Billy Wayne Grammer (August 28, 1925 – August 10, 2011) was an American country music singer and accomplished guitar player. He recorded the million-selling "Gotta Travel On", which made it onto both the country and pop music charts in 1959. Grammer would become a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry, eventually designing, and marketing his namesake guitar after co-founding a guitar company, in Nashville, Tennessee.
The acoustic guitars produced by Grammar were recognisable by their oversized peg-heads, pick-guards and bridges – not to mention the typical blue, yellow, or green sunburst finishes – and they seem a perfect complement for the gaudy stage clothing worn by country artists of the era.
However, underneath the cosmetic excesses was a serious guitar. Moreover, the Grammer name transcended country music, and it was the only guitar of the era (with the arguable exception of Sho-Bud pedal steels) named after – and designed by – a bona fide star guitarist.
This custom made double neck was built by Billy Grammer and his good friend Dave Sturgill back when Billy was appearing on the CBS Jimmy Dean Show. It has a standard 6 string guitar neck and a mandolin neck angled away from the guitar neck for easy access. Billy and Dave really went to town on this one. It has intricate neck inlays as well as the fancy scrolled head stocks.
Inspired by Bigsby this is a piece of music history!
Here some more info courtesy from Robert Kilgore running the Grammer Guitar website:
" The first thing I noticed on your guitar are the inlays on the guitar neck. No "Bill Grammer." I like the way it is now without the name. It's cool that Billy thought ahead thinking the guitar would be more marketable without his name inlayed. I wonder if Dave did the work? I know that Billy wanted to be called Billy later in life and you would be corrected if you called him Bill - so he was Billy. If he didn't correct you, Ruth would.
I see the head stock inlays as "D" & "S" for Dave Sturgill. That's awesome. I am friends with Billy's brother Carroll who relayed to me that Dave Sturgill probably did all the building of the guitar and Billy relayed the specifications he wanted to Dave. I would imagine that those are PAF Humbuckers. It's really well made and oh so flamey.
I know that Billy ordered a guitar from R.C. Allen right before he passed. It had a green finish with his name inlayed on the neck as "Billy Grammer." I'll bet you he used the inlay from your guitar on the R.C. guitar and had a "y" added. The RC guitar looks pretty much exactly like the inlays in the photo."
To know more on Billy; visit: http://www.grammerguitar.net/billy.html
