There are some amazing soundboard recordings floating around from that era.

I really enjoyed this line up of the band and have always felt that an official product that documented this line up should have been released. Jack brought a lot of great songs, I'm Not Crying, his version of Dimples, etc. Loved this line up.

It was just too much of a shock seeing Dickey with a strat. I personally thought he sounded subpar without the Gibson. But hey that's me. Jack of course was always incredible. Dickey handicapped himself way more than he make up for. If he was going to stay anywhere near Jack, he needed Goldie. Bad. Real bad.

It's all in what you hear -- personally I liked how it sounded w/Jack -- Dickey could often be much louder than the rest of the band w/the Goldie, but less so in this era TME -- his playing reminded me of how he sounded in the jazzy moments of the Chuck-Lamar band -- a little more subdued, hearing it, blending in, giving Jack plenty of room....

there isn't a bad Dreams in the Dickey/Jack canon, esp. Beacon 98 radio show -- Mr. Betts truly shines playing beautiful random notes, then Mr. Pearson.......great

I'm listening to Atlanta '97. Jack and Dickey sounded so great together. I'm not a huge fan of strats, but the great ones can make a strat not sound like a strat, if that makes sense. I was blown away when I saw Dickey had a strat, but Dickey still sounded like Dickey to me. Warren had such a monster tone that the sudden combination of Dickey on strat and Jack on Squire (and Oteil's hopping bass, compared to Woody's monstrous bass) added so much air to the music, in a good way. The songs breathed beautifully, totally fresh. "Don't Want You No More" got so much more slinky, "High Falls" and "Dreams" had whole new spins on them.

Very underrated combo...too bad the volume was too much for his ears to handle

Aug. 11/98 Wisconsin State Fair - a recording that all should have. Unfortunately I am not in burner mode at the moment otherwise I would offer it up but definitely worth tracking in the trades section. Soundboard recording and the band is smoking especially Jack.

In the early years of the Warren/Allen era, Warren often played a Strat too. It had a red headstock and it really sounded great on slide. But I think it was Alan Paul who reported that the guitar got stolen off the stage back in the middle 90's. I haven't seen it since so I guess Warren never figured out who got it.

That was a G&L Jack was playing. I was up close at a few shows and noticed G&L on the headstock. I think that was Leo Fender's company after he sold Fender.

Dickey used a Strat at the Beacon much of the time in 97 during the last shows with Allen and Warren. After 20 years with Goldie being his main ax on stage, Dickey decided it was time to move on and first got a Paul Reed Smith which sounded good to me but the next year, 1995 he had added a Gibson ES-335 to his mix, in 96 played it most of the time then in 1997 through 2000 he most often used a Strat. He had one that was yellow but the one he used most was an old 56 hardtail tobacco sunburst with lots of road wear. Someone had played that guitar a lot over the years. I think Dickey had owned the guitar for a long time and used it in recording sessions. I've heard Dickey was a little angry at Gibson for ignoring him from 1994 until 2000 when he just stopped using a Les Paul. That changed when they came out with a Dickey Betts signature series of two guitars in 2001. Also his 57 Goldtop he used so much from 1974 to 1994 turned green while it was in the rock and roll hall of fame for several years and when Dickey got it back, he pained it red and put a pick guard on it. I think he played it in 2014 on his last tour.

Dickey's son Duane Betts has that old 56 Strat hardtail now. I see it often on his Facebook page. He plays it some live and uses it for tracking in the studio. It has MAJOR road ware especially on the neck but it makes it look cool to me and people will comment on his Facebook page about what a cool looking guitar it is. Some even say they remember his dad using it during the Jack Pearson years and the year he and Derek were together in the ABB.

I think Duane Bett's main stage guitar is his dad's original Goldtop Les Paul signature new in 2001 which I believe suffered a broken neck somehow but they later got it fixed and Duane has it now. He is now in a new band that is playing all over the world and has a good following called Dawes. They were on Letterman back in the summer just after they invited Duane to join.

Aug. 11/98 Wisconsin State Fair - a recording that all should have. Unfortunately I am not in burner mode at the moment otherwise I would offer it up but definitely worth tracking in the trades section. Soundboard recording and the band is smoking especially Jack.

I was at that show and remember it fondly. Jack was crazy good, it was my first time hearing the Jack/Oteil lineup and I was blown away. Jack played sitting on a stool because he had just had an appendicitis and still tore it up.

Lots of good info there, robertdee.

I have a faint recollection of Dickey picking up the Les Paul at least a little bit shortly before Jackie P. departed the band. And while he continued playing the Strat some after Derek joined, Dickey used the Gibsons more and more after Derek joined. Going off memory though.

Also, I thought the G&L guitars that Jack plays/played had stacked humbucking (narrow) pickups. And I remember reading Dickey talking about the Strats he was playing and how he replaced the pickups with Duncans (I believe)... I think he even had a Hot Rails type pickup in the neck position. Definitely more Fendery sounding than Gibson, but not exactly a traditional Strat sound either.

Funny thing is whatever guitar Dickey is playing, it sounds like Dickey on the first note.

Aug. 11/98 Wisconsin State Fair - a recording that all should have. Unfortunately I am not in burner mode at the moment otherwise I would offer it up but definitely worth tracking in the trades section. Soundboard recording and the band is smoking especially Jack.

I was at that show and remember it fondly. Jack was crazy good, it was my first time hearing the Jack/Oteil lineup and I was blown away. Jack played sitting on a stool because he had just had an appendicitis and still tore it up.

I caught a few shows on that tour with Jack sitting and all of them smoked. I lent someone the Toronto show to copy and never got it back. Will have to track that show down again now that I am reminded. But you are bang on about Jack that night, he was on fire.

Not the Dickey/Jack years but I always like to mention the shows where Jack filled in for Dickey in 1993. Warren and Jack are magical on those shows. Definitely different versions and the jams go in completely different directions. Stephen turned me onto those shows years ago and can never thank him enough. The man knows his ABB.

Not the Dickey/Jack years but I always like to mention the shows where Jack filled in for Dickey in 1993. Warren and Jack are magical on those shows. Definitely different versions and the jams go in completely different directions. Stephen turned me onto those shows years ago and can never thank him enough. The man knows his ABB.

One of my favorite shows (and topical at the moment since there's a jack/Dickey and a Derek/Dickey threat going on right now) is the Clarkston, MI show from 2005 with Derek & Jack & Ron Holloway. The "Mountain Jam" is nuts. What a dream combination.

Not the Dickey/Jack years but I always like to mention the shows where Jack filled in for Dickey in 1993. Warren and Jack are magical on those shows. Definitely different versions and the jams go in completely different directions. Stephen turned me onto those shows years ago and can never thank him enough. The man knows his ABB.

One of my favorite shows (and topical at the moment since there's a jack/Dickey and a Derek/Dickey threat going on right now) is the Clarkston, MI show from 2005 with Derek & Jack & Ron Holloway. The "Mountain Jam" is nuts. What a dream combination.

I love that show too and that combination is a dream. Loved Ron with Warren also as they jammed over such a tight WHB.

Hi Zambi. Dickey's Goldtop was returned from the hall of fame in late 1997 and it had turned an ugly green. So Dickey stripped it down and painted it red and put a pick guard on it and did a change to the pickup switch's looks. And he did play is some at the 1998 Beacon run but mostly used the 1956 Strat during the summer shows. I saw about 10 as I was real happy with Jack and Otiel in the band even though I thought Warren and Woody was a big reason the band was back to fine form and rather close to the original lineup. And the couple of times Dickey broke a string on the 56 Strat when I was there, he went to the yellow Strat but I could see the now red Goldie over to the side. The rumor going around then from my musician friends who were with me at shows back when Duane was alive was Dickey was mad a Gibson for ignoring him. I'm not sure that was even true and if it was, why he would be. The guitar Jack used on all those shows did say G&L on the headstock and had a little arch on the bottom that a Fender doesn't have but the body looked like a strat except it was black I think.

At the Beacon in 97 while playing with Warren, Dickey's strat had what looked like regular single coil pups. But that summer the 56 and the yellow one did have a hot rail in the neck position and that is where Dickey had it for solos.

In 1999 I went to a fair number of Derek shows and Dickey had the 56 Strat on all of them. In 2000 at the Beacon, Dickey did use Goldie (now red) plus the Strats and his big red ES-335 and I think I saw him used his Paul Reed Smith which was his main ax in 1994 one night on a couple of songs. In 1999 with Derek, Dickey was playing real fine and Butch even commented in an interview about how Derek had inspired Gregg and Dickey and they were playing right now the best they had in years and that Derek reminded them of Duane.

But Dickey's mood and playing in 2000 was totally different and he seemed to be playing too loud and not happy with any of the guitars as he kept changing. And at a couple of shows on the spring tour it looked as if he was taking junk to Gregg and Butch and very ill tempered and they would not look at him and were just stoned faced. Dickey could be a little hard to handle when Duane was alive but Dickey loved and respected Duane so much that his mood was usually pretty good. Dickey refused to record when they went into the studio to do the first album in New York because the studio didn't have any windows and packed up and walked out. But Duane went out a few minutes later and after a while they both returned. That was in Alan Paul's book but I had heard that rumor years ago but didn't know if it was true. I think Duane put someone in the outside room who would inform Dickey if something was up he wouldn't like since he couldn't see out a window. Then there was the time Dickey got tired of Duane tuning his Les Paul for slide and bitched at Duane about it, then gave him his SG he started using after he used a Strat for about 9 months (late 69 to spring of 70) as Dickey had bought a couple of Goldtops himself by then. Then Duane gave Dickey his Goldtop as Dickey wasn't happy with his and Dickey had it painted red around the edges to make it look like a sunburst and that is the guitar they claim Dickey played on the Fillmore Album. And he later gave that guitar to Dan Toler who used it in the ABB and The Gregg Allman Band but Danny finally switched to a red Strat and sold the guitar. I can't remember who bought it but that would be a good one to be in the Big House as it was used by Duane then Dickey then Danny Toler in the ABB. But by the time they got to closing of the Fillmore which two tracks made it on Eat A Peach, he had gone to another Goldtop that was gold and that is it on One Way Out and Trouble No More on Eat A Peach they say... and man does it have a great tone to me. Dickey's solo on One Way Out on Eat A Peach is one of the hottest guitar solos on any Allman Brothers album including anything Duane ever did. It smokes!! Dickey went though several guitars including a number of Les Paul's before he finally stuck with one which was the Goldtop he bought used in New York about 1974 which is a 1957. That is the one he used for 20 years then painted red after it sat for a few years in Cleveland. I'm pretty sure he used it the last time he played which was last November.

As to the 56 Strat. It doesn't have the hotrail anymore. Duane Betts took a picture of it and put it on his facebook page with a box of new pickups he ordered for it sitting next to it and the hot rail was still in it but from every picture of him using the guitar after that (about Feb of 2014)..the hot rail is gone and now all three pups look like single coil but they could be Duncans. I don't know what he put in it. Like his father did before 1997, I think Duane Betts uses it mostly in the studio for tracking. I remember Dickey saying years ago he really liked a Strat for rhythm playing but even then I had no way of knowing he had one for the studio because I thought he traded the strat he used in the ABB from late 69 to spring 70 but apparently it was the 56 hardtail he was talking about. But as I said, it has a lot of road wear where the arm rests on the body and a hell of a lot on the neck so at one time someone played that guitar a lot apparently. I don't know how long Dickey had the guitar. Andy Aldedort told me and another musician who was asking about that 56 hardtail and Andy said "Dickey has owned that guitar forever". I'm not sure but some of the old musicians I know claim the old Fender Strat hardtails from the 1950's are really fine guitars. But it's odd in a way because if you are going to use a Strat, you think of using the whammy bar and a hardtail of course doesn't have one. Dickey was using the old hardtail for slide in Great Southern at the time Andy said that but it seems the guitar and two or three of Dickey's Les Paul's belong to Duane Betts now. I know the Paul Duane Betts is using as his main stage guitar is Dickey's original signature Goldtop which I think was new in 2001. But Dickey got another one about 2007 and I understand the neck got broken but since was repaired and Duane Betts got it. He is using it in that real good band he is in now called Dawes. They are really nice. Have you seen the Letterman footage of Dawes with Duane Betts? It's on YouTube. Duane didn't get on the album because he joined after it was recorded but he seems real happy to be in that band.

Old Red Dog use to tell a story about one of Dickey's early Les Pauls apparently was not doing what it should so Dickey finally slung it across the stage and got another guitar. Red Dog said it wasn't broken so after the show, he put it back in Dickey's rack but the next day when Dickey saw it there he grabbed it and pile drove it into the stage and destroyed the guitar. Then it was ready for the dumpster.

Bad manners to no link some classic Dickey/Jack era. Beacon March 10/98

[Edited on 8/20/2015 by CanadianMule]