Always thought that Dickey's tone had changed about this time....sounds like he has begun to "walk away" from that fat bottom end here, that "nasty" and crunchy sound........towards a "twang" or more mid...

Thoughts?

well in 1972 Dickey started using most of the time that Les Paul light sunburst with the zebra pickups and it didn't have a grit tone. Dickey had an ES-335 in 1969 which you hear on the first album then he went to a Stratocaster in late 1969 and you hear that on Dimples with Duane singing from The Warehouse release. By summer of 1970 Dickey was using the SG he eventually gave Duane and that is on the Atlanta Pop Festival. Then Dickey went though several Les Pauls including one he got from Duane which was a goldtop that Dickey had painted around the edges to make it look like a sunburst and hardcore Dickey fans tell me that is on the Fillmore album. Then he went to another goldtop which I thought had a great tone which is on OWO on Eat a Peach. Then in late 71 that Les Paul with the zebra pickups which has that lighter tone you all are talking about.

Dickey next went to the 1957 Goldtop in late 1974 he dubbed "Goldie" which was his main guitar live from 20 years and it had a gritty tone.

Suddenly in 1994 Dickey quit using goldie and went to a Paul Reed Smith which is on 2nd set. The next year he added a red ES-335 to the mix using it most of the time in 1996.

From 1997 to 2000 Dickey used two Stratocasters. An old 1956 tobacco burst someone had played a lot years before as it has heavy road wear on the body and neck, and a yellow Strat which looked new when I saw him use it in Raleigh, N. C. at an ABB show in 1997, the first time I saw Jack and Otiel with the band. Dickey played that new looking Fender the entire show. Jack played a G&L and Oteil played a Fender bass. It remember thinking it was odd not seeing a Gibson of some model the entire night. But they smoked so it's not really the type of guitar but who's belly is touching the back:-) The last few shows with the ABB, Dickey brought Goldie back but he had painted it red by then saying during the years it sat at the Hall of Fame in Cleveland, it turned an ugly greenish color... but also used the two strats up through 2000. On Peackin At the Beacon, if you listen carefully, you can tell the songs with Goldie which I think are the first three and the last song, High Falls and the ones with a Strat which are the rest including Standback, Black Harted Woman, Every Hungry Woman, Seven Turns.. but as is the case with Dickey, he can play a different guitar and yet stay real close to his signature tone.

So during his ABB years, Dickey used a lot of electric guitars except 1974 to 1994 he almost always used Goldie. He would use a sunburst Les Paul and an SG for slide and another sunburst and a red Ibanez Artist in the late 70's and early 80's when Great Southern or the ABB was on a bill with Charlie Daniels. Probably because in The South's Going to Do It Again, Charlie sings "Richard Betts picking on that red guitar". I think on those shows he didn't want to come out with his goldtop and used a red or had some red on it, guitar.

I think it would be his amp choice and volume setting more than the guitar he chose.

Agreed. Just wonderin' if anyone else here picked up on or heard the same change in tone or shift.....To these ears, it definitely carried over to "Win Lose or Draw".....

Thank You Robert for the time you took for an excellent write up. Great read!

Thank you Bird 72.

Big V. Yes you are right that Dickey used that zebra pickup light sunburst on Win, Loose or Draw even though he began using Goldie on most songs life during his fall Richard Betts tour. Dickey said he found Goldie in a pawn shop in New York in 1974. I saw a couple of the ABB shows in the summer of 74 and Dickey used the zebra pick up Paul at those shows.

But when the ABB did the Win, Loose or Draw tour in the fall of 1975 Dickey used Goldie on all the songs except when he played side and then he used a bright sunburst Paul with silver pick up covers.

Dickey used his 1956 Fender Strat which is very road worn a little in the fall of 74 too. Apparently he bought it about 1974 also. He mentioned that guitar in an interview in 2003 saying he was using it to play electric slide on at the time and said he had the guitar for a long time and it was a 56 and a hard tail and never had a vibrato bar on it. Dickey went on to say he owned about 30 guitars.

Dickey had another Strat that was about the same year but it had a vibrato bar on it and he gave it to Eddie Shaver and an ES-335 that had belonged to Duane Allman. Shave used the strat Dickey gave him for years. As you may know, he died in 2000 of a drug overdose and I understand Willie Nelson has those two guitars now.

Dickey gave away the Martin acoustic he used on Little Martha and he gave Berry Oakley's Fender Tractor bass to Berry's son. So Dickey will give away some valuable guitars at times. He gave the Les Paul Goldtop he got from Duane which he had painted around the edges red to make it look like a sunburst to Dan Toler who used it while he was in the ABB and for several years when he was in the Gregg Allman Band but Dan sold the guitar a few years before his death. Dan Toler had migrated over to a red Stratocaster and apparently needed the money so sold the guitar Dickey gave him. I know a couple of guitar players locally who are very hard core Betts fans and they claim THAT guitar Dan sold is the one Dickey played on At Fillmore East. I think Duane played it often in 1970 when the body was still a complete goldtop.

I think it would be his amp choice and volume setting more than the guitar he chose.

Agreed. Just wonderin' if anyone else here picked up on or heard the same change in tone or shift.....To these ears, it definitely carried over to "Win Lose or Draw".....

His tone definitely shifted in the early 1970s. He had a lot more sting in his tone when he played with Duane and in 1972 as the sole guitarist, he definitely mellowed the tone when he began to play with more of a country influence on Brothers & Sisters and Highway Call. Listen to "One Way Out" on the Macon 1972 show and the Nassau 1973 show, the latter is still intense, but with less sting in the tone. Maybe he was mellowing his tone to meet Chuck's bouncy, jazzy piano. By the time of Great Southern and Enlightened Rogues he had pretty much established that bright Dickey Betts tone we all know and have been listening to ever since.