Hank Garland Guitars & Gear: The Complete Guide to the Byrdland Co-Designer’s ES-345, EB-6 & Ecco-Fonic Rig
Hank Garland's guitars and gear: the Gibson Byrdland he helped design, the ES-345 and EB-6 prototypes on Elvis sessions, and his Ecco-Fonic echo.
Any guide to Hank Garland guitars has to start with the Byrdland, because every Gibson Byrdland carries part of his name. Gibson introduced the thin, short-scale archtop in 1955, and named it after the two Nashville guitarists whose suggestions shaped it: Billy Byrd and Garland. The guitar is only part of his story, though. Between 1958 and 1961 Garland was a regular guitarist on Elvis Presley’s sessions. His lead lines and tape echo are on Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces”. In 1961 Columbia released Jazz Winds from a New Direction, a modern jazz album by a Nashville session player that, according to Guitar Player, inspired a young George Benson to play jazz guitar. In September of that year, a car accident ended his recording career at the age of 30.
Background: From Cowpens, South Carolina to the Nashville A-Team
Walter Louis Garland was born on November 11, 1930, in Cowpens, South Carolina. According to Premier Guitar, his father bought him his first instrument, a four-dollar Encore steel-string. By the age of twelve he was playing on local radio. In his mid-teens he was playing at Alexander Music House in Spartanburg when Paul Howard of the Grand Ole Opry heard him and took him to Nashville. Premier Guitar says he appeared on the Opry and met guitarists Harold Bradley and Billy Byrd on that first trip, but was sent home because he was too young to work as a musician. He was back in Nashville by the time he was 16.
The record that made his name was “Sugarfoot Rag”. Garland’s instrumental version sold more than a million copies, and an instrumental version of the tune later served as the opening theme of ABC television’s Ozark Jubilee. Red Foley also recorded a vocal version for Decca. The 78 (Decca 46205, recorded November 10, 1949) credits the performance to Red Foley and Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland, and credits the song to Garland and Vaughn Horton.
Over the following decade Garland became one of Nashville’s first-call session guitarists. According to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Harold Bradley often worked in a studio-guitar trio with Garland and Grady Martin. Garland was the one known for jazzy licks and Martin for funkier leads. Garland’s credits include records by Presley, Cline, Brenda Lee, Marty Robbins, the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, Jim Reeves and Bobby Helms. Premier Guitar credits him with the lead on the “Jingle Bell Rock” intro, with Bradley playing the harmony part. In 2007 the Musicians Hall of Fame inducted him as part of the Nashville “A” Team in its first class.
“Billy and I were his mentors. But he immediately left us in the dust.”
Harold Bradley, speaking to Premier Guitar (2011)
The Rig: Hank Garland’s Guitars, Amps and Effects
Guitars
Gibson president Ted McCarty asked working musicians for ideas about new products, and the Byrdland grew out of Byrd’s and Garland’s suggestions. It is based on the Gibson L-5CES, with a body only 2¼ inches deep and a short 23½-inch scale that made single-note runs and wide chord stretches easier. Guitar World paraphrases a 1981 Guitar Player interview in which Garland said he and Byrd had asked for something like the L-5, only thinner; we could not check the original interview. Premier Guitar reports that Gibson kept the first Byrdland built and that Garland received the second. Writing in Guitar Player, Jim Campilongo also describes the Byrdland as the guitar Garland played.
Vintage Guitar’s Wolf Marshall documents that Garland received two custom Gibson semi-solid prototypes in 1958. The first was a sunburst ES-345 with two PAF humbuckers, gold-plated hardware, stereo wiring and a Vari-tone switch. Marshall notes that the ES-345 was the first model fitted with Vari-tone at the factory, and Garland had his before the ES-345 went on general release in 1959. Garland later modified the hardware, adding a gold Gibson “sideways” Vibrola and replacing the Tune-o-matic with a gold Bigsby bridge. According to Marshall, you can hear this guitar on almost every Presley recording date of the period, including the Blue Hawaii and Follow That Dream soundtracks. It is also on Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” and the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Blackbird”.
Later in 1958 Gibson sent Garland the second prototype, an EB-6 six-string bass with the same 16 x 19 x 1¾-inch body as the ES-345 and two humbuckers. Vintage Guitar says he used it for bass lines on sessions. The best-known examples are Elvis Presley’s “I Got Stung”, “Stuck On You” and “Fame and Fortune”.
Premier Guitar publishes a 1950s press photo of Garland on a session with a Gibson L-7 archtop fitted with a single-coil pickup of the type Charlie Christian made famous. The sources we checked do not name the session or any recording made with it.
Garland played the riff on Presley’s “Little Sister”, and he did not play it on a Gibson. Premier Guitar reports that he borrowed Harold Bradley’s Fender Stratocaster for the session. Some other accounts name a different Fender model, so the exact model is still unconfirmed.
Amps
Standel’s company history lists Hank Garland among the top session players of the 1950s and 1960s who played Standel amplifiers. It also names him among the professionals who ordered Standels. Fellow A-Team guitarist Grady Martin is on the same list. None of the sources we checked identify which Standel model Garland used.
Vintage Guitar reports that Garland often ran his ES-345 into his tape echo and then into two amplifiers, or into two separate channels of a stereo amp, for special effects. The specific amplifiers are not named.
Effects
Garland played the lead on Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” through an Ecco-Fonic tape echo, according to Premier Guitar. Vintage Guitar identifies the unit as an Ecco-Fonic Model 109, and reports that its tape had not been changed since 1961. The echo was part of the ES-345 signal chain described above.
Gear Evidence: How Solid Is Each Claim?
Era: 1955 onward — Main Source: Gibson; Premier Guitar; Vintage Guitar
Era: 1958 to 1961 — Main Source: Vintage Guitar (Wolf Marshall)
Era: 1958 onward — Main Source: Vintage Guitar (Wolf Marshall)
Era: 1961 — Main Source: Premier Guitar; Vintage Guitar
Era: 1950s to 1960s — Main Source: Standel company history
Era: 1950s press photo — Main Source: Premier Guitar
Era: 1961 — Main Source: Premier Guitar; accounts differ
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy
Premier Guitar’s technical analysis argues that Garland was a jazz musician at heart, even though his fame came from country records. He used drop-2 chord voicings, voice-leading and guide tones, and he played bebop lines. The analysis names Barney Kessel and Barry Galbraith as influences and compares his playing to early Tal Farlow. Gibson’s own profile notes that Billy Byrd, whose influences included Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, tutored the young Garland.
Other players describe the same qualities. Nashville session guitarist Brent Mason told Premier Guitar that he admired how smooth, melodic and fluid Garland’s lines were, and how he could move between genres and still work as a session player. Gary Burton, who played vibraphone on Jazz Winds, said Garland took musical routes usually reserved for other instruments.
Jazz Winds from a New Direction and Newport 1960
In July 1960 a group of Nashville session players, including Garland, Chet Atkins, Boots Randolph, Floyd Cramer, Bob Moore, Buddy Harman and a teenage Gary Burton, was booked for the Newport Jazz Festival. According to Wikipedia, which cites the Bear Family liner notes, rioting in the crowd led to the rest of the festival being cancelled. RCA Victor recorded the group anyway, and the session came out as After the Riot at Newport.
Jazz Winds from a New Direction followed on Columbia in 1961. Garland was joined by the 17-year-old Burton, bassist Joe Benjamin and Joe Morello, the drummer from the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Guitar Player reports that it was recorded in a single day. Writing in Guitar Player, Jim Campilongo highlights the improvised counterpoint between Garland and Burton on “All the Things You Are”, Garland’s technique on “Move”, and his chord soloing on “Relaxin'”. The same article credits the album with inspiring George Benson to take up jazz guitar. According to Premier Guitar, Move! The Guitar Artistry of Hank Garland later collected all of his Columbia sessions from 1959 and 1960.
September 1961: The Accident
In September 1961 Garland crashed his car near Springfield, Tennessee. He was in a coma for about a week. Premier Guitar reports that he was driving after his wife Evelyn, believing she had left for Milwaukee with their daughters. Accounts of the crash differ. In that account, some family members said he lost control and hit an embankment, while others claimed he was forced off the road. Harold Bradley rejected the more dramatic versions, and said nobody had suggested foul play at the time. Accounts also differ over whether his brain damage came from the crash itself or from shock treatment he later received at Madison Sanitarium.
Garland relearned to play but never got back to his earlier level. His Nashville colleagues did not forget him. According to Premier Guitar, session players kept writing his name onto session paperwork so that money would reach his family, and Bradley said he signed some of those sheets himself. After the accident, the Country Music Hall of Fame notes, Bradley often took Garland’s place in the studio. Garland later settled in Orange Park, Florida. He died there on December 27, 2004, aged 74, from a staph infection.
Influence & Legacy
The Byrdland stayed in Gibson’s catalogue long after Garland stopped recording, and it found players well outside Nashville. It became the main guitar of country star Roy Clark, the hard-rock guitar of Ted Nugent, and the avant-garde instrument of James “Blood” Ulmer. The 2007 film Crazy, co-produced by Steve Vai, is presented as “inspired by” Garland’s life. Premier Guitar notes that critics found fabrications in its picture of him and the Nashville industry.
FAQ: Hank Garland Guitars & Gear
Which Gibson guitar is named after Hank Garland?
The Gibson Byrdland, introduced in 1955. Its name combines the surnames of Billy Byrd and Hank Garland, whose suggestions led Gibson to build a thinner, short-scale version of the L-5CES.
What guitar did Hank Garland play on Elvis Presley’s records?
According to Vintage Guitar, he played a 1958 Gibson ES-345 prototype on almost every Presley session of the period. He used a Gibson EB-6 six-string bass for bass lines on “I Got Stung”, “Stuck On You” and “Fame and Fortune”. On “Little Sister” he played a Fender borrowed from Harold Bradley.
Did Hank Garland play on Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces”?
Yes. He played the lead part, using an Ecco-Fonic tape echo that Vintage Guitar identifies as a Model 109.
What was Hank Garland’s jazz album?
Jazz Winds from a New Direction, released on Columbia in 1961, with Gary Burton on vibraphone, Joe Benjamin on bass and Joe Morello on drums.
Why did Hank Garland stop recording?
A car accident in September 1961 left him in a coma and with a brain injury. He relearned the guitar but never returned to session work at his former level.