Wednesday March 5th, 2003

Gill unveils "Six-String Sculpture" exhibit featuring two Gibsons

Country artist Vince Gill unveiled "Six String Sculpture: Unique Guitars from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum" this morning (3/5) at SunTrust Music Row Financial Center in Nashville. The exhibit, which runs through December 2004, features six guitars including singing cowboy Jimmy Wakely's 1941 Gibson SJ-200 and Johnny Western's 1953 Gibson J-200. The guitars on display are from the Hall of Fame and Museum's collection of 552 historically important instruments.

"I personally love guitars. These are like pieces of art," said Mark Medley, Museum Senior Curator of Collections. "We tried to include special customized instruments that feature inlay and custom pickguards. That is such a country music thing, and that's just one of the things we also tried to point out with this, to have your name on your guitar is something that is found in the country music culture.

Mark Medley points out the engraved pickguard on the 1941 Gibson SJ-200.

"The Jimmy Wakely family was kind enough to donate this SJ-200 in 1999, and that's a very significant piece for our permanent collection. Johnny Western wrote the theme song to a television series in the late 1950s called 'Have Gun, Will Travel' and it was really his only hit, and he built an entire career around that one song. This was the guitar that he used and you can see him holding it in the photo, it was about 1958."

Wakely's guitar is custom-inlaid with his name on the abalone pickguard. His rendition of Floyd Tillman's "Slipping Around" with duet partner Margaret Whiting went to the top of the country and pop charts in 1949. Western's guitar features a chess knight logo of "Have Gun, Will Travel" and a custom inlaid neck designed by the Mosrite company of Bakersfield, Calif.

Vince Gill examines the collection.

Kyle Young, director of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum with Vince Gill, President of the Board of Officers and Trustees

Woody Woodring, president and CEO of SunTrust Bank Nashville, Young, Gill, and Brian Williams, vice president and manager, STI Music Private Banking.

Jimmy Wakely and his 1941 Gibson SJ-200

  
Johnny Western's 1953 Gibson J-200.