Doug and I first met when I was an editor at Acoustic Guitar magazine (from 1997 and 2013), where Doug became a frequent freelance contributor. One of the foundations of this working relationship was reviewing guitars, and thus researching, playing, geeking out on, and sharing thoughts on all kinds of instruments has always been a part of our friendship. When we started playing shared gigs, we’d often bring review guitars and gear along to see how it would do in a real-world setting, and naturally, we’ve both accumulated more guitars than we care to admit. What better excuse to use a good number of these instruments than a duet project! Once we began working on arranging the material for Duets, we quickly decided that taking advantage of a tonalities available by a wide range of different guitars would be part of it, and in the end, we used a total of 12 guitars on the album. In the case of the standard six-string steel-strings (two of mine, four of Doug’s), we basically used what we felt like playing on the day of a particular session, with little rime or reason to the particular choices (and when we play live, we typically just bring one or two standard steel-string each). The real fun was blending two completely different voices, such as baritone and standard guitar, or more extreme, baritone and high-tuned, miniature 12-string. We also paired steel-string and classical nylon-string, 12-string and metal-bodied National resonator guitar, as well as standard steel-string acoustic and electric archtop. We hope you also take a listen to the results, but here are the details on the guitars we played on the album. —Teja Gerken

TEJA’S GUITARS

Martin Custom OM
This is my primary performance guitar. The result of a series of conversations with Martin’s Dick Boak and Tim Teel, and built in Martin’s custom shop in 2004, the guitar has Indian rosewood and an Adirondack spruce top (both hand picked by Dick!). It’s essentially a vintage Style-21, with a cutaway and vintage-style bridge string-spacing of 2 3/8-inches, and in many ways, it’s very similar to Eric Schoenberg’s “Soloist” guitars. Alan Perlman has refretted the guitar twice, and it currently has an LR Baggs Anthem SL installed. Check out this video of me demoing the guitar for Peghead Nation.

Used on “The Southwind.”

Lowden O10
I bought this guitar at the 1999 NAMM show after having long admired Pierre Bensusan’s “Old Lady,” and it’s the classic jumbo Lowden, built with mahogany back and sides and a cedar top. It’s one of the loudest and most powerful fingerstyle guitars I’ve ever played, making it my preferred choice for playing in unamplified settings. The guitar has been refretted by Alan Perlman, and it currently has an LR Baggs Anthem SL installed. Check out this video of me demoing the guitar for Peghead Nation.

Used on “St. Anne’s Reel,” “Her Red Hair,” and “Travis.”

Mario DeSio Baritone
I first met Mario at San Francisco’s Bazaar Cafe, in the late 1990s. He had a pretty bad case of buying and selling guitars, and eventually this lead to him starting to dabble in building them. By about 2011, he’d built quite a few electrics and acoustics, but he wasn’t quite ready to take orders and sell them. However, he started to have significant amounts of money tied up in materials and guitars that weren’t going anywhere, he offered to build guitars at a price that none of us could refuse to a small group of his Bay Area musician friends, so he could gain experience while also getting feedback from performing players. I had always wanted a baritone, so I asked him to try his hands on one. We settled on copying the body shape of my Lowden O10 and chose a 27.5-inch scale, for which Luthier’s Mercantile was able to supply a pre-slotted fingerboard. The guitar is build with Peruvian walnut back and sides, a Sitka spruce top, and ziricote fingerboard and bridge. Mario finished the guitar in November 2013, and at the time of this writing, it’s the only baritone that he has built. LR Baggs Anthem SL in this one too!

Used on “Autumn Roads,” “Tarrega Study in Em,” and “Here Comes the Sun.”

Kenny Hill Ruck Model
Made in 2003, this model was designed by famed classical guitar luthier Robert Ruck and built in Kenny’s shop in Felton, California. I fell in love with a similar model (but with a spruce top) at the old Guitar Solo shop on San Francisco’s Clement Street, and when I asked Kenny about the model, it turned out that he had one with a very minor ding in the top that he felt he couldn’t sell to a dealer, so I snapped it up. The guitar has Indian rosewood back and sides, the distinctive Ruck-designed sound-ports in the upper bout (at each side of the neck’s heel), and fan-bracing with wider and flatter braces than what is typical. I had Kenny upgrade the tuning machines to a set of Gilberts and install side-dot position markers in the bass edge of the fretboard. Alan Perlman installed a Fishman Acoustic Matrix pickup in the guitar.

Used on “Rainy Sunday,” and “Nairobi.”

National Reso-Phonic Style 1 Tricone
Formerly owned by my departed dear friend Dale Miller, this is a Style 1 from shortly after National Reso-Phonic reintroduced Tricone models in the late 1990’s. Dale used it on several of his albums and countless gigs, and I was elated when his widow, Terry Helbush, agreed that I could buy the guitar after his passing. The guitar includes a Highlander pickup and tons of mojo.

Used on “The Seagull.”

Epiphone Emperor Joe Pass
This is an inexpensive 1990s model Epiphone Joe Pass signature model, made by Samick in South Korea. I got it from flatpicking virtuoso and fellow Peghead Nation co-founder Scott Nygaard, who in turn bought it cheap and in rough condition from a mutual friend several years before. I widened the rather narrow stock string-spacing at the bridge and strung it with flatwounds, but otherwise the guitar is completely original. There are obviously lots of finer archtop guitars available, but I find that for very little money, this Epiphone is quite suitable for my very occasional jazz guitar needs. For Duets, the guitar was recorded directly into Logic, using no mics or amplifiers.

Used on “Red Snapper.”

DOUG’S GUITARS

Kent Hamblin Grand Concert
Made in 2001, this is a very early example of luthier Kent Hamblin’s work. The small-body guitar pairs an Englemann Spruce top with some rather unusual-looking Brazilian Rosewood. I wasn’t familiar with Kent, who is based in Telluride, when I stumbled on this guitar, used, at Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto. I sat and played it for a good hour, and then left, intending to sleep on it a bit. I got as far as my car, when I suddenly realized that if anyone else played the guitar, it probably wouldn’t be there when I came back, so I turned around and grabbed it while I could! Now 19 years old, this guitar has had a lot of playing time, and has developed into one of my favorite guitars, both for gigging and recordingI’ve done quite a bit to this guitar over the years, upgrading the tuners, and installing a series of different pickups. It even had a banjo-style “railroad spike” in the fretboard for a while. It currently has a Barbera Soloist pickup installed, which is a great match for the guitar, both plugged in and acoustically.

Ed Claxton EM
Ed Claxton lives not far away from me in Santa Cruz, CA, and I’ve always enjoyed visiting his workshop and checking out his latest builds. As a result, I’ve ended up with three of his masterful creations. This EM, made of German Spruce and Brazilian Rosewood, followed me home in 2016, and still feels like a new guitar. It records well, and got used on a lot of tracks before I realized it would be fun to diversify a bit for this CD. I recorded a solo Christmas video with this guitar soon after I got it, which you can see at [URL]

Martin OMC 28B Laurence Juber
Martin made 50 Adirondack and Brazilian Rosewood OMs as part of the third run of Laurence Juber’s Signature model. This 2004 guitar is #30 in the series and features a striking Brazilian rosewood back. The Juber Signature Martins are very similar to Eric Schoenberg’s Soloist models. Consistent with the Schoenberg designs, the Juber models combine the response and tone of vintage OMs with some modern touches, like the Schoenber-style cutaway. This guitar is also a gigging favorite, and pairs well with Teja’s OM-21. The guitar is outfitted with a great-sounding set of Dazzo pickups, installed and fine-tuned by Teddy Randazzo.

Taylor GS 12-String
I reviewed a maple Taylor Grand Symphony 12-string for Acoustic Guitar in 2009, and was impressed with the playability and tone. People often ask if reviewers get to keep the gear they review – the answer is no, of course! But in this case, I liked the guitar enough that I custom ordered a nearly identical model soon afterwards, adding a cutaway and Gotoh tuners. I eventually replaced the ES-1 pickup system with a dual source K&K/mic combination.

Yamamoto Reverie
Tony Yamamoto is well-known to Bay Area guitarists for his remarkable instruments, and for his inventiveness and willingness to try new things. Before moving back to Japan in 2019, Tony regularly attended local guitar events, often with a new guitar in tow for performers to try out. At one of my gigs where I was playing a Veillette Gryphon (a tiny unison-strung 12-string), Tony approached me about the idea of building a short-scale, high-tuned 12-string guitar that had a bit more resonance, and that might be better suited to fingerstyle guitar. We settled on a 20-inch scale that would be tuned A-A, in between the Gryphon and a regular guitar. Tony named the new model the “Reverie” after the title of one of my fingerstyle compositions (Tony plays the song himself with a flatpick!). This particular guitar is the third Reverie to be built. The first prototype was made entirely of Paulownia, a very light wood from Asia. After making a few adjustments, #2, which I still own, had a Paulownia top, but Indian Rosewood back and sides. The guitar on this recording is #3, and has a Paulownia top, Madagascar Rosewood back and sides, and a slightly wider fretboard. I currently have #2 set up with unison courses, like the Gryphon that inspired the guitar. #3, featured on this recording, uses a standard 12-string octave setup. I typically keep this guitar in “DADGAD”, but tuned up to G. The guitar has a dual source K&K/mic pickup. You can see a solo video performance with this guitar at www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaKd3r5LL1E

Lowden O35
I’ve always been impressed by Teja’s well-broken in Lowden O10 during our joint gigs. At unplugged gigs, none of my guitars could compete with the volume and overall huge sound of his Lowden, so I’ve long been in search of something similar. Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto recently became a Lowden dealer, making it easy for me to regularly check Lowdens as they arrive. Teja actually noticed this specific guitar first, when he borrowed it from Gryphon to review for Peghead Nation. (See Teja demoing it HERE) Shortly afterwards, I recorded a series of demos for Gryphon with a half-dozen or so Lowdens. They all sounded great, but this one stood out to me as closest to what I was looking for. It still has 20 years of catching up to do to match Teja’s O10, but it’s off to a great start. You can hear the two dualing Lowdens on our recording of “Travis.”