{"id":147721,"date":"2025-06-06T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=147721"},"modified":"2025-06-08T09:28:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T16:28:30","slug":"great-acoustics-gordon-lightfoots-1967-gibson-b-45-12-the-guitar-behind-the-wreck-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/great-acoustics-gordon-lightfoots-1967-gibson-b-45-12-the-guitar-behind-the-wreck-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Acoustics\u2014Gordon Lightfoot\u2019s 1967 Gibson B-45-12: The Guitar Behind \u201cThe Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who passed away in 2023, left a legacy of great songs\u2014and a remarkable collection of instruments. Among them, one stood apart: his Gibson B-45-12. Late last fall, this 12-string guitar was the top-selling item in a Heritage Auctions estate sale, going for $350,000 to a group of Canadian collectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over a career spanning more than 60 years, Lightfoot amassed dozens of fine acoustic guitars. While he didn\u2019t favor a single brand\u2014the auction also included a 1959 Martin 0-18 tenor, 1979 custom Manzer, early 1980s Guild F-412, and others\u2014the Gibson was in a class of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of Lightfoot\u2019s best-loved songs\u2014\u201cSundown,\u201d \u201cIf You Could Read My Mind,\u201d and \u201cThe Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald\u201d (transcribed in the September\/October 2023 issue)\u2014were composed on the B-45-12. Open up a copy of Sundown<\/a><\/em>, his 1974 best-selling record, and you\u2019ll see this prized guitar by his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Gordon-Lightfoot-Gibson-B-45-1212-string-Heritage-Auctions\"
Gordon Lightfoot’s Gibson B-45-12, Courtesy of Heritage Auctions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGordon always returned to that 12-string,\u201d says Rick Haynes, his bassist of 55 years. Fellow bandmate and drummer Barry Keane adds, \u201cOn commercial flights, Gordon always bought a first-class ticket\u2014for the guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gibson introduced the B-45-12 in 1961, quickly earning favor among 12-string players like Reverend Gary Davis and Leo Kottke. The model was made with both pinned bridge and trapeze tailpiece variations; Lightfoot\u2019s guitar features the former. Its worn top, shaped by years of steady play, speaks to a songwriter who rarely set it aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only modification to Lightfoot\u2019s B-45-12 came in the 1980s when, at the suggestion of a road crew member, he installed a pickup under the bridge. The addition proved purely cosmetic\u2014Lightfoot tried it once in sound check but never used it again, preferring a single directional stage microphone. As Haynes recalls, \u201cGordon was really a purist that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Learn to play the Lightfoot classic \u201cThe Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald\u201d<\/a> in the September\/October 2023<\/a> issue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\"Acoustic<\/a>\n

This article originally appeared in the July\/August 2025<\/a> issue of Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Open up a copy of \u2018Sundown,\u2019 his 1974 best-selling record, and you\u2019ll see this prized guitar by Lightfoot\u2019s side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":147724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Open up a copy of \u2018Sundown,\u2019 his 1974 best-selling record, and you\u2019ll see this prized guitar by Lightfoot\u2019s side.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1686,1670],"tags":[1968],"ppma_author":[1649],"class_list":["post-147721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-12-string","category-guitars","tag-july-august-2025"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Gordon-Lightfoot-Sundown-cover.jpg?fit=1200%2C879&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":1649,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"david-mcpherson","display_name":"David McPherson","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/author_fallback.png","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/author_fallback.png"},"author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147721"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148036,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147721\/revisions\/148036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147721"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=147721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}