The guitar has a bullet hole in the top.
Nobody is entirely sure how the bullet hole got there. The guitar is a 1935 Martin D-28, serial number 58957. It was purchased in 1959 from a Los Angeles music store by Clarence White’s father for $35 — stored under someone’s bed for years, its action rising until it became unplayable. It has a Gretsch fingerboard instead of the original Martin fingerboard because the original was missing when Clarence White acquired it, and McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Los Angeles fitted a Gretsch fingerboard with pre-cut fret slots, which made the scale length slightly shorter than standard Martin spec. It has a larger soundhole than standard. It has a bullet hole in the top.
Tony Rice bought it in 1975 from a man named Joe Miller in Pasadena, California, for $550. He named it “The Antique.” He spread cigarette ash on the top the day after playing an outdoor stage in rain, to absorb the moisture. He set the action so low that only he can produce buzz-free sound from it — in other hands, it sounds like a poorly set-up old guitar. In his hands, it is what the Vintage Guitar magazine described as “the flattop holy grail.”
Clarence White changed bluegrass guitar with that instrument. Tony Rice played it for the rest of his life and changed it again. Clarence White → Tony Rice → every flatpicking guitarist who has come after. The chain of transmission runs through serial number 58957.
Tony Rice died December 25, 2020, in Reidsville, North Carolina, at age 69. He had not been able to play for years — a condition called focal dystonia had gradually removed his ability to play guitar, one of the cruelest possible endings for one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived. But the recordings remain. The bullet hole is still in the top of the guitar.
Background: Danville, Virginia, Bourbon County, and the New South That Redefined Bluegrass
David Anthony Rice was born June 8, 1951, in Danville, Virginia. His father, Herb Rice Sr., was a guitarist and a significant influence — the Rice household was a musical one. His brother Wyatt Rice and his brothers Larry and Ronnie Rice were all musicians. Music was not an optional activity in the Rice family; it was the family language.
Clarence White was his primary guitar influence — White’s approach to bluegrass flatpicking, his jazz-derived harmonic sensibility, his ability to integrate multiple guitar traditions into a coherent personal style. Rice absorbed White’s playing through recordings and eventually through personal contact, and when he acquired White’s Martin D-28 in 1975 — two years after White’s death in a hit-and-run accident in Palmdale, California — the connection became literal. He was playing the guitar that had been in White’s hands.
His career development moved through several significant phases. He joined J.D. Crowe and the New South in the mid-1970s — a band that also included Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas, and whose album J.D. Crowe & The New South (1975) is widely considered one of the most influential bluegrass albums ever recorded. Rice’s guitar work on that album — his flatpicking lead lines, his harmonic sophistication, his jazz-informed approach to country/bluegrass material — announced him as a major talent immediately.
His solo career produced albums that systematically expanded bluegrass guitar’s relationship to other traditions. Manzanita (1979) integrated jazz harmony into the bluegrass flatpicking context. Cold on the Shoulder (1984) explored singer-songwriter territory. His recordings with the David Grisman Quintet brought him into contact with the acoustic jazz and new-grass tradition that Grisman was pioneering.
By the 1980s he was established as the pre-eminent flatpicking guitarist in bluegrass — the standard against which all others were measured. Stringjoy’s documentation captured it: “As a bluegrass guitarist myself, this is what really makes Tony Rice a true musician. The combination is a rarity in the industry and it solidified Tony’s work in the bluegrass circle.” The combination being guitar playing and singing — Rice was also a fine vocalist, giving him the complete musician profile that session and collaborative work requires.
The focal dystonia that gradually removed his ability to play began affecting him in the late 1990s. He continued attempting to play, continued performing occasionally, but the condition worsened. The musician who had been the benchmark for flatpicking guitar precision was eventually unable to produce the playing that had defined him.
He died December 25, 2020. His death came on Christmas Day — something several obituaries noted as a biographical irony for a man whose music brought such specific joy to so many people. He was 69 years old. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
Tone note: He had focal dystonia — a neurological condition affecting the motor control of specific muscles, rendering guitar playing progressively impossible. The irony of the world’s finest flatpicking guitarist losing the ability to flatpick is the kind of biographical fact that makes the recordings feel more urgent. He could not play in his last years. The recordings are all that remain of what he could do. Listen to them accordingly.
The Rig: Tony Rice’s Guitars, Amps & Gear
Guitars: The Holy Grail and Its History
1935 Martin D-28 Serial #58957 “The Antique” — The Guitar
Tony Rice’s guitar story is one of the most documented, most examined, and most celebrated provenance stories in acoustic guitar history. The guitar — a 1935 Martin D-28 with serial number 58957, with a bullet hole in the top, a Gretsch fingerboard, an enlarged soundhole, and an action so low only Rice could produce clean sound from it — is the central fact of his gear story, the instrument from which everything else follows.
The complete provenance:
1935 — Construction: The guitar is built at C.F. Martin & Company’s factory in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. A dreadnought with Sitka spruce top, Brazilian rosewood back and sides, ebony fingerboard, herringbone purfling around the top — a pre-war Martin with all the tonal qualities that make pre-war Martins among the most sought-after acoustic guitars in existence. Serial number 58957.
The 1940s-1950s — Mysterious period: The guitar passes through ownership and an uncertain period. Somewhere in this period, the bullet hole appears in the top. No one can explain it definitively. The guitar ends up in a Los Angeles music store.
1959 — Clarence White acquires it: The guitar is purchased from the Los Angeles music store by the White family. As Fretboard Journal documented: “In 1959, the guitar was purchased from a Los Angeles music store by the young bluegrass musicians Roland and Clarence White, who were out shopping for instruments with their bandmate, Billy Ray Lathum. Clarence White wanted a D-28 he could call his own. Unfortunately – or fortunately – Roland and Clarence didn’t have much money that day and didn’t find a single D-28 they could afford at any of the dozen or so pawn shops they frequented.” They eventually found this one at McCabe’s Guitar Shop. The price was $35. The original fingerboard was missing, so McCabe’s fitted a Gretsch fingerboard with pre-cut fret slots — producing the slightly shorter than standard scale length that would remain a defining characteristic of the guitar.
Early 1960s — Action rises: As Fretboard Journal continued: “Clarence originally owned the iconic Tony Rice Martin but after a few years, the guitar became unplayable as the action was too high. The guitar ended up in his living room and was replaced by a newer, cleaner D-28.” The unplayable-due-to-action guitar sits in a living room while Clarence White continues performing on other instruments.
1967-1973 — Clarence White’s performing years: White uses other guitars, most famously his Telecaster with the B-bender he developed with Bill Keith, for his electric work with the Byrds. The D-28 sits, unplayed.
1973 — Clarence White dies: White was killed by a drunk driver while loading equipment after a performance in Palmdale, California, at age 29. He was one of the most significant bluegrass guitarists and country-rock guitarists of his generation.
1975 — Tony Rice acquires it: Rice bought the guitar from a man named Joe Miller in Pasadena, California, for $550. Equipboard documented the transaction directly from an interview with Rice: “Yes [Serial No. 58957; Tony bought it from a guy named Joe Miller in Pasadena, CA in 1975 for $550].” Rice restored the guitar to playable condition and began playing it as his primary instrument.
1975 onward — “The Antique”: Rice played the guitar for the rest of his performing career. He did not pamper it. The cigarette-ash incident — spreading ash on the top after a rainy outdoor performance to absorb moisture — is documented by a Vintage Guitar correspondent who witnessed it. He set the action “so low that only Tony can produce buzz free sound from its electric-like set-up. In the hands of mere mortals it sounds just like another poorly set up old guitar instead of the flattop holy grail.”
The guitar’s cover appearance: it appears as “58957: The Bluegrass Guitar Collection” on his 2003 compilation album, which takes its title from the instrument’s serial number. The bullet hole in the top appears on the album cover — not hidden, not retouched, but prominently displayed as part of the guitar’s identity.
The guitar’s specific technical anomalies and how they affect the sound:
- Gretsch fingerboard: Slightly shorter scale length than standard Martin (Gretsch and Martin used different scale lengths in the 1950s). A shorter scale means slightly less string tension at a given pitch — easier bending, slightly different response to picking attack
- Enlarged soundhole: The exact significance is debated. Rice himself noted: “I hear so many opinions but I don’t think it makes any difference as far as the sound is concerned.” The larger soundhole may affect the internal air cavity’s resonance characteristics, but the practical impact on the guitar’s sound is disputed even by its owner
- Bullet hole: A small hole in the spruce top. Structurally irrelevant to the guitar’s function; acoustically minimal (the hole is smaller than the soundhole already in the guitar). Historically and visually significant
- Brazilian rosewood back and sides: Pre-war Martins used Brazilian rosewood (now protected under CITES regulations) for back and sides. Brazilian rosewood’s specific qualities — greater density than East Indian rosewood, a particular harmonic complexity and sustain — are the primary reason pre-war Martins are so sought-after. This is the tonal foundation of the guitar
- Herringbone purfling: The decorative herringbone trim around the top, discontinued by Martin in 1947, is another visual and historical identifier of the pre-war instrument
Tone note: The action was set so low that only Tony Rice could play it cleanly. The guitar was custom-set for one specific player’s specific technique. Any other player who picked it up got buzz and rattle. Rice got the holy grail. This is the most extreme example in this series of an instrument optimised exclusively for its owner — and the clearest demonstration that a guitar’s quality is partly a function of who it was set up for.
Martin Tony Rice Signature Model
Martin eventually produced a Tony Rice Signature model — a reproduction of the D-28’s pre-war specifications that attempted to replicate the 1935 guitar’s construction characteristics for players who couldn’t access a pre-war D-28. The signature model uses herringbone purfling, Sitka spruce top, and various period-correct specifications. It does not have the Gretsch fingerboard, the bullet hole, or the specific resonance of the 1935 original, but it provides a legitimate starting point for players wanting to approximate Rice’s tonal approach.
Other Instruments
Rice was primarily a D-28 player throughout his career. The 1935 Martin was his constant companion for essentially all of his significant recordings. He played a pre-war Martin that was “The Antique” and little else that receives consistent documentation as a primary instrument.
Complete Guitar List
- 1935 Martin D-28, serial #58957, “The Antique” (acquired 1975, $550) — Primary instrument throughout career; previously owned by Clarence White; bullet hole in top; Gretsch fingerboard (shorter scale); enlarged soundhole; Brazilian rosewood back and sides; herringbone purfling; action set for Rice’s technique exclusively; “the flattop holy grail”; named by 2003 compilation album 58957: The Bluegrass Guitar Collection
- Martin Tony Rice Signature — Production model based on pre-war D-28 specs; herringbone purfling; period-correct construction
Amps: No Amplification — Acoustic Through Microphone
Like Doc Watson, Tony Rice’s acoustic guitar was amplified through microphones to PA systems for live performance rather than through onboard pickups and guitar amplifiers. The 1935 D-28 has no pickup — it is entirely acoustic, and any amplification is achieved through microphone placement.
For studio recording, the Martin’s acoustic output was captured with studio microphones in various combinations depending on the specific session’s engineer and producer preferences. The guitar’s specific pre-war tonal character — the Brazilian rosewood’s complex sustain, the aged spruce top’s responsiveness — is captured in these recordings in ways that would be modified by any electronic pickup system.
Pedals & Signal Chain: Guitar and Microphone
No pedals. No effects. No signal chain. Guitar → microphone → recording chain or PA.
The absolute minimum. As The Guitar Journal documented: “As a Bluegrass musician, Rice didn’t have a lot of gear. It was all about a flat top acoustic, a pick, and some amazing playing.” This is the complete signal chain description.
Strings, Picks & Setup
Strings — The Martin Monel Signature Set:
Tony Rice’s string choice has a specific documented history. Martin re-introduced their Monel strings — a nickel-copper alloy that Martin used on their guitars in the mid-twentieth century — after collaboration with Rice. Strings Direct documented his response to receiving the re-introduced strings: “I never thought I would see the day when I could put Martin Monel strings back on my D-28. Welcome back, old friend. I’ve missed you!”
Martin produced Tony Rice Signature Strings in a specific gauge set: .013, .016, .026, .034, .044, .056. These are medium-to-heavy gauge strings — heavier than the light gauges that some flatpickers prefer, providing more acoustic volume and sustain at the cost of more physical resistance to picking and fretting. The Monel material’s specific quality: a bright, transparent tone with long life compared to standard bronze strings.
The lighter strings Clarence White had fitted to the guitar — Fretboard Journal noted that after Clarence retrieved the D-28 from McCabe’s with a replacement fingerboard, “now sporting a set of light-gauge strings” — were replaced by Rice with his preferred heavier gauge. The choice of heavier strings on a short-scale guitar (the Gretsch fingerboard’s shorter scale reducing the standard tension) produces a specific feel: slightly less tension than a full-scale guitar with the same strings, but more volume and sustain than light strings on either scale length.
Picks — The Custom-Shaped DIY Approach:
Tony Rice’s pick choice is one of the most discussed in flatpicking guitar circles. Stringjoy documented: “His do-it-yourself attitude — especially on guitar pick shaping — inspired many guitarists to modify their gear to fit their needs instead of changing their style to fit the needs of the instrument.”
Rice used custom-shaped flatpicks — modified from standard commercial picks by beveling, sanding, or shaping the edges and thickness to his specific preference. The specific shape he used — with beveled edges that allowed the pick to release from the string cleanly and quickly — is associated with the specific “articulate attack” character of his flatpicking. The standard commercial pick’s edge geometry produces a different attack character than a beveled pick; Rice’s custom shaping was specifically intended to produce the release speed and attack definition his technique required.
Various accounts suggest he used Dunlop picks as his starting material, modifying them from there. The specific final shape was personal and not exactly reproducible without his direct instruction, though numerous players have attempted to replicate it.
The Ultra-Low Action Setup:
As documented, Rice’s guitar was set up with action “so low that only Tony can produce buzz free sound from its electric-like set-up.” This ultra-low action setup is the most extreme documented example of player-specific guitar configuration in this series. The action height — how high the strings sit above the fretboard — is the primary adjustment between a guitar that buzzes easily and one that plays cleanly. Rice’s action was as low as possible while still allowing him specifically to produce clean notes. Other players — whose picking technique applies force at slightly different angles or with slightly different dynamics — would cause string-to-fret contact (buzz) that Rice’s specific mechanics avoided.
This setup is the physical embodiment of his philosophy: the guitar was configured for one player’s specific technique, and the technique was configured for the player. The guitar and the player were optimised for each other.
Tone note: Ultra-low action. Custom-shaped picks. Monel strings. A guitar set up to Rice’s technique so precisely that other players produced buzz where he produced clarity. Each of these details is a solution to the same problem: how to execute the specific flatpicking technique he needed to execute, at the speed and precision he needed, without compromising the note definition that made his playing identifiable at a note or two. Every setup decision served the technique. The technique served the music.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy: The Summit
Tony Rice’s playing represents the summit of the flatpicking guitar tradition that Doc Watson initiated and Clarence White extended. To say that Rice took what they had developed and brought it to its highest expression is not to diminish the predecessors — it is to describe the specific relationship between teacher and student that the great musical traditions depend on.
The Jazz Influence
Rice’s most distinctive contribution to the flatpicking tradition is his integration of jazz harmony and phrasing into the bluegrass flatpicking context. Where Doc Watson’s flatpicking applied the DUDU alternating motion to traditional mountain music melodies, and Clarence White extended the vocabulary into country-rock, Rice imported jazz harmonic thinking — the bebop vocabulary, the Charlie Parker scale patterns, the jazz approach to passing tones and chord substitutions — into the bluegrass guitar context.
The result: flatpicking solos that move through chord changes with a jazz musician’s harmonic awareness, deploy runs that are not available from the pentatonic and major-scale vocabulary of traditional bluegrass, and produce melodic variety that pure folk tradition cannot generate. His collaboration with David Grisman specifically brought him into contact with players who were explicitly jazz-influenced, and the cross-pollination produced some of the most harmonically sophisticated acoustic guitar playing ever recorded.
Tone note: He imported bebop vocabulary into bluegrass flatpicking. Charlie Parker’s scale patterns, played with a flatpick on a 1935 Martin D-28 with a bullet hole in the top and a Gretsch fingerboard, at bluegrass tempo. That’s the specific achievement. The guitar tradition is that new material can always enter from an unexpected direction and become part of the tradition permanently.
The Clarence White Foundation
Rice was explicit about his primary influence. Stringjoy: “Although Tony has said in many interviews that his biggest influence was Clarence White.” White’s specific contributions to the flatpicking vocabulary — the string groupings, the rhythmic placement of notes within phrases, the specific attack and release of individual notes — are the foundation that Rice built on. Rice absorbed White’s approach so completely that he bought White’s guitar, and then added what White hadn’t developed: the jazz harmony.
The transmission chain: Doc Watson (flatpicking the melody) → Clarence White (expanding the vocabulary and harmonic range) → Tony Rice (integrating jazz harmony and extending the technique to its fullest expression) → Bryan Sutton, Jordan Tice, and the contemporary flatpicking tradition.
The Rhythm Playing
Beyond his flatpicking lead work, Rice was celebrated for his rhythm playing. The Guitar Journal: “Stephen Mougin covers Tony Rice’s style in ‘Bluegrass Rhythm Evolution.’ While Tony Rice’s style is based on the Jimmy Martin style (especially when performing Martin’s hits), Tony’s style always demonstrates a bouncier groove. He accomplished that by slightly altering the timing on his down-up-down strum, then relaxing into the next downbeat.”
This rhythmic nuance — the slightly delayed relaxation into the downbeat that creates a “bounce” — is the difference between rhythm playing that is metrically correct and rhythm playing that makes people move. It’s a subtle timing manipulation that alters the feel of the music without changing its tempo. Rice’s rhythm playing was as influential among bluegrass guitarists as his lead playing, because it gave them a model for how to make the accompanimental guitar part feel alive rather than merely accurate.
The Voice
Rice was also a significant vocalist — his baritone voice, with its warmth and specific country-music character, gave him the ability to be a complete performing artist rather than purely an instrumental virtuoso. His recordings with Emmylou Harris, with the Bluegrass Album Band, and on his solo albums demonstrate a singer of genuine quality, not merely a guitarist who also sang.
The combination of instrumental excellence and vocal ability is rare in any genre. In bluegrass, where the tradition requires both, it made Rice one of the few musicians who could fully represent the tradition rather than merely a component of it.
How to Sound Like Tony Rice: The Pre-War Flatpicking Tone
Rice’s tone is the most difficult to replicate in this section of the series — because the central instrument is a pre-war Brazilian rosewood Martin D-28 that cannot be legally reproduced (Brazilian rosewood is CITES-protected), cannot be bought for less than many tens of thousands of dollars, and was set up exclusively for one player’s specific technique. The approach is achievable; the exact tone is not.
The Guitar
Pre-war Martin D-28 specifications: herringbone purfling, Sitka spruce top, rosewood back and sides (East Indian rosewood in modern production, Brazilian in originals). Medium-to-heavy strings. Ultra-low action if your technique allows it.
- Martin Tony Rice Signature D-28 — The production approximation; herringbone purfling; modern specs
- Martin HD-28 or D-28 Authentic 1937 — Martin’s period-correct D-28 reproductions; closest production access to pre-war specifications
- Any quality spruce-top/rosewood dreadnought — Collings D2H, Santa Cruz D-model, Bourgeois D-model for boutique options; Taylor 814ce or Guild D-55 for more accessible options
- Pre-war vintage Martin (if accessible) — The authentic choice; genuinely expensive and fragile
The Strings
Martin Tony Rice Signature Monel strings: .013, .016, .026, .034, .044, .056. The Monel material’s specific transparent, bright character is the tonal foundation. If Martin Monel strings are unavailable, D’Addario or Elixir phosphor bronze medium gauge (.013-.056) approximates the gauge specification.
The Pick
A beveled-edge flatpick — the edge beveled by sanding or shaping to allow quick string release. The bevel reduces the friction between pick and string on the release stroke, producing a cleaner, faster exit from the string. Dunlop Primetone picks come factory-beveled and approximate the approach Rice developed through DIY shaping. Thickness: medium to medium-heavy for the attack definition his playing requires.
No Amplification (Microphone to PA)
Acoustic only. Good condenser microphone (AKG C414 or Neumann U87 for studio; DPA 4099 clip-on or Shure SM81 for live) aimed at the guitar’s upper bout or where the neck meets the body. Route to PA for live performance.
| Element | Specification | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Guitar | Martin D-28 or equivalent spruce/rosewood dreadnought | Pre-war specs for closest Rice character; Martin Tony Rice Signature most accessible production option |
| Strings | Martin Monel Tony Rice .013-.056 | The documented string choice; Monel material; medium-heavy gauge |
| Pick | Beveled-edge flatpick (Dunlop Primetone or custom-beveled) | Beveled edge for clean string release; medium-heavy thickness |
| Action | As low as your technique allows cleanly | Ultra-low action requires specific technique to produce clean notes; set to your actual clean limit |
| Amplification | Acoustic only; condenser microphone to PA | No pickup; no processing between guitar acoustic output and microphone |
Budget vs Authentic
Budget:
- Guitar: Yamaha FG800 or Seagull S6 dreadnought (spruce/rosewood or spruce/mahogany, under $400)
- Strings: D’Addario EJ17 phosphor bronze medium (.013-.056)
- Pick: Dunlop Primetone Standard (pre-beveled; approximates the custom-shaped approach)
Authentic:
- Guitar: Martin Tony Rice Signature D-28 or Martin HD-28V
- Strings: Martin Monel Tony Rice Signature .013-.056
- Pick: Dunlop Primetone or custom-shaped beveled pick from Dunlop starting material
The Technique
The DUDU alternating pick motion, as with Doc Watson. Rice extended Watson’s technique by integrating jazz harmonic vocabulary into the same physical approach — the pick motion doesn’t change; what changes is which notes are chosen on which beat.
The essential practice: learn “Freeborn Man” or “Manzanita” from his recordings — the bluegrass flatpicking vocabulary at its fullest development. Then learn “Old Swamp Fox” or other pieces where his jazz vocabulary appears explicitly. Notice how the same DUDU pick motion produces completely different musical content depending on the scale choices and the harmonic movement under the melody.
The pick shaping: take a standard Dunlop medium or heavy pick and use fine-grit sandpaper (400 grit) to bevel the tip at a consistent angle. The bevel should be on both faces of the pick — symmetric — so the attack is consistent on both downstrokes and upstrokes. This produces the smoother release that Rice’s attack required.
Influence & Legacy: The Guitar Standard That Nobody Has Passed
Tony Rice’s influence on bluegrass flatpicking guitar is the influence of the ultimate standard — the player against whom all others measure themselves, knowing that matching him is essentially impossible. Vintage Guitar’s assessment is accurate: “Along with Doc Watson, Dan Crary, and Clarence White, Tony Rice has had more influence on modern flatpicking than anyone else.”
The direct musical descendants:
- Bryan Sutton — Considered the most technically accomplished active flatpicker; explicitly developed from the Rice tradition
- Jordan Tice — The Guitar Journal names him as among the players Rice influenced; expanding the tradition in new harmonic and compositional directions
- Billy Strings — Contemporary bluegrass guitar’s most commercially successful player; the Rice tradition’s most visible current practitioner
- David Grisman — Their mutual influence was reciprocal; the Dawg Music acoustic jazz tradition absorbed Rice’s flatpicking vocabulary as Rice absorbed Grisman’s jazz harmonic thinking
- Norman Blake — Blake and Rice were collaborators and contemporaries; Blake’s approach to acoustic guitar, though stylistically distinct, occupies the same acoustic guitar universe
The International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame induction in 2013 was the formal acknowledgment of what the bluegrass community had always known. The New Yorker published a piece titled “The Master Guitar Playing of Tony Rice” — an unusual honour for a bluegrass musician, indicating the reach of his reputation beyond the genre’s dedicated audience.
His death in December 2020 produced tributes from across the acoustic music world — players who had studied his recordings, others who had played alongside him, fans who had been changed by hearing him. The guitar, serial number 58957, with its bullet hole and its Gretsch fingerboard and its Brazilian rosewood and its ultra-low action, is his continuing physical presence in the tradition he inhabited and advanced.
Tone note: The action was so low that only Tony Rice could produce buzz-free notes from it. He set up a guitar for one player — himself — and that one player produced the benchmark recording that every flatpicker since has measured themselves against. The guitar was optimised for the technique. The technique was optimised for the music. The music was optimised for nobody in particular, but it reached everyone who heard it.
In Pasadena, California, in 1975, Tony Rice paid $550 for a 1935 Martin D-28 with a bullet hole in the top, a Gretsch fingerboard, and an enlarged soundhole. The guitar had previously been owned by his guitar hero, Clarence White, who had been killed by a drunk driver two years earlier. Rice named it “The Antique.” He set the action as low as possible while still allowing him specifically to play cleanly. He shaped his picks by hand. He put Martin Monel strings on it, heavy gauge, and played.
He played “Freeborn Man” and “Manzanita” and everything the bluegrass guitar tradition contained and everything Charlie Parker had contributed to the jazz vocabulary. He played it for the rest of his life, until focal dystonia took away his ability to play.
He died on Christmas Day, 2020. He was 69. Bryan Sutton and Billy Strings and Jordan Tice and everyone who plays flatpicking guitar had absorbed what he did. The recordings remain.
The guitar has a bullet hole in the top. Nobody knows how it got there. It rings like the flattop holy grail, in the right hands, set to the right action, strung with the right strings. In other hands, it sounds like another poorly set-up old guitar.
In Tony Rice’s hands, it was the standard.
If Tony Rice’s flatpicking mastery — the pre-war D-28, the beveled picks, the jazz vocabulary in a bluegrass context — has you exploring the tradition he inherited and elevated, check out our complete guide to Doc Watson’s guitars and gear — the man who established the flatpicking tradition that Clarence White and then Rice built on, and who played a cracked demonstration Gallagher with equal love and commitment.
And for Clarence White, whose D-28 (serial #58957) Tony Rice played for his entire career after White’s death — the guitarist whose Telecaster work and bluegrass playing form the specific bridge between Watson’s tradition and Rice’s synthesis — check our coverage of Clarence White’s complete gear guide.
FAQ: Tony Rice Guitars & Gear
- What guitar did Tony Rice play?
- A 1935 Martin D-28, serial number 58957, nicknamed “The Antique.” It was previously owned by bluegrass guitarist Clarence White, who had bought it for $35 from McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Los Angeles in 1959. Rice bought it in 1975 from a man named Joe Miller in Pasadena, California for $550. The guitar has a bullet hole in the top (origin unknown), a Gretsch fingerboard (installed by McCabe’s because the original was missing, producing a slightly shorter-than-standard scale length), an enlarged soundhole, and Brazilian rosewood back and sides. Rice set the action extremely low — “so low that only Tony can produce buzz free sound from its electric-like set-up.”
- What happened to the 1935 Martin D-28 with the bullet hole?
- The guitar currently remains in the possession of Rice’s estate. Rice played it for essentially his entire performing career from 1975 until focal dystonia prevented him from playing. The guitar’s serial number gave its name to his 2003 compilation album, 58957: The Bluegrass Guitar Collection, with the bullet hole visible on the album cover. Martin produced a Tony Rice Signature model based on the D-28’s pre-war specifications, though without replicating the specific anomalies (Gretsch fingerboard, bullet hole, enlarged soundhole) of the original.
- How did Tony Rice shape his picks?
- By hand — he modified commercial flatpicks by beveling and shaping the edges to his specific preference. Stringjoy documented that “His do-it-yourself attitude — especially on guitar pick shaping — inspired many guitarists to modify their gear to fit their needs instead of changing their style to fit the needs of the instrument.” The beveled edges allow the pick to release from the string more cleanly and quickly, producing the articulate attack characteristic of his playing. Dunlop Primetone picks (which come factory-beveled) are the closest commercial approximation of his custom-shaped approach.
- What strings did Tony Rice use?
- Martin Tony Rice Signature Monel strings: .013, .016, .026, .034, .044, .056. Martin re-introduced their mid-century Monel strings after collaboration with Rice, who responded: “I never thought I would see the day when I could put Martin Monel strings back on my D-28. Welcome back, old friend. I’ve missed you!” Monel is a nickel-copper alloy prized for long life and transparent tone. The gauge set is medium-to-heavy — heavier than what many flatpickers prefer, providing more acoustic volume and sustain.
- Who was Clarence White and what is his connection to Tony Rice?
- Clarence White (1944-1973) was a bluegrass guitarist who became one of the most significant figures in both the bluegrass and country-rock traditions, most notably as the lead guitarist with the Byrds. He was killed by a drunk driver in 1973 at age 29. He owned the 1935 Martin D-28 (serial #58957) from 1959, when he bought it for $35, until his death. White was Tony Rice’s primary guitar influence — “Tony has said in many interviews that his biggest influence was Clarence White.” Rice acquiring White’s guitar in 1975 represented both a literal and symbolic continuation of the tradition White had established.
- What was Tony Rice’s flatpicking technique?
- Built on the DUDU (Down-Up-Down-Up) alternating pick motion established by Doc Watson, extended with jazz harmonic vocabulary — bebop scale patterns, chord substitutions, passing tones — integrated into the bluegrass flatpicking context. His custom-shaped beveled pick allowed faster string release. His ultra-low action setup allowed higher speeds with less physical resistance. His rhythm playing used a slightly altered down-up-down timing that created a “bouncier groove” compared to strictly metronomic playing. He was also a vocalist, which gave him a complete performing identity beyond instrumental virtuosity.
- How do I get Tony Rice’s guitar tone?
- A Martin D-28 or equivalent quality spruce-top/rosewood dreadnought (Martin Tony Rice Signature or HD-28V for production options; vintage pre-war D-28 for the authentic instrument). Martin Tony Rice Signature Monel strings (.013-.056) or D’Addario EJ17 medium gauge phosphor bronze. A beveled-edge flatpick (Dunlop Primetone or custom-beveled standard flatpick). Action as low as your technique allows while producing clean notes. No amplification — acoustic to condenser microphone to PA. The technique is the dominant factor: DUDU alternating picks, jazz-informed note choices over bluegrass harmonic movement, and the rhythmic bounce that Rice called a “bouncier groove” through subtle timing manipulation on the down-up-down strum pattern.
