UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
The Life & Times of Danny Gatton

Drawing from first-hand interviews with dozens of friends, family members and fellow musicians, Unfinished Business places Gatton's musical contributions into context, and documents his influence on those peers who admired him most, including Albert Lee, Vince Gill, Arlen Roth and Lou Reed.

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Danny Gatton

The Telecaster master they called The Humbler was a guitar picker of remarkable virtuosity who wrenched a shimmering, blazing, twanging assault of sound from his guitar in a seamless blend of blues, jazz, rockabilly, country and rock ‘n’ roll that was uniquely his own. If ever it could be said that they broke the mold when they created a guitar player, it was for Danny Gatton.

Yet for all his prowess, for all the new tangents he took off onto with his mind-boggling ideas for the guitar, real fame and real success eluded Danny Gatton for most of his career. What fame he did achieve came late and in small doses, tantalizingly close to the real recognition many thought he deserved.

Beginning in the late 1950s Gatton played with a group of friends called the Offbeats, and in the ‘70s he had other groups – Danny and the Fat Boys, and Redneck Jazz Explosion. The latter group released its own records with the help of Danny’s parents. Then, beginning in 1978, he began doing more session-oriented work, first with Commander Cody and then Roger Miller, followed by more band gigs in his hometown of Washington, DC. Finally, in 1987, he released a solo album on the family label, and drew the attention of Elektra Records, who signed him. Thus began Danny Gatton’s brief flirtation with fame: Guitar Player magazine in 1989 named him "World’s Greatest Unknown Guitar Player" and he released the critically acclaimed and Grammy-nominated album 88 Elmira St. in 1991.

Despite its popularity with guitar enthusiasts, the album didn’t sell well, nor did Gatton’s 1993 followup, Cruisin’ Deuces. Though he seemed on the road to success, he was dropped by Elektra, and in 1994 the guitar world lost a great talent when Danny Gatton died by his own hand.

Click below for Danny's complete biography:

Photo: Steve Gorospe

The Dingus Box

Guitar: Danny’s signature guitar was a Fender Telecaster (hence the nickname "The Telemaster.") His main Tele, and the basis for his Fender Custom Artist Series guitar, was a well-worn, heavily customized 1953 model. Gatton loved to tinker with equipment and tended to customize his own stuff. He also played a 1956 Gibson ES-350, 1961 Gibson Les Paul, and 1954 Gibson ES-295 which he believed had been Scotty Moore’s (Elvis’ first guitarist), but which was later found not to have been his.

Amps: An original tweed Fender Bassman and a heavily-modified early 1960s Fender Vibrolux blackface. He played the Bassman without reverb.

Effects: He created his own "Magic Dingus Box," which was a controller mounted on his guitar. It controlled an Echoplex, MXR EQ (equalizer), delay, reverb, and the speeds of the rotating horn in a Leslie speaker cabinet. He later stopped using these effects to prove that he wasn’t reliant on them to get his sound.

Strings & picks: Fender Dynammax .010 -.046 subsituting .015 for the G string, and he used heavy small Fender picks.

Slide: A full bottle of beer. (Preferred Heineken.)