two omissions helped to make the instrument unique.
That one-of-a kind dreadnaught was the guitar that the Mayberry sheriff picked on the Andy Griffith Show either on the porch or when he was accompanying the Darlings on traditional folk songs such as “Dooley,” “Salty Dog,” and “Shady Grove.” It was also the one he used to make several records.
As a tribute to Andy and the show, Martin reproduced the guitar in 2003 as a limited edition with Griffith’s name emblazoned on the twentieth fret. Only 331 were produced, matching the number of episodes in the original TV series.
I happened to come across one of those models at the Jubilee Music Store during a recent visit to Kill Devil Hills on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The owner keeps it in a glass display case with a sign that clearly says, “Please Don’t Touch. Not For Sale.”
I can’t blame him one bit