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DEDICATED TO THE DERRIG FAMILY

IN LIVING MEMORY OF
ROBERT KRISTIN DERRIG

Happy 2010!

"THE GHOSTBUILDER CHRONICLES"

Robert "Kris" Derrig

Profession - Musician / Luthier / Hairstylist / Muscle Car Enthusiast
Born - 06/04/1954
Place - Greenfield, MA
Died - 05/14/1987
Kris died at 1am at Dana Faber Cancer Institute Boston, Ma
He died "due to cancer from chemical poisoning, Kris was just short of his 33 birthday when he died"

"He was the youngest of 3 boys He also had a half sister that died a number of years ago"

"Kris loved the Allman Brothers rock band and he especially loved Les Pauls, particularly the 1959 Gibson Les Paul "burst" used by Duane Allman which inspired him and a friend to go down to Atlanta in 1975 to seek out Dickey Betts farm. They found it alright and were politely escorted nicley that afternoon by Dickey himself off his farm"

DUANE ALLMAN - 1959 GIBSON LES PAUL

"Kris never cursed, smoked nor did he drink or do drugs, but had a true gypsy spirit. He would take long adventures down to Atlanta in his Ford Van to visit the home land of his rock and roll heroes, the Allman Brothers sometimes not retuning back home for months".

"He loved working on things particularly, guitars in the early days and eventually, he would find his Red 67 TEMPEST / GTO Convertible replica dream car in Atlanta, which he would eventually drive out to LA and lead him to his ultimate destination".

"In Atlanta in 1978, he initially began hairstylist school and picked up a number of odd jobs in hairstyling including working with the Revlon Girls for the Winter Olympics - Lake Placid and if it weren't for Kris's extreme disgust for a flamboyantly egotistical super famous NYC hairstylist that tried to recruit him in 1980 we might never have had Derrig Guitars today"

During his Atlanta tenure he worked for a well known Atlanta Guitar Shop in which he refined his guitar building skills at night and would actually spray painted guitars inside of his small 1 bedroom apartment in the dead of winter with the windows closed. Some suggest that this may have led to early posioning that he contracted through his blood early in his career.

At one point during this period, Kris also met Tut Cambell ( shown below) and went to work for him at Vintage Music Instruments aka - Dixie Guitars. Tut is a native of Atlanta, Georgia and growing up in the 1960's and 70's, he was connected to many famous artists of that time. Tut has been wheeling and dealing vintage guitars and playing the Blues ever since then. He sold instruments to many individuals and professional musicians from Billy Gibbons, Pete Townsend, Dave Gilmore and later to Slash.

Tut Campbell with his beloved
1953 Gold Top Les Paul

Tut was the guy that sold Slash this 1959 Tobacco LesPaul Burst (formerly Joe Perry's guitar who sold it in the late 1970's to Derrek St Holmes of Ted Nugent fame who owned it for awhile before it went to Tut through his association with St Holmes.

It was for sale for sometime at Dixie Guitars for approximately $10,000 which at that time, was pretty pricey even for a burst. The guitar was in a display case surrounded with Aerosmith memorabilia and was advertised as Perry's guitar.

This is where Slash aquired Joe Perry's 1959 Tobacco Burst later in 1998 for $8,000

JOE PERRY'S 1959 LESPAUL 9 0663
Kris's loved tobacco bursts including Duane Allman's Burst
This is one of the original 59 bursts he templated to make his own guitars

Tut also hired Kris Derrig to build replicas in the early days of Kris's career for a short period of time until they fought about a parts deal gone bad. Anyone who knows knows about Tut knows his "story. He has an "interesting" past to say the least. What is not known until now, is that Kris had access to the Joe Perry Tobacco burst and spent a fair maount of time templating it to build his own bursts. This would explain a few things about his build preferences too.

So you could say that part of every Derrig Burst has a little JP Tobacco Burst spec'd into each one.

"Kris would still be here today as a Hairstylist if he did not love building guitars so much. He loved long hair and rock-n-roll and loved to work with sexy women, In one private photo of Kris, it shows him with 4 knockout Revlon models during the Atlanta based 1980 Winter Olympics".

THIS MONTH'S FEATURE DERRIG GUITAR

Kris Derrig's Personal Les Paul Replica

1959 DERRIG LP GUITAR
SERIAL # 9 0603

THIS GUITAR APPEARS ON SEVERAL LEGENDARY RECORDS FROM
1988 - 2009

JIM FOOTE VERIFIES ANOTHER DERRIG GUITAR 9 0603
(4 numbers before the Slash 59 Derrig 9 0607)

This guitar is not the Slash Replica 9 0607 as mentioned on the Les Paul Forum under the "Who made the Slash Replica" facts page - but 4 numbers earlier than Slash's guitar. It was Kris's personal demo guitar that he would take around to show customers back in the early Atlanta days circa 1982-1984.

This was #1 of 3 guitars built out of the same batch of wood by Kris prior to the Jim Foote era. This guitar was built circa 1982-83 and was Kris's demo guitar that he would show customers according to the previous owner. This guitar has changed hands a few times over the last 28 years, including it was once owned by a well known vintage guitar dealer and a 2 well known studio gurus who used the guitar on a multitude of famous recordings.

According to Jim Foote, this is may be 1 of 2 guitars he made with a real 1950's Les Paul Gold Top fretboard too. Later in 1984 after it left the shop it was sold as a real "Burst" by an unknown seller in greater LA area and later aquired by his close friend in the mid 1980's and appeared on several Grunge period albums in the 1990's - later to be sold in 1996 to another music producer to make even more great music! This guitar now resides in a vault among several other various Derrig Guitars in the MCi Music Collection

ROBERT "KRISTIN" DERRIG
Kris's very 1st hand-made guitar

KRIS DERRIG PROUDLY DISPLAYING
HIS FIRST ATTEMPT AT MAKING A LP STYLE GUITAR
AT HIS BROTHERS HOUSE IN MA. Circa - 1978

The very first guitar Kris ever constructed was built as a Cherry Sunburst 1960 "Les Paul Style" replica guitar, pictured above. (Circa 1978)

The guitar was built approximately in mid 1978, pot codes indicate 08/78 its construction is made of a Curly Eastern Maple top with a solid one piece mahogany body and a one piece mahogany neck. The guitar has 1970's Gibson Pat. sticker pickups and original 1959 gold Top knobs.

1978 ORIGINAL DERRIG PHOTO
THE KRIS DERRIG "1ST MADE" GUITAR

"Kris's very first guitar bearing his surname features a flamed maple binding, abalone fret marker dots and mahogany back-plates and a Brazilian rosewood fretboard."

Upon close inspection of this guitar, it is very clear that this was his first attempt at building a guitar, as the interior routes show several rough cavity routing errors. The guitar weighs approx. 9.5 lbs, has a slim taper 1960’s style neck and the dimensions are not exact to original specifications. All the same its a great early example of his work.

The guitar has been well preserved over the years with a fair amount of finish checking and some minor player wear. The exact provenance after it left Kris’s possession is unknown on this particular guitar. The guitar represents an educated and good 1st attempt at building a LP Style guitar in the late 1970's when there were little printed resources and no internet to refer to. Kris was ahead of his time for building guitars and is in league of his own when it came to true craftsmanship and raw talent

SCOTT SHELDON - Author / Collector
DISCOVERS KRIS DERRIG'S FIRST GUITAR IN 2006

During this time from 1978 - 1983 in Atlanta, it is believed that Kris built approximately 10-12 replica "Les Paul Style" guitars along with a handful of other custom guitar builds that he did earlier in his career.

The guitar pictured above is the only Les Paul Style Guitar known in existence to bear his surname.

It is also believed by many inside sources close to Kris that he built another 12 LP Style guitars during his tenure with Jim Foote at the MusicWorks Shop in Redondo Beach California during 1984 - 1987

This is the "rarest" example of a Derrig "Les Paul Style" guitar bearing his surname" all other LP Style guitars had another well known logo.

What is not widely known is that Kris built many other strange and unique "prototype" guitars during his career that reside in private collections today that have yet to surface. We'll take an inside look and feature some of the guitars on this site in the near future.

Scott Sheldon - Author / Guitar Historian / Burst Collector

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