Old, New, Borrowed and Blue - A History of Donovan’s Guitars

by Stuart Penney

When we think of Donovan and his guitars it’s usually his iconic 1965 cherry sunburst Gibson J-45 acoustic that comes to mind, or perhaps one of the beautiful bespoke instruments made by Tony Zemaitis or Danny Ferrington which arrived later.  While these were, perhaps, Donovan’s most high-profile guitars, he has owned and used many different instruments, acoustic and electric, since he first exploded on the pop scene in 1965.  

This is an attempt to unravel the story of the dozens of guitars Don has been associated with over more than 55 years.  I’ve restricted the list to around 40 well-known instruments, but there are others where evidence is sketchy or lacking completely.  There is a partial photograph showing Donovan playing what appears to be a mid-60s Gibson SG electric, for example, and others picturing him at home with an unidentified resonator dobro style guitar and in the studio with a Hoyer 12-string acoustic with built-in pick-up. There's also evidence of a Martin OM model he used in the early 90s. So, any information, corrections and updates on these and other instruments listed here will be welcome.  

In his book The Hurdy Gurdy Man, Donovan says this about his very first guitar.  “[It] was an old ‘box’.  Not much to look at, but to me it was fantastic, and it was mine.  I had bought it for £3-10 shillings [£3.50] from [guitar teacher] John Vanstone”.  He goes on to describe the instrument as a nylon string classical guitar which had been fitted with steel strings.  It also had old fashioned wooden tuning pegs instead of modern metal geared tuners.  Whatever this early guitar was, it clearly wasn’t the first instrument on our list.

Guitar #1 - Framus 5/024 Hootenanny 12-String

Although Donovan has mentioned owning “a classical guitar (with) steel strings on it” in the early days, the first instrument with photographic evidence is this Framus Hootenanny 12-string, as pictured in the booklet from the 1969 LP Donovan’s Greatest Hits.  Here we see the teenage Donovan, circa 1962/63, in the Leitch family home at 230 Bishops Rise, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, gamely holding down a difficult A7 barre chord on the fifth fret of his Framus guitar.  

Framus was a German brand who made mid-price instruments between 1946 -1975.  Their guitars were hugely popular with British musicians and were even used by the Beatles.  John Lennon can be seen playing “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” on a Framus Hootenanny 12-string in the film Help! but his was slightly different (possibly a 5/019), with a natural top and solid headstock, unlike the slotted headstock on Donovan’s sunburst example. The mid-60s price of a Hootenanny was £42 10s 6d (equivalent to £840 today).

David Bowie also played the larger-bodied Framus 12-string guitars and Bill Wyman was a long-time user of their basses.  

Framus went out of business in 1975, but the name was revived 20 years later by the German instrument company Warwick and the guitars are now back in production.

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Guitar #2 - Zenith Model 17 

Don’s Framus was superseded by a Zenith Model 17.  This was a slightly higher quality (although still relatively inexpensive) archtop instrument with F holes, probably built in the late 50s.  Donovan tells how the guitar was borrowed from the girlfriend of his pal Mick Sharman but “the poor girl was never to get it back”.  

His early Denmark Street demos and even the “Catch The Wind” hit single were recorded with the Zenith and it was also the guitar with the “This Machine Kills” sticker Don used on his first Ready Steady Go! appearances in January and February of 1965.  He was pictured with it on the front cover of a 1965 tour programme as well as a Swedish 7” single sleeve for “Catch The Wind”.  According to an April 1965 Disc Weekly interview, Donovan gave this guitar to a friend when he bought the Martin D-28 (see guitar #4).

Zenith guitars were made under licence in Germany by Framus and imported into the UK by the famous music publisher and instrument retailer Boosey & Hawkes.  The guitars carried a B&H medallion logo on the headstock, together with the stark legend “Zenith - Foreign”.  Inside the body, visible through one of the F holes, was a label signed by jazz guitarist Ivor Mairants.  

A 1957 magazine advertisement shows the Model 17 on sale at 14 guineas (£14.70) which converts to around £360 today.  

Paul McCartney played a Zenith Model 17 in the early years of the Beatles (photograph of Paul below by Mike McCartney).

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Guitar #3 - Second Zenith? - Mystery Guitar With Pick-Up

This is a mystery guitar.  There are some early 1965 photos of Donovan playing an archtop instrument very similar to the Zenith (see Guitar #2), complete with “This Machine Kills” sticker, but it is clearly not the same guitar.  The photographs don’t show enough detail to provide a positive identification, but we can see it has an extra fretboard position marker, a pick-up and the F holes are also positioned slightly differently to the Zenith.  The pick-up could have been added easily, of course, but changing the dot position markers would have been more difficult and probably not worth the effort on such a cheap guitar.  Was it another Zenith, or was this mystery guitar a different make altogether, such as an undocumented Hofner or an Egmond/Rosetti? 

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Guitar #4 - Martin D-28 

After a couple of Ready Steady Go! appearances, the Zenith was replaced with Don’s first high quality acoustic, an expensive and desirable US-made Martin D-28.  Interviewed by Disc Weekly ahead of his first national tour in April 1965, Donovan revealed that he’d just bought a new Martin guitar for £300.  “It’s the first one I’ve owned” he said, adding, “I borrowed one for TV. My old one is no good for TV shows because I have to keep retuning it”.  This implies the Gibson SJN / Country-Western model mentioned below was borrowed or hired (see Guitar #6).

As his career began to take off during 1965 he was pictured with the D-28 extensively.  It’s seen on the front and back cover of his debut LP What’s Bid Did And What’s Bin Hid (US title Catch The Wind) and we assume it was used to record at least part of that album.  The famous “This Machine Kills” sticker from the Zenith was briefly transferred to this guitar for a Ready Steady Go!  appearance.

One of the earliest sightings of the Martin was on April 11, 1965 at the NME Poll Winners Concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley, where Donovan played two songs backed by second guitarist Keith "Mac" MacLeod, who used the Gibson SJN / Country-Western mentioned below.  

Martin introduced the D-28 model in 1931 and it was an instant hit with country players, folk strummers and bluegrass pickers alike.  With spruce top, rosewood back and sides and an ebony bridge and fretboard it became Martin’s most popular construction style.  The white plastic binding differentiates it from the cheaper, yet visually similar, D-18 model, which has black binding with mahogany back and sides.  

Martins have never been cheap guitars and in 1965 the D-28 was priced at close to £300 in the UK, which converts to more than £5,000 in 2021.  In the US they retailed around US$400 (US$3,300 today).  While pre-war D-28s now routinely change hands for six figure sums, a 1965 example similar to Donovan’s would easily sell for more than £5,000 on the vintage market today.

 

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Guitar #5 - Bob Dylan’s Gibson Nick Lucas Special

This was Bob Dylan’s guitar.  Donovan is seen using it to play “To Sing For You” in Dylan’s Savoy Hotel room in London during the documentary Don’t Look Back, filmed in May 1965.  

Dylan purchased his early 1930s Gibson Nick Lucas Special in 1963 from Marc Silber, who ran a shop in New York City called Fretted Instruments.  The Gibson previously belonged to Silber’s sister Julie and was originally sunburst, but when Dylan got the guitar, it had had been refinished in blonde and the bridge was replaced with one from a Guild.  

Dylan used this Gibson onstage for around four years, until it was damaged in Melbourne in April 1966.  Bob apparently placed some harmonicas on top of the guitar while it was in the case, then closed the lid (never a good idea), causing the top to cave in.  The Nick Lucas was repaired in Australia and survived to complete the 1966 European tour dates, but Dylan moved on to other acoustics soon after. 

Nick Lucas was a popular jazz guitarist of the 20s and 30s.  Gibson gave him his own signature model which was sold between 1928 - 1941.  Original unmolested examples are now extremely rare, selling for up to US$40,000 today.

Backstage in Birmingham, May 1966 - photo by Barry Feinstein

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Guitar #6 - Gibson SJN / Country-Western

In an early 1965 interview with Disc Weekly, Donovan is quoted saying that he’d just bought a new Gibson guitar for around £80.  Was he referring to this SJN / Country-Western?  This mysterious guitar seems to have been around only briefly during 1965 and early 1966 and there are tantalisingly few photographs of Donovan using it.  It’s pictured in the songbook Looking Very Tired From The Trip and there are a couple of photos showing Don playing it onstage at the Marquee club in London.  Another backstage image from Sheffield in May 1965 shows this guitar and his famous Gibson J-45 (see Guitar #8) together, so both instruments were around at the same time.  

The plot thickens here, however.  During his April 1965 appearance on the NME Poll Winners Concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley (now re-named Wembley Arena) Donovan, using his new Martin D-28, was backed by second guitarist Keith 'Mac' MacLeod*, his friend and mentor from St. Albans, who is playing this very Gibson SJN.  There are also pictures of MacLeod with the same guitar on his own website, www.macmacleod.co.uk so is it possible the SJN was always Mac's guitar, or did Donovan simply give it to him after his Gibson J-45 arrived?

SJN stands for Southern Jumbo Natural.  The Gibson Southern Jumbo (SJ) model dates from 1942 when it was available in sunburst finish only.  A natural colour option later became available (SJN) and the renamed SJN / Country-Western model started life in 1956 as a round/slope shouldered guitar similar to the J-45.  The shape was radically changed from round to square shoulders in 1962 when it also received a new "pointed" pickguard. Donovan's example seen here was either new or just a couple of years old in 1965.  

In America the SJN was priced at US$220 in 1965 without case (equivalent to US$1,800 in 2021), while in the UK it retailed at 110 guineas** (£115.50), case extra.  That converts to £2,250 in today's money. Sheryl Crow is a notable user of these post-1962 Gibson SJN / Country-Westerns and has her own signature model.

*Donovan apparently wrote the song “Hurdy Gurdy Man” for Mac MacLeod, who had formed a Danish power trio he called Hurdy Gurdy.  MacLeod also worked and/or recorded with John Renbourn, Dana Gillespie and Maddy Prior.  He sadly died from COVID-19 complications in November 2020. 

**See guitar #8 for an explanation of guineas.

 

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Guitar #7 - Joan Baez’s Martin 0-45 

Just as Bob Dylan had done the previous year, Donovan borrowed Joan Baez’s 1929 Martin 0-45 guitar, serial #39346 during his performance at the Newport Folk Festival in July 1965.  

Joan had at least two of these small body guitars, one without a pickguard, which some experts believe could be the almost identical Martin 0-42. Joan has said she paid $250 for her first 0-45 in 1963. In 1998 Martin issued a signature edition of the guitar, with just 59 examples made.

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Donovan with Gibson J-45 and SJN / Country-Western behind

Guitar #8 - Gibson J-45 Cherry Sunburst 

Arguably the most famous of all his guitars, Donovan bought this cherry sunburst Gibson J-45 (one of 3,951 shipped in 1965, fact fans) on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard with, as he wrote in the Hurdy Gurdy Man book, “the first money from my first record deal”.  He was pictured with the J-45 on the cover of the July 1965 issue of Fabulous magazine and probably the first time the guitar was seen in action was on the TV Show Shindig in August when Donovan performed “Colours”.  He fitted it with La Bella Silk and Steel strings, as recommended by Joan Baez.

The J-45 was then used on every album, hit single and TV appearance until it was stolen backstage at a concert in the early 70s.  Nicknamed “Cherry Red”, it was also the guitar Donovan took to India in early 1968 to study under the Maharishi with the Beatles, where it was played at various times by George and John.  

Later in 1968 Don's J-45 was heavily modified.  The pickguard was removed, the Gibson headstock decal was hidden, the white plastic button machine heads were changed several times (ultimately it ended up with a set of heavy-duty metal Grover tuners) and, in keeping with the times, the body and headstock were decorated with stars.  Probably the last time this guitar was seen onstage was during a BBC TV In Concert special in late 1972.  

The J-45 is one of Gibson’s most popular and longest-running acoustic models.  First introduced in 1942, it originally sold for US$45, hence the name.  A no-frills instrument, seemingly able to play any style of music, it has been dubbed “The Workhorse”.  In the early years, the J-45 was produced almost exclusively in tobacco (brown) sunburst, but between 1962-1969 the standard colour was cherry sunburst.  

A 1965 Gibson US price list shows this guitar at US$175 without case, which converts to around US$1,500 today.  In the UK the 1965 price was 88 guineas* (£92.40) without case, which is approximately £1,800 in 2021.  

In 2014 the Gibson Custom Shop issued a signature edition run of 100 replicas of Donovan’s 1965 Gibson J-45 priced at US$2,999.  Each came with a letter and a hand-signed label inside the guitar.  Donovan personally owns several of these reproductions, including one without a pickguard which was presented to him at the Gibson factory. 

*In the UK a guinea was the equivalent of one pound and one shilling (£1.05).  Even though the guinea coin went out of circulation around 1816, certain “luxury” items were still priced in guineas to give the illusion of status or class.  These included pianos, artwork, land, furniture, electrical equipment, white goods and, of course, guitars.  Although guineas disappeared when decimalisation arrived in 1971, they are still used to buy and sell racehorses today.

                                 

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Guitar #9 - Fender Telecaster

Donovan has said he played a white Fender Telecaster on the track “Season of the Witch”, “chunking down on the chord pattern with a lot of echo” during the Sunshine Superman album sessions recorded between January and May 1966 at CBS Studios in Hollywood.  The guitar was bought for $300 on Sunset Strip. No other details are available.

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Guitar #10 - Vox Custom “Kensington” 1966

It’s not clear how Donovan ended up playing this UK made guitar on a 1968 BBC TV show, but it’s an important instrument, with a strong Beatles connection.  A one-off model, it was presented to John Lennon by the Vox amplifier company and used by both Lennon and George Harrison during 1967 and 1968.  

The guitar was played by George during rehearsals for “I Am The Walrus” in the Magical Mystery Tour film and it later showed up in the “Hello Goodbye” promo film clip, where it was used by Lennon.  John later gifted it to Apple electronics founder Alex Mardas (aka Magic Alex) as a birthday present.  

The Vox Custom has been auctioned twice.  In 2004 Christie’s of London sold it for £117,250 (US$210,000) and in 2013 the guitar went under the hammer for more than US$400,000 at a Julien’s Auction at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square, New York.

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Guitar #11 - Epiphone Caballero FT-30

A solitary mid-60s photograph is the only evidence of our man using this Epiphone Caballero.  It features on the sleeve of the 1970 Australian EP Barabajagal and also on the cover of the 10” UK LP Minstrel Boy issued in 1983.  The guitar is missing the pickguard which would have been silkscreened with the trademark Epiphone “E” Greek epsilon.

Made in Gibson’s Kalamazoo factory between 1958-69, the Caballero FT-30 was the Epiphone equivalent of the Gibson LG-0 model with the same mahogany top, back and sides.  Inexpensive and smaller than a full-size flattop acoustic, these concert size instruments were often considered little more than "campfire" guitars in the US.  In 1966 this guitar was listed in the Epiphone UK catalogue for a very reasonable 73 guineas* (£76.65) without case.  That translates to around £1,500 in 2021.  

US-made Epiphones were equally as good as their Gibson counterparts in every way (sometimes better) until production was moved offshore in 1969, after which it became a budget brand. 

* See guitar #8 for an explanation of guineas.

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Guitar #12 - Rickenbacker 1997 RM  

After the Beatles spearheaded the British invasion of America in 1964, sales of Rickenbacker guitars exploded.  To meet demand the company produced special versions of several popular models for export to the UK.  These were virtually identical to the US versions except for a few cosmetic changes.  Most notably the familiar “slash” shaped sound holes seen on American models were replaced with more traditional F-shaped sound holes for the export guitars.  These instruments became retrospectively known as the “Rose-Morris” models, named after Rickenbacker’s UK distributor.  

Pete Townshend was just one of several high-profile UK exponents of these “Rose-Morris” guitars and he played a Rickenbacker 1997 RM which was the export version of their 335 model.  

We first saw Donovan with his Rickenbacker 1997 RM in Fireglo finish on Top Of The Pops in 1966 performing “Sunshine Superman” and he was later pictured with the guitar at the 1967 Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival.  

The original 1997 RM guitar was in production only between 1964-67. Rickenbacker re-issued it in 1987 along with a Pete Townshend signature model.

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Guitar #13 - Fender Stratocaster

This Olympic White Fender Stratocaster with rosewood fingerboard was first seen in September 1967 at the Hollywood Bowl and it later turned up in photographs from an early 70s TV show. 

Following the CBS takeover of Fender in 1965, the Stratocaster underwent several cosmetic and structural changes.  The most obvious being the enlarged headstock which happened at the end of 1965.  Donovan’s Strat has the new “large peghead”, as it was known, so it must have been a very recent model when he started using it.  Don still owns this guitar, apparently.

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Guitar #14 – Paul “Deano” Williams’ Guild F40E

Donovan borrowed this Guild acoustic guitar from Richie Havens’ guitarist Paul "Deano" Williams for his impromptu performance at the Blind Faith free concert in London’s Hyde Park on June 7, 1969.  Don had previously met Havens in Greenwich Village in 1966, so they were already acquainted.  

The exact Guild model is unclear, but it was most likely a D40E, F40E or the almost identical F50 with a factory-fitted pick-up and control knobs on the upper bout.  It may even have been a one-off special order.  

Note how the strap runs under the body of the guitar and is then attached to the sound hole via a hook.  This method is more commonly seen on nylon string classical guitars which are usually played sitting down. Willie Nelson also uses this Mariachi style strap, as it is known.  Presumably Deano (who played sitting) preferred to attach the strap this way on his steel string flat top instead of drilling the guitar for a strap button.

Nine weeks later on August 15, 1969 Williams would use this very guitar to back Richie Havens at the Woodstock Festival.  Around 30 seconds into “Freedom” on the Woodstock movie, listen out for Havens calling to the sound mixer “Turn up the guitar mic, please.  Guitar mic”.  He’s asking for Deano’s guitar volume level to be turned up.  The camera then cuts to Williams who grins widely, flashes a peace sign and points to this guitar.

 

    

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Guitar #15 - Paul McCartney’s Fender Stratocaster 

In his Hurdy Gurdy Man book Don writes that during the recording of the Open Road album in early 1970 in Morgan Studios, North London, he borrowed Paul McCartney’s Fender Stratocaster to record the track “New Year’s Resolvolution”.  Paul was also in Morgan at the time working on his first solo album McCartney.  

Even taking into account McCartney's left-handedness, this seems unlikely. No photos exist of Macca using a Strat during this period. Is it possible Don was thinking of the sunburst Fender Esquire which Paul played in the late 60s / early 70s? 

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Guitar #16 - Fender Telecaster Thinline 1969

This guitar was first seen at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 during the electric half of Donovan’s set with the Open Road band.  It was also used on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert TV broadcast in 1974.  

Introduced in mid-1968, the Telecaster Thinline is basically a semi hollow lightweight version of the regular solid Telecaster with body cavities and a single "F" hole on the bass side.  The bodies were made from ash or mahogany, although the ash versions are more common. In fact, when it first appeared in the 1969 Fender catalogue it was listed as the “Semi Acoustic Telecaster” (with no mention of "Thinline") and priced at £255, which was £15 more expensive than a Stratocaster and a whopping £80 more than a standard Telecaster.

There have been several different Thinline versions over the years, although the original two are most recognisable.  At the IOW Donovan played a 1969 model with two standard single-coil pickups and an ash body.  Confusingly, the Thinline was updated in 1972 with two Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups and a natural swamp ash body to resemble the Fender Telecaster Deluxe.  Got that?  Good.

This actual guitar was later owned by Johnny Marr and New Order's Bernard Sumner.

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Guitar #17 - “HMS Donovan” Guitar

This beautiful hand painted guitar was seen in the 1972 Jacques Demy film The Pied Piper with Donovan in the title role.  The make and model is unclear but it’s a small bodied instrument similar to a “0” size Martin or an even smaller parlour guitar and looks to have nylon strings with old style wooden tuners. 

The guitar was painted by Scottish artist John Patrick Byrne who, under the name “Patrick”, designed the 1971 HMS Donovan album sleeve and this instrument subsequently became known as the “HMS Donovan” guitar.

Byrne also designed record sleeves for The Beatles, Gerry Rafferty, Billy Connolly, and The Humblebums.  In later years he became one of Scotland’s foremost TV writers, responsible for such works as The Slab Boys Trilogy.  

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Guitar #18 - Gibson ES-350  

Donovan was pictured playing this big archtop jazz model on the cover of an unofficial CD recorded during a 1972 benefit show for the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders at Green's Playhouse in Glasgow.  The guitar was also seen onstage in October 1977 when he supported Yes at the Empire Pool, Wembley. It was a most unlikely choice for Donovan

The Gibson ES350 is a full depth 17-inch guitar with cutaway and two P90 pickups.  It should not be confused with Chuck Berry’s famous instrument, which was the similarly named ES-350T, with the “T” standing for “thinline”.  

The Gibson ES-350 was in production only between 1947-1956 (with a re-issue in 1994) and is associated with jazz players such as Barney Kessell and Tal Farlow. 

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Guitar #19 - Guild F-212 – 12-string

Before the Zemaitis guitars arrived, Donovan used a 12 string Guild F-212 onstage for the songs “Cosmic Wheels” and “Maria Magenta”.  He played this guitar together with his trusty Gibson J-45 on a BBC In Concert TV special aired in November 1972.  The show was released on DVD in 2009 under the name Donovan: An Intimate Performance.

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Guitar #20 - Zemaitis “Blue Moon”

The Cosmic Wheels guitar!  There are probably more pictures of this instrument in circulation than any of Donovan’s other guitars, including his cherry sunburst Gibson J-45 (see guitar #8).  Don owns at least three Zemaitis acoustics, the most famous being the “Blue Moon” model first seen on the cover of the Cosmic Wheels album in March 1973 - although an earlier photo exists of Alice Cooper guitarist Glen Buxton playing the guitar in Morgan Studios in November 1972 when Donovan guested on Alice’s album Billion Dollar Babies.

Built in 1972, it has a crescent moon sound hole with stars decorating the top of the purple/blue coloured body.  After the J-45 was stolen around 1973 this became Donovan’s main stage and recording guitar, lasting until 1996.  

“Blue Moon” was eventually retired from live work when Donovan began using the Ferrington “Kelly” guitar (see guitar #26).  In the 2008 documentary Sunshine Superman: The Journey Of Donovan, this Zemaitis can be seen undergoing repairs and a refinish by Danny Ferrington in his Santa Monica workshop.  I have it on good authority that the treasured “Blue Moon” guitar now hangs on the wall in Donovan’s house in Ireland, currently minus its strings!

Tony Zemaitis was a British guitar maker of Lithuanian descent.  He rose to fame in the late 60s and early 70s, making unique instruments of extraordinary quality and ornamentation for the likes of Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Greg Lake, Jimi Hendrix, Ron Wood, Ronnie Lane, Marc Bolan and George Harrison.  

Zemaitis ran a cottage industry producing no more than ten instruments a year, steadfastly refusing to move into mass production.  He would never make an instrument he did not want to, whatever the financial incentive, preferring to deal with friends and players, rather than dealers or collectors, saying that his guitar building started as “a pleasant hobby for an amateur player, and to the most extent remains so.”

Although Tony Zemaitis died in 2002, his name lives on with Zemaitis guitars now manufactured under licence in Japan.  Original 60s / 70s examples now change hands for enormous sums, especially the engraved metal-fronted Zemaitis electrics as played by Marc Bolan and Ron Wood.

 

            

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Guitar #21 - Zemaitis “Green Heart” 

Another flat top acoustic similar to the “Blue Moon” guitar but this one is green with a heart-shaped sound hole and a somewhat larger body.  It was pictured on the cover of a 1981 German 7” single “Neutron”/”The Heights Of Alma”.

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Guitar #22 - Zemaitis “Sun” 12-string

Donovan’s third Zemaitis is a 12-string with a sun decoration around the sound hole.  It replaced the Guild F-212 (see guitar #19) for onstage work in the mid-70s for songs such as “Cosmic Wheels” and “Maria Magenta”.  It was still being used in concert as late as 1981 when Don played the Vienna Folk Festival, using it on two early songs “Donna Donna” and “Little Tin Soldier”.  The guitar is pictured on the cover of a 1978 French single “Dare To Be Different”/”Sing My Song”. The Zemaitis 12-string pictured (right) belongs to erstwhile Eric Clapton band guitarist George Terry and is very similar to Donovan's.

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Guitar #23 - Fender Stratocaster Sunburst

Another late 60s CBS-era Fender with large headstock, this sunburst Stratocaster with rosewood fingerboard was used on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert TV show in 1974.  It is also pictured on the sleeve of the 1975 Dutch single “Salvation Stomp”/”Moon Rok”.

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Guitar #24 - Alembic Series I

Founded in San Francisco by Grateful Dead soundman (and their personal chemist) Owsley Stanley in 1969, Alembic specialise in highly ornate (and very expensive) guitars and basses built from exotic woods.  Celebrity bass users have included Stanley Clarke, Greg Lake, John Entwistle and John Paul Jones.

Donovan was seen playing this Alembic Series I guitar onstage during a 1976 US tour where he was backed by the band Jiva.

The Series I is perhaps the definitive Alembic model, introduced in 1972 and available with a range of body styles and appointments.  He was also seen using an Alembic Club 12-string model while supporting Yes at the Empire Pool, Wembley in October 1977.

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Guitar #25 - Gibson J-45

Donovan was seen using a red J-45 with a white pickguard in 1995 while running through songs for the Sutras album with producer Rick Rubin.

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Guitar #26 - Ferrington “Kelly”

Hand built by Danny Ferrington in 1996, Donovan’s long-time favourite guitar has been dubbed “Kelly”.  Distinguished by its bold Irish coloring, the top is stained bright green and the back and sides are red.  A horned stag is inlaid on the lower bout of the top and mother-of-pearl runes are inlaid on the fingerboard, representing the Vikings who invaded Ireland.  The design around the sound hole is based on the Book Of Kells, a twelfth century Irish manuscript.

Donovan wrote this about the guitar on his website “When I first picked her up, all she would play was Irish tunes.  So, I decided to trick her by writing my first song with her - half Irish, half Scottish, and half Donovan.  ‘Kelly’ being but a babe and not yet counting, it worked, and now she plays anything.  

“‘Kelly’ became my favorite guitar, though Rick Rubin insisted on my using ‘Blue Moon’ [see guitar #20] for Sutras [recorded 1996], for its more mature sound.  ‘Kelly’ needed to grow up.  But now she records beautifully.”  

Working from his Santa Monica studio, Danny Ferrington has built guitars for George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Dweezil Zappa, Richard Thompson, Kurt Cobain, Johnny Depp, Johnny Cash, Pete Townshend and others.

Including “Kelly”, Donovan owns at least four Ferrington guitars.

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©Donovan Discs 2019

Guitar #27 - Ferrington “Atlantis”

Second only to “Kelly” in ornamentation, this beautiful blue Ferrington acoustic was dubbed “Atlantis”.  It was used at Janey Godley’s Big Burns Supper online event in January 2021 and can be seen in action on Donovan’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uo4zEnwxSc

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©Donovan Discs 2019

Guitar #28 - Ferrington Custom Electric

Looking very similar to a guitar made for Richard Thompson in 1991, this two pick-up solid body electric is fitted with a mini humbucker in the neck position and a Telecaster style single coil pick-up at the bridge.  

Donovan used it onstage in 2016 at the Celebrate the Summer of ’66 Festival at the Royal Windsor Racecourse.  This was a 50th anniversary tribute to the 1966 Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival which took place at the same venue.  

This guitar features in the book Ferrington Guitars.

                                                              
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Guitar #29 - Ferrington Acoustic with Cutaway

Another Ferrington acoustic circa 2010, this one is blue with a cutaway. The bridge is two fish swimming in opposite directions to honour George Harrison, whose star sign is Pisces. It was used at a benefit concert for the David Lynch Foundation at the El Rey Theater in LA, March 2010.

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Guitar #30 - Fender Telecaster 

Butterscotch blonde with maple neck and a black pickguard, this Telecaster of unknown date was used onstage in the late 90s.

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Guitar #31 - Ovation Legend

In 1966 Ovation turned the acoustic guitar world on its head with a revolutionary design feature which replaced the instrument's conventional wooden back and sides with a composite synthetic bowl made from a type of fibreglass.  

Donovan’s electro-acoustic, sunburst Ovation Legend with cutaway was seen onstage several times in the 90s, including a 1997 German TV show.

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Guitar #32 - Ovation Balladeer

Ovation’s earliest and most popular model.  Notable for their distinctive synthetic round or bowl backs, these guitars were hugely fashionable in the 70s and 80s, played by countless famous artists, including Paul McCartney, Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond and Glenn Campbell.  Donovan used his Balladeer onstage in the 90s.

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©Donovan Discs 2019

Guitar #33 - Gibson J-45 True Vintage

This high-end J-45 was produced between 2006-2019 in traditional style with old style “banner” logo and “Only A Gibson Is Good Enough” on the headstock, as originally used during WWII. It has a vintage orange Gibson label visible through the sound hole.  Donovan bought this guitar “pre-loved” and it's now part of the Donovan collection.

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©Donovan Discs 2019

Guitar #34 - Gibson Les Paul Standard Reissue

Strange to see Donovan with a Les Paul, but this sunburst reissue was used onstage a few times.

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Guitar #35 - Gibson Les Paul Standard Goldtop

In 2011 a Gibson Les Paul Standard Goldtop was signed by many of the musicians and presenters who attended the Mojo magazine Honours List Awards.  The guitar was then auctioned for charity.  Those who signed the guitar included Donovan, Jimmy Page, Brian Wilson, John Lydon, Ringo Starr, the Arctic Monkeys and Primal Scream.

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Guitar #36 - Fender Stratocaster 

This sunburst Stratocaster with large headstock and maple fretboard was used onstage in Italy in November 2019

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Guitar #37 - Harmony H-45 Mars Stratotone 

This US-made solid body electric from the early 60s was used on a Joolz Juke blues project overseen by Donovan to mark the 50th anniversary of Brian Jones’ death.  Joolz is Brian Jones’ grandson (and Don’s adopted grandson).  The guitar is part of the Donovan collection. 

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©Donovan Discs 2019

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Guitar #38 - Gibson J-45 Standard

Also used on the Joolz Juke Brian Jones tribute.  The Standard sits in the middle of the J-45 line-up and is probably Gibson’s most popular premium grade acoustic flattop.  Part of the Donovan collection.

 

Miscellaneous Instruments:

Vega Whyte Laydie Banjo

In the Hurdy Gurdy Man book Donovan says this about recording his 1965 single “Colours”.  “I had bought a fine White Lady [sic] banjo on Cambridge Circus and accompanied myself in the style of Derroll Adams”.  The London music shop referred to here was almost certainly Clifford Essex, located at 20 Earlham Street, which runs from Cambridge Circus to Seven Dials in Covent Garden and the correct name of the banjo was a Vega Whyte Laydie.  

Clifford Essex were specialists in acoustic string instruments and they also published the famous BMG Magazine (Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar) which was the oldest music publication in the world, starting in 1903 and eventually outlasting the West End store, which closed in 1977.  Clifford Essex also published countless tutor books for these instruments.  

In the 1960s, before custom gauge guitar strings became available, Eric Clapton and other string-bending bluesmen would buy banjo strings from Clifford Essex to replace the high E strings on their guitars.  They would then move the other five strings across (so the original E string became the B string and so on), creating a homemade light gauge set suitable for blues soloing.  

The Vega banjo turned up many times throughout Donovan’s recordings, and is pictured on the covers of the two 1967 LPs For Little Ones and Wear Your Love Like Heaven. 

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Sitar

Although Shawn Phillips is credited with sitar on several Donovan records, the man himself also owned one in early 1966.  He was pictured with it many times, but it doesn’t seem to have been used onstage or featured on record.  

Virtually the only place in London where a sitar could be found in the 60s was Indiacraft, at 533 Oxford Street, near Marble Arch, so it’s possible Donovan bought his there, as did George Harrison in 1965.

Interviewed about the trip to India with the Beatles, Don later said “John, George and Paul all asked me to teach them how to play the sitar because I had one in London when no-one else had seen one before.”  That reply may contain more than a pinch of the usual Donovan hubris, but it’s true he was an early adopter of the instrument.

©Nick Read - 1981

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Cittern / Octave Mandolin

The Cittern dates back many centuries, but the modern version is a hybrid instrument developed in the 1970s primarily for playing folk music.  Most citterns have 10 strings (five courses of two) but some are made with eight strings which, tuning apart, makes them almost indistinguishable from octave mandolins. 

Donovan used an eight-string cittern / octave mandolin on the track “The Heights Of Alma” from the 1980 album Neutronica.

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©Donovan Discs 2019

Harmonica

Like most UK folkies and blues players of his era Donovan favoured Hohner Echo Super Vamper harmonicas (aka harps) in various keys.  The Super Vamper was basically a European version of the famous Hohner Marine Band harmonica sold in America. Naturally, he used a harmonica harness around his neck to hold the harps while he played guitar. His first rack was a charming home-made affair with a fur neck covering constructed for him by his father (see guitar #2) but he soon graduated to a more professional, chrome-plated, store-bought harness (see guitar #4). Hohner recently gave Don his own signature harmonica model, pictured above.

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Kazoo

Kazoos were popular in jug band music and folk / blues for many years with artists such as Jesse Fuller using them on his big hit “San Francisco Bay Blues.”

In keeping with his one man band image, Donovan used a kazoo in his harmonica rack, at least in his early Woody Guthrie period (Gypsy Dave is credited with kazoo on “Keep On Truckin’” from the first LP).  He soon outgrew it, though, and by the time of his second album the glorified comb and paper device was gone.  

Simple to play, plastic kazoos could be bought for a few pennies in 60s music stores, but serious folkies used the metal ones which might cost as much as one pound! 

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Hamilton Capo

For the uninitiated, a capo (short for capodastro) is a clamp-like device used on the neck of a fretted stringed instrument (usually a guitar) to transpose and shorten the playable length of the strings - hence raising the pitch and enabling the player to use the same chord shapes in different keys.  This helps with guitar fingering and can also assist with vocal accompaniment.  

There are many weird and wonderful varieties of capo on the market today, but back in the 60s the choice was limited, at least in Britain.  We had the cheap and nasty elastic capos (wildly inefficient, since they were little more than a wide elastic strip and a plastic bar strapped to the guitar neck) and then there was the Hamilton capo.  Made from metal and virtually indestructible, the Hamilton was the capo of choice for most gigging folkies in the 60s and Donovan used one from his earliest days with the Zenith Model 17 (see guitar #2).  

Technology has come a long way since then and the Hamilton capo with its Heath Robinson-style two-handed operating method now seems old, slow and clunky.  But they did the job just fine at the time - and still do.  I still have my original Hamilton capo from the 60s and it’s never missed a beat in more than 50 years.  

The Hamilton company has been around since 1883 and is still in business today, based in Middletown, Ohio, although they are now better known for their music stands.  The Monkees immortalised the company in their song “Circle Sky” from the 1968 Head album.  The line "Hamilton's smiling down" apparently refers to one of their music stands.

Many thanks to Les Lawson Bear for his assistance with photographs

Find Les on Instagram: lrsbearuk or Twitter: @lrsbearuk

Donovan's website: https://donovan.ie/