Danny Gatton Gear
Reprinted from July 1993 Guitar Player magazine.
Pictures from http://www.dannygatton.com/guitars.html & © 1998 Steve Gorospe

Although Gatton works on most of his equipment himself, Jay Monterose takes care of his gear on the road, fabricates stainless steel parts, and handles most of the electronic work. "Jay is the best welder in the world," Gatton comments. "He's made things that have gone on the space shuttle." One of Monterose's current projects is updating Gatton's Magic Dingus box, a guitar-mounted control device that operates an Echoplex, amp reverb and vibrato, phase shifters, and other effects. Monterose is working on a wireless version.

Danny's main guitar is a Danny Gatton Telecaster prototype built by Mike Stevens at Fender's Custom Shop. The guitar, serial number DG00001, features early-model Joe Barden pickups, a stainless steel bridge plate, heavily knurled stainless steel knobs, and a 1 meg tone pot with a .05 capacitor to create wah effects. "Originally that guitar came with a painstakingly applied butterscotch finish, " Monterose remarks. "Danny's brother refinished it with Ditzler sunshine yellow over a gold base to make it look like an ES-295. They had to do it over and over until it was perfect." Other modifications include James Burton's autograph scratched into the front and raccoon prints on the back. Gatton also plays the first production model of his signature Telecaster, which he had modified by adding a center pickup between the stock ones.

Gatton prefers to use a pair of late-'50s tweed Fender Twin amps. "One of those amps is serial number 40," says Monterose. "He's had that since the mid '60s, and he's been playing it since then." The other Twin has four 5881 tubes and a pair of SRO speakers. Gatton also owns a Super Reverb, two Bassman reissues, and three Vibroverb reissues that have been heavily modified.

Until Gatton revives his Magic Dingus box, the only effect he uses is a delay unit - either an old tube Echoplex or a Chandler digital echo. "He only uses it when we're doing the rockabilly stuff, " Monterose explains. "Other than that, it's just reverb and tremelo on the amp. Danny gets all his organ effects by turning his tone pot down and turning the volume up. With the Barden pickups, he can get three distinct organ tones by selecting pickups."

-CG