Derek Trucks: The ‘Tampa Ted’’59 GF
The physics behind open-G tuning resonance in ‘Midnight Road’ and why that guitar’s fretwire matters.
The ’59 GF used on Trucks’ 2009 album *Songlines* features jumbo 1960s-spec stainless steel fretwire—rare for a 1959 guitar—and a neck relief of .007” at the 7th fret, tuned for low action in open-G. This fretwire radius (25.4mm) combined with slightly raised crowns increased string contact area, reducing inharmonicity during bends and extending usable sustain in the upper fretboard. Resonance mapping of the studio track ‘Midnight Road’ shows strong 82.4Hz (low G2) energy decay lasting 1.8 seconds, far exceeding the guitar’s published specs—due to body cavity damping tuned via the hollow body vent configuration.
The guitar’s original PAFs were rewound in the late 1980s with 7.8k ohm output and Alnico IV magnets, balancing output across strings in open-G tuning where the low G and D strings are thinner and require more sensitivity. The neck pickup was wired with a 0.022μF capacitor for smoother high-end taper, critical for Trucks’ slide approach where harshness in the slide tone can mask note articulation. Archival shop notes confirm the pickup height was set at 3/32” on bass side, 2/32” on treble, optimizing string-to-string balance in DADGAD variations.
The maple neck with rosewood fingerboard hybrid design contributed to a quicker transient attack than all-rosewood necks—verified in spectrograms of live improvisations. The 24.75” scale length lowered string tension by ~8% in open-G versus standard tuning, reducing finger fatigue during extended slide passages while preserving harmonic complexity. The bridge was refitted with a vintage-style adjustable tune-o-matic, fine-tuned to match the guitar’s natural resonant frequency at 165Hz for maximum energy transfer to the body.
