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View Full Version : Deke Dickerson - the odd, the old, and his new Hallmark guitars



msteeln
March 17th, 2009, 09:00 PM
In the current issue of www.fretboardjournal.com/current_issue you'll find superb articles on Ray Davies, Clarence and Roland White, and one of my very favorite's, Deke Dickerson - www.dekedickerson.com whom is a main source in the revival of So. Cal country and Western swing music that was such a force in the post WW2 era, which helped spawn PA Bigsby's steels and (quite possibly the first) solid body electrics, used by greats like Merle Travis, Hank Garland and Billy Byrd (later of Gibson's Byrdland fame). In fact, Deke is one of those who helped make the new book on Bigsby so fine - www.bigsbyguitars.com/news12.html with his photo work, historic info, and connections. As a bonus, on the last page of the magazine, Deke tells the story of getting yet another priceless piece of America's musical history, Scotty Moore's #2 Echo-Phonic amp, made by Ray Butts, with a priceless photo of the three of them just prior to Deke taking ownership of it.
Deke has a fantastic collection of guitars and amps from those bygone days (Link Wray's Danelectro 'Guitarlin' to name just one), and has recently worked with Hallmark to produce some stunning 'remakes' of Semi Mosley's 1950's groundbreaking classics that Joe Maphis and Larry Collins favored, and they come at very reasonable prices, but in limited edition... www.hallmarkguitars.com
Hallmark has other interesting models to GAS over, like the infamous and now updated Swept Wing design, with a corresponding bass version, a George Barris licensed Batman 'Wing Bat, and other quality 6 stringers.
All in all, some interesting stuff that I havn't seen mentioned here on The Fret.