Have “we” located the Nick Drake guitar?

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Just came across this interview from a few days back. I used to have that Dream Academy album.

“My guitar was the one Nick Drake is holding on the cover of Bryter Layter, which I’d bought for £100 and still had his tuning.”

‘I wrote it in a bedsit on Nick Drake’s guitar’: how the Dream Academy made Life in a Northern Town | Culture | The Guardian

‘When I played it to Paul Simon, he suggested changing the title – saying, “No one’s going to know how to ask for A Hey Ah Ma Ma Ma in a record store”’
amp.theguardian.com amp.theguardian.com

Guardian Article that references the guitar
 
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It seems every M-20 was Nick Drake's. Even ones made after his death. Funny how it had his tuning.

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Guild F-20 Sunburst (1974)

I just thought I'd share what has quickly become my all-time favourite acoustic guitar. I can not put this thing down. According to the serial number, it's a 1974 Guild F-20 in sunburst. It has a few scratches but no cracks or serious damage and even came complete with the original red-lined...
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Here is another article (seems a lot like the other one though). Still, that the founder of Dream Academy has it seems plausible.

And yes, it drives me crazy that every M20 ever sold calls it “the Nick Drake guitar.”!

www.mojo4music.com

MOJO Time Machine: Dream Academy Break Big With Life In A Northern Town

27 April, 1985 “We were talking the other night, and Nick said that when he...
www.mojo4music.com www.mojo4music.com
 
Westerly Wood

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I must admit, I never understood the popularity of this song. I always liked the title/lyric however. But hey, what do I know and those were different times...

The story re the guitar is super cool however! I bet it is still in the Pink Moon tuning. (lol)
 
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Prince of Darkness

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Looking back at an old thread, it does appear, that this is "The Nick Drake Guitar", which, of course, never was Nick Drake's guitar, though it seems to have been Eric Clapton's at some point.
Confused? You won't be after this weeks episode of....... :LOL:

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Nick Drake's Guild M20

Way I heard it is every great song from that era was penned with a Guild M20.
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AcornHouse

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Prince of Darkness said:
Looking back at an old thread, it does appear, that this is "The Nick Drake Guitar", which, of course, never was Nick Drake's guitar, though it seems to have been Eric Clapton's at some point.
Confused? You won't be after this weeks episode of....... :LOL:
Click to expand...
Another show before it's time. Dare I say a reboot on a streaming platform would be welcome.
 
davidbeinct

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plaidseason said:
I saw this too! And I still think it's mostly settled business that Nick never owned the guitar. It's obviously plausible that the guitar is "that" M20.

My friend Brian (who wrote an article about this for Fretboard Journal) is fairly versed in/obsessed with this topic:

Click to expand...

Love his shop, I’ve bought three guitars there. I almost typed two but realized I had sold one of them.
 
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wileypickett

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It's not mostly settled -- it's settled!

The guitar belonged to Nigel Waymouth, the photographer for the Drake LP cover photo shoot, who loaned it to Drake for the shoot, since Drake hadn't brought a guitar with him. It had been gifted to Waymouth by Eric Clapton, for whom Waymouth had done some photography work.

If indeed this is the same guitar used as a prop for the cover of Bryter Layter, cool! But I'm skeptical it was re-tuned by Nick Drake and left in that tuning, with no string changes, for five+ decades!
 
HeyMikey

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Well, I know where it is… but I’m not tellin’.


IMG_5429.jpeg
 
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plaidseason

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davidbeinct said:
Love his shop, I’ve bought three guitars there. I almost typed two but realized I had sold one of them.
Click to expand...
Same, they moved to Chester, Conn. I'll be there on Saturday as part of Chester's Earth Day thing. I'll be bringing my Guild M40! And one of their Youtube demos is what pushed me over the edge in picking up the M40.
 
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plaidseason said:
Same, they moved to Chester, Conn. I'll be there on Saturday as part of Chester's Earth Day thing. I'll be bringing my Guild M40! And one of their Youtube demos is what pushed me over the edge in picking up the M40.
Click to expand...
I like the homey feel of the Chester shop a lot. It’s also way easier to talk my wife into a trip to Chester than to going to a Guilford strip mall.
 
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plaidseason

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wileypickett said:
It's not mostly settled -- it's settled!

The guitar belonged to Nigel Waymouth, the photographer for the Drake LP cover photo shoot, who loaned it to Drake for the shoot, since Drake hadn't brought a guitar with him. It had been gifted to Waymouth by Eric Clapton, for whom Waymouth had done some photography work.

If indeed this is the same guitar used as a prop for the cover of Bryter Layter, cool! But I'm skeptical it was re-tuned by Nick Drake and left in that tuning, with no string changes, for five+ decades!
Click to expand...
Look . . . I like a good legend. This one has gone on for so long. I remember in the 90s being on the Nick Drake listserv and the non-stop discussion. Mostly though, I was just trying to be diplomatic. Brian, from my posted video, is not in any way diplomatic about this!

I like the Shroud of Turin vibes of the "Nick left it in one of his tunings."
 
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wileypickett said:
It's not mostly settled -- it's settled!

The guitar belonged to Nigel Waymouth, the photographer for the Drake LP cover photo shoot, who loaned it to Drake for the shoot, since Drake hadn't brought a guitar with him. It had been gifted to Waymouth by Eric Clapton, for whom Waymouth had done some photography work.

If indeed this is the same guitar used as a prop for the cover of Bryter Layter, cool! But I'm skeptical it was re-tuned by Nick Drake and left in that tuning, with no string changes, for five+ decades!
Click to expand...
I think Nick Laird-Clowes says he bought the guitar before writing the song, and that album came out in 1986. I guess it is possible that Nick Drake tuned the guitar during the photo shoot and the photographer put it in a closet for decade. But yeah, pretty unlikely,
 
Rainer

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As a big Nick Drake fan along with John Martyn I love reading all those comments. A shame that we have no videos of Nick playing.
I read a comment recently on YouTube a guy saying he saw Nick along with John Martyn playing in a club in 69. And Nick did the whole show playing the M20. I’d love to believe this even as I think Nick just like John didn’t worry much about the instrument he played on.
 
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