John Martyn Guitars & Gear: The Complete Guide to the Echoplex Pioneer’s Rig

At some point in 1972, John Martyn discovered something. If you tuned the guitar low, ran it through an Echoplex tape delay set to repeat, and played rhythmically, the echo would build up your own guitar figures beneath you — a looping, self-sustaining pattern that functioned simultaneously as bass line, percussion, and harmonic foundation. You could then play over the top of this repeating structure, soloing against a rhythmic foundation of your own creation. The sound that resulted was described, on his official website, as “the Bo-Diddley-on-Red-Leb rhythmic pattern which was for years his trademark and which he has never entirely abandoned.” It was something nobody had done before, and it was the sound of John Martyn.

He invented ambient acoustic guitar music in 1972. Not accidentally, not as a side effect of something else, but deliberately: he wanted the guitar to sound like a horn — “I wanted the sustain a horn gets” — and the Echoplex was the closest he could get. The specific acoustic-electric-through-effects sonic landscape he created, sitting behind a custom pedalboard running a Guild acoustic through an Echoplex into a Fender Twin, changed what acoustic guitar was understood to be capable of in a live performance context. Brian Eno credits him. David Bowie loved him. Eric Clapton gave him guitars. Phil Collins played drums on his albums. He was one of the most original sonic thinkers in the history of the instrument, and his gear was as specific and as obsessively chosen as his music was specific and obsessive.

John Martyn was born Ian David McGeachy on September 11, 1948, in New Malden, Surrey — the son of two light opera singers whose early separation sent him to Glasgow for his childhood. He learned guitar at fifteen, left school at seventeen, and began playing folk clubs under the wing of the Scottish folk musician Hamish Imlach. His first hero was Davy Graham (Series 2 #118) — Graham’s eclecticism, his juxtaposition of blues, jazz, folk, and Indian music, “had a profound impact which remains even today on Martyn’s musical vision,” his biography states. He signed with Island Records in 1967 and built a career that moved from folk to jazz-folk to ambient acoustic to full electric and back again, across records including Solid Air (1973), Inside Out (1973), One World (1977), Grace and Danger (1980), and Piece by Piece (1986). He died on January 29, 2009, at sixty years old. He was awarded an OBE in 2008. He was one of the most important British musicians of the twentieth century, and he is seriously underknown outside the specific community that discovered him.

Background: From Glasgow Folk Clubs to Ambient Acoustic Pioneer

Martyn’s development from a folk guitar player in the British tradition to the sonic innovator of Solid Air and One World is one of the more dramatic trajectories in the history of British music. His early records — London Conversation (1967), The Tumbler (1968), and the albums he made with his wife Beverly in the late 1960s — were folk in the traditional sense: acoustic guitar, voice, the British folk club tradition in which he had developed. But the seeds of what came later were already visible. His introduction to alternate tunings came from Graham’s influence; his interest in jazz came from his absorption of American jazz guitar; his restless formal experimentation was already present in the earliest recordings.

The key development came around 1971-1972. He began playing through effects — first a tremolo-wah combination that “could sweep from a soft and mellow chording to a pulsing cackle,” then the Echoplex. The Echoplex was a tape-based delay: a loop of magnetic tape ran over recording and playback heads, with the time between heads adjustable to produce delays of varying length. With the feedback control set to produce repeating echoes, the Echoplex could build up a pattern from a single guitar figure — adding each new note to the accumulating wash of previous notes, creating the self-sustaining loop effect that became Martyn’s signature. Bless the Weather (1971) documented the early stages of this approach. Solid Air (1973) — written for his friend Nick Drake, who was struggling with depression — crystallized it into one of the most acclaimed albums in British music history.

His friendship with double bassist Danny Thompson — who provided the jazz-upright bass counterpoint to Martyn’s amplified acoustic loop experiments — was as central to his sound as any piece of equipment. Thompson and Martyn had “an almost telepathic understanding,” his official biography notes. The specific combination of Thompson’s jazz-informed bass and Martyn’s looping, echo-drenched acoustic guitar became the definitive sound of his peak years.

His later career was complicated by substance abuse — alcohol and drugs — and by the 1995 amputation of his right leg following an infection. He continued performing seated, continued recording, and received an OBE from the Queen in 2008, the year before his death. His Les Paul Goldtops were auctioned in 2024, after his estate was settled.

The Rig: John Martyn’s Guitars, Amps, and Effects

Guitars

Guild D-55NT (Primary Acoustic, Late 1970s Peak Period): John Martyn’s most celebrated acoustic guitar — the one seen in the famous Rock Goes to College television performance of 1978, the one that produced the signature sound of his peak years — was a Guild D-55NT. The D-55 is Guild’s flagship dreadnought: rosewood back and sides, Sitka spruce top, scalloped X-bracing, considered among the finest production acoustic guitars made in America. The NT designation indicates “natural top” — no shading, the spruce’s natural color visible.

Martyn’s use of the Guild D-55 was unconventional in both setup and aesthetic. He gaffer-taped a DeArmond soundhole pickup directly to the guitar — the gaffa tape visible in photographs, deliberately deadening the soundboard to some degree and reducing feedback from the contact pickup. He also ran a Barcus Berry-type contact pickup in addition to the DeArmond, routing the two pickups to different channels of his amplifier: the contact pickup went straight to the non-reverb (dry) channel of the Fender Twin, providing the acoustic character of the guitar directly; the DeArmond soundhole pickup went through his effects chain first, then into the reverb channel. This dual-routing system gave him simultaneous processed and unprocessed guitar signals — the effects-drenched Echoplex sound on one channel and the natural acoustic character on the other, both feeding the same amplifier at the same time.

The gaffer tape bothered his “serious guitarist friends” considerably. Martyn was indifferent to their concern. The gaffa tape served a practical purpose — holding the pickup in position, dampening feedback, shaping the acoustic resonance in ways he found useful — and the aesthetic was consistent with his general attitude toward his instruments: tools for making specific sounds, not objects of reverence.

Martin D-28 (Primary Acoustic, Later Career): After retiring the Guild D-55NT, Martyn moved to Martin D-28 acoustic guitars for the band period of his career. The D-28 is one of the definitive steel-string acoustics — rosewood back and sides, spruce top, herringbone trim, a guitar whose specific character has been described countless times as the benchmark of what a dreadnought acoustic should sound like. Small Hours was recorded using a D-28 before he switched to the Guild, and he returned to Martin D-28s for the band period that followed. The pickup setup remained the same: DeArmond soundhole and Barcus Berry contact pickup, routed to separate amp channels.

Gibson SG with P-90s (Electric Guitar, Eric Clapton Gift): In 1978, following the Rock Goes to College performance at Reading University, Martyn told a witness that Eric Clapton had given him both his Music Man amplifier and a Gibson SG with P-90 pickups. The SG had no pickguard and a traditional stop-bar Gibson bridge — a specific configuration that Clapton had presumably specified or customized. Clapton and Martyn were friends and mutual admirers; the gift reflects the specific way musicians of this era acknowledged each other’s talent, through instruments rather than awards. The SG’s P-90 pickups give a tonally specific character: single-coil output with a larger coil than a standard single-coil, producing more warmth and output than a Stratocaster pickup while retaining a specific midrange bite that humbuckers don’t have.

Gibson Les Paul Goldtops (Early Electric Guitars): Martyn owned two early Gold Top P-90-loaded Gibson Les Pauls — one from 1954 and another of similar vintage. These were significant instruments: 1950s Les Paul Goldtops with P-90 pickups are among the most sought-after vintage guitars in existence, with the specific combination of mahogany body, maple top, and P-90 single-coil pickups producing the guitar sound that defined early rock and roll and British blues. Both were auctioned in 2024 following his estate settlement, generating significant interest from collectors who understood their historical value.

Epiphone Les Paul (Late Career Comeback Instruments): In his later career comeback period, Martyn used Epiphone Les Paul guitars — production versions of the classic Gibson design at a fraction of the vintage price. After his historic Les Paul Goldtops were stolen or sold at various points, and as the financial complications of his later career required more practical solutions, the Epiphone provided the Les Paul playing experience at a road-practical price and without the anxiety of taking irreplaceable vintage instruments on tour.

Yamaha FG-160 (Early Career): Before the Guilds and Martins, one of Martyn’s early guitars was a Yamaha FG-160 — a modestly priced Japanese flat-top acoustic that was a common entry-level instrument of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Its presence in his documented early career is consistent with his working-musician origins and with the general pattern of early British folk musicians using whatever affordable instrument was available before success allowed more expensive choices.

Amps

Fender Twin Reverb (Primary Touring Amp, Early-Mid 1970s): Martyn’s primary amplification through the early-to-mid 1970s was a Fender Twin Reverb — the 85-watt clean tube combo whose enormous headroom and pristine reverb made it the standard professional amplifier for players who needed maximum clean volume with natural tone character. He used two Fenders simultaneously: the main Twin received both his processed (effects) and unprocessed (dry) pickup signals through separate channels, while a smaller Fender was used for his Korg drum machine on certain solo performances. The Twin’s clean headroom was essential for Martyn’s approach — the Echoplex’s cascading repeats needed a clean amplifier to prevent the accumulating signal from dissolving into feedback or saturation.

Music Man Amplifier (Mid-to-Late 1970s, Clapton Gift): In the mid-1970s, Martyn replaced the Fender Twin with a Music Man amplifier head and cabinet — given to him, along with the Gibson SG, by Eric Clapton. Music Man amplifiers of this period were designed by Leo Fender after he left the Fender company; they used a hybrid solid-state preamp/tube power amp design that produced a specific character: cleaner and tighter than a pure tube amp, with the warmth of tube power amplification in the final stage. The Music Man “sounded magnificent with lots of air moving about and sparkle driven by valves,” according to the johnmartyn.com history of his setups.

Roland JC-120 (Later Career): In his later career, Martyn used the Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120 — a solid-state 120-watt combo whose built-in stereo chorus effect and clean, precise amplification made it one of the most popular professional amplifiers of the 1980s. The JC-120’s specific character suited Martyn’s effects-heavy approach: its extremely clean, flat response amplified effects processing without adding coloration, giving the Echoplex and subsequent digital delays their full character. His later documented rig ran: guitar → effects chain → DD-3 delay → Ernie Ball volume pedal → second DD-3 → DI box → JC-120.

Effects

Maestro Echoplex EP-1 and EP-2 (Career-Defining Effect): The Echoplex was John Martyn’s most important piece of equipment — more significant to his sonic identity than any guitar or amplifier. He used both the EP-1 and EP-2 versions of the Maestro Echoplex at different times during his career. The Echoplex is a tape-based delay: a loop of magnetic tape runs over recording and playback heads, with the slider that adjusts the time between heads determining the delay time. At high feedback settings, each echo triggers another echo, and another, building up a self-sustaining loop of the original pattern that continues to ring beneath new material.

Martyn’s specific use of the Echoplex went beyond its original purpose as a simple delay effect. By setting the repeat at a rhythmically coherent interval relative to his playing, he could create the “Bo-Diddley-on-Red-Leb rhythmic pattern” that became his signature — a looping, percussive, harmonically rich self-generated foundation against which he soloed. He did not think of the Echoplex as a delay effect; he thought of it as a rhythm section. “I wanted the sustain a horn gets,” he said, describing his initial motivation. The Echoplex, combined with his wah and other effects, gave him something closer to a horn’s sustain than any other approach he had found.

His Echoplex was stolen in Liverpool at some point in his later career — a loss he described with visible sadness in interviews. “Since then I’ve been using an Alesis, which is very good. But there’s a lot of compression on it, so it tends to hiss a lot.” He never found a complete replacement for the specific tonal character of the original Echoplex tape units.

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff (Fuzz/Distortion): The EH Big Muff — the large-format fuzz/sustain pedal that became one of the most iconic effects units in rock history — was a documented component of Martyn’s effects chain, particularly in the mid-to-late 1970s period. The Big Muff’s combination of fuzz character and sustain complemented the Echoplex’s loop-building function: the fuzz added harmonic complexity to each guitar figure that the Echoplex then repeated, enriching the accumulated texture. His 1977 OGWT (Old Grey Whistle Test) Collegiet Theatre performance documents the Big Muff as the first pedal in his chain: Big Muff → Mastro Boomerang → MXR Phase 90 → Mutron → two Echoplexes.

MXR Phase 90 (Phaser): The MXR Phase 90 — the small orange pedal that became one of the most widely used phasers in rock and folk — appears in Martyn’s documented effects chain. The Phase 90’s sweeping, cycling phase effect added a rotating quality to sustained notes that suited the ambient, textural approach Martyn was developing. Combined with the Echoplex’s looping, the Phase 90 gave the repeated guitar figures a slowly shifting harmonic character — each repeat sounding slightly different from the last as the phase swept through its cycle.

Mutron / Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron (Envelope Filter): An envelope filter — the Mutron in his late 1970s rig, the Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron in later years — provided an auto-wah effect that responded to his pick attack, opening and closing a filter in response to the dynamics of his playing. “They’re now called Q-Trons,” Martyn said of his envelope filter in a later interview, explaining that he was using the EH Q-Tron+. The envelope filter’s auto-wah function gave his guitar lines a funky, rhythmically active quality that suited his groove-oriented Echoplex loop approach.

Boss DD-3 Digital Delay (Later Career Digital Replacement): After the Echoplex was stolen and as digital delay technology improved through the 1980s and 1990s, Martyn moved to Boss DD-3 digital delay pedals — using two simultaneously in his late-career rig: one before the volume pedal in his chain, one after. The DD-3 provided the delay function with digital precision (no tape degradation, no mechanical maintenance) at the cost of the specific warm, slightly degraded character of the Echoplex tape. His documented late rig: guitar → DeArmond/Barcus Berry pickups → effects chain → DD-3 → Ernie Ball Volume Pedal → DD-3 → DI box → JC-120.

DeArmond Soundhole Pickup and Barcus Berry Contact Pickup (Acoustic Transducers): Martyn’s dual-pickup system for his acoustic guitars — a DeArmond soundhole pickup gaffa-taped to the guitar and a Barcus Berry contact pickup — was the specific technical solution he developed for routing two simultaneous signals to different amp channels. The DeArmond (a magnetic pickup that works with steel strings but has a different character from a standard electric guitar pickup) went through the effects chain. The Barcus Berry (a piezo contact pickup mounted to the guitar’s body) went direct to the amp’s dry channel. The result was a layered acoustic-electric sound that combined the processed, effects-drenched character of the magnetic pickup signal with the natural acoustic character of the contact pickup — simultaneously ambient and present, processed and acoustic.

Pearl Effects Board, Korg SDD-3000, Alesis Digital Delay (Various Periods): Martyn used various additional effects units across his career, including a Pearl effects board (comprising phaser, flanger, chorus, and overdrive), a Korg SDD-3000 digital delay, and an Alesis digital reverb/delay after losing the Echoplex. His documented 1985 rig: Pearl effects board → Korg 3000 DDS digital delay → Peavey Renown 120-watt amplifier. He was always willing to add new devices while maintaining the essential Echoplex-derived looping approach that had defined his sound since 1972.

Playing Style & Tone Philosophy

John Martyn’s guitar style is the synthesis of two traditions that had never been fully combined before he brought them together: the British folk fingerpicking of the Bert Jansch/Davy Graham tradition, and the ambient electronic sound-world that the Echoplex and associated effects enabled. His early recordings show the folk tradition clearly — “the string snapping typical of Bert Jansch and an interest from the start in alternate tunings,” as his introduction states. By 1973, the two traditions had been merged into something unprecedented.

The slap technique — striking the strings percussively with the right hand rather than plucking them in a conventional fingerpicking pattern — was central to his rhythmic approach with the Echoplex. By slapping the strings in a steady rhythmic pattern and letting the Echoplex build that pattern into a continuous loop, he could generate the bass-and-percussion foundation against which he then played melodic lines. The technique was physically unusual for an acoustic guitarist and required the strings to be somewhat lower than standard folk guitar action to make the slap effective.

His tone philosophy was articulated clearly in his own words: he wanted the guitar to sound like a horn, with the sustained, singing quality that wind instruments produce naturally but that plucked string instruments have to artificially generate. The Echoplex provided one dimension of this — sustain through repetition. His wah and envelope filter provided another — the tonal bloom and sweep of a horn’s embouchure. The combination produced a guitar tone that was genuinely unique: acoustic string instruments don’t sound like this, and electric guitars with sustain don’t sound like this either. It was specifically and only John Martyn.

How to Sound Like John Martyn

Guitar: A steel-string acoustic dreadnought with rosewood back and sides — the Guild D-55 or Martin D-28 are the authentic choices. Fit a DeArmond soundhole pickup (or modern equivalent like the LR Baggs M1 Active) and route it through the effects chain, while fitting a piezo contact pickup routed directly to a dry amp channel.

Amp: Two simultaneous amp channels or sends: one clean and dry (contact pickup direct), one through the effects chain. A Fender Twin Reverb or Roland JC-120 works for the clean foundation. The clean headroom is essential — the Echoplex builds up signal level through each repeat cycle, and an amplifier that breaks up under the accumulated signal will produce chaos rather than the controlled ambient layering Martyn achieved.

Amp Settings (Fender Twin or Roland JC-120):

Effects chain (the essential elements): Tape delay (Echoplex or equivalent — the EHX Canyon in Echo or Lo-Fi mode, or the Strymon El Capistan for tape-accurate warm repeats) set to a rhythmically coherent delay time with high feedback. A fuzz or overdrive before the delay for the Big Muff character. An envelope filter (EH Q-Tron, MXR M82) for the auto-wah quality. A phaser (MXR Phase 90) for harmonic movement on sustained notes. The key is the delay at high feedback — the looping self-generation of the pattern is the entire foundation of the approach.

Influence & Legacy

John Martyn’s influence runs through two separate musical communities that do not always acknowledge their common ancestor. The first is the British acoustic fingerstyle tradition: as a direct inheritor of Davy Graham’s (Series 2 #118) folk-blues-jazz synthesis, Martyn extended that tradition into electronic territory that no purely acoustic musician could have accessed. John Renbourn (Series 2 #119) and Martin Carthy (Series 2 #121) remained within the acoustic tradition; Martyn took it electric and ambient, pointing forward toward what acoustic-electric music could become.

The second community is the ambient and electronic music world. Brian Eno — one of the architects of ambient music — has credited Martyn as an influence on his understanding of how acoustic instruments could function in ambient contexts. The specific technique of using looping delay to build a self-sustaining rhythmic-harmonic texture, against which melody and improvisation could be layered, is a foundational technique of ambient and loop-based music. When loopers became commercially available in the 1990s and early 2000s, and when artists from Ed Sheeran to KT Tunstall to Bon Iver began building performances around loop pedals, they were using in simplified form the approach that Martyn had developed with an Echoplex in 1972.

Eric Clapton — who gave Martyn guitars and amplifiers, who clearly regarded him as one of the most important musicians of his generation — absorbed specific tonal and emotional approaches from Martyn’s playing. Phil Collins, who played drums on Martyn’s albums following Martyn’s friendship with the Genesis drummer, described the experience as formative for his understanding of atmospheric rhythm. David Bowie was an admirer. The critical reassessment of Martyn’s career since his death has been consistent in its elevation of Solid Air and One World to the canon of essential British albums of their era.

Solid Air (1973) — the album written for Nick Drake — remains his most celebrated work and the clearest single demonstration of what his guitar-plus-Echoplex approach could achieve at its most lyrical and most controlled. “Rather Be the Devil” (a Skip James cover) is the most extreme expression of the Echoplex loop-building technique. The title track is the most emotionally direct and the most famous. Together they constitute one of the defining works of British music.

Internal Links:

• Davy Graham, Martyn’s primary early guitar hero and the father of DADGAD at #118
• John Renbourn, Martyn’s peer in the British folk-jazz tradition at #119
• Martin Carthy, another key figure in the British folk revival Martyn emerged from at #121
• Eric Clapton, who gave Martyn guitars and amplifiers as a mark of mutual respect (Series 1)

Frequently Asked Questions: John Martyn Guitars & Gear

What guitar did John Martyn play?
John Martyn’s primary guitars evolved through his career. His most celebrated instrument is the Guild D-55NT — the natural-finish dreadnought used in the famous 1978 Rock Goes to College television performance, fitted with gaffer-taped DeArmond soundhole pickup and Barcus Berry contact pickup routed to separate amp channels. He also used Martin D-28 acoustic guitars extensively, particularly Small Hours and the subsequent band period. For electric work he used a Gibson SG with P-90 pickups (given by Eric Clapton), two vintage 1950s Gibson Les Paul Goldtops (P-90 equipped), and later Epiphone Les Pauls. His earliest acoustic was a Yamaha FG-160.

What is the Echoplex and why is it central to John Martyn’s sound?
The Maestro Echoplex is a tape-based analog delay — a loop of magnetic tape runs over recording and playback heads, with adjustable time between heads producing the delay. At high feedback settings, each echo triggers further echoes, building a self-sustaining loop of the original guitar pattern. Martyn used this to create the “Bo-Diddley-on-Red-Leb rhythmic pattern” that became his trademark: by playing a rhythmically coherent figure through the Echoplex at high feedback, he built a looping bass-and-percussion foundation against which he then improvised. He wanted “the sustain a horn gets,” and the Echoplex was the closest approximation. His Echoplex was stolen in Liverpool, an event he described with visible sadness; he never found a complete replacement for the specific character of the tape units.

Did Eric Clapton really give John Martyn guitars?
Yes — Martyn told a witness after the Rock Goes to College gig at Reading University in 1978 that both his Music Man amplifier and his Gibson SG with P-90 pickups had been given to him by Eric Clapton. The two were friends and mutual admirers; such instrument gifts between musicians of this generation were a form of artistic acknowledgment. Clapton’s recognition of Martyn’s talent was genuine — he regarded Martyn as one of the most important British musicians of his generation.

What amplifier did John Martyn use?
Martyn’s primary amplifier through the early-to-mid 1970s was a Fender Twin Reverb silver face. He subsequently used a Music Man amplifier (given by Clapton) through the late 1970s. In later years he used a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus, and at various periods a Peavey Renown 120-watt. He consistently ran his acoustic through two amp channels simultaneously — one for the processed (effects) signal, one for the dry acoustic contact pickup signal.

What effects did John Martyn use?
His core effects: Maestro Echoplex (EP-1 and EP-2 at different times), Electro-Harmonix Big Muff fuzz, MXR Phase 90 phaser, Mutron envelope filter (later replaced by EH Q-Tron+), and various delay units (Korg SDD-3000, Boss DD-3 × 2 in later years). His 1977 OGWT Collegiet Theatre rig ran: EH Big Muff → Mastro Boomerang → MXR Phase 90 → Mutron → two Echoplexes (EP-3 on top of amp, EP-1 or EP-2 on floor). His late-career rig used Boss DD-3 digital delay units.

What is Solid Air and why is it important?
Solid Air (1973) is John Martyn’s most celebrated album, written for his friend Nick Drake who was suffering from depression. It combines Martyn’s slap-and-loop acoustic guitar technique (via the Echoplex) with jazz-influenced arrangements, Danny Thompson’s double bass, and a sonic atmosphere that was unprecedented in folk-adjacent music. “Rather Be the Devil” (a Skip James cover) shows the Echoplex technique at its most extreme; the title track is the most emotionally direct. The album is considered one of the essential British recordings of the 1970s and has influenced ambient, folk, and electronic music across the decades since its release.

How did John Martyn use two pickups on his acoustic guitar?
Martyn ran two simultaneous pickup systems on his Guild D-55NT and Martin D-28 acoustic guitars. A DeArmond soundhole pickup (magnetic, steel-string compatible) was gaffer-taped to the guitar and routed through his full effects chain (Echoplex, Big Muff, Phase 90, etc.) into the reverb channel of his amplifier. A Barcus Berry contact pickup (piezo, mounted to the guitar body) went directly — without effects — into the dry (non-reverb) channel of the same amplifier. This gave him simultaneous processed (ambient, effects-drenched) and unprocessed (natural acoustic) guitar signals from one instrument through one amplifier, creating the layered acoustic-electric character that defined his live sound.