I defer to Keith Sellers when it comes to Lonnie's more obscure guitars. It's his speciality, being a collector of the more unusual European instruments.

One day I'd love to get the chronology of Lonnie's Martins properly established. In the very early days, we saw him with a mahogany bodied 'O' (a 17?) allegedly procured for six Pounds Sterling in a Walthamstow market. Then he had OOO-21 (Keith believes this was a herringbone - deduced, I think, from the 'Lost John' photograph, but I don't think the grain of the photo makes this clear enough) and this was on the 'Showcase' album, as well as his second LP, 'Lonnie' (that photo showed a DeArmond pick-up across the sound-hole).

Around 1958 he got a 000-28 (distinguished by the white bordering on the top and bottom of the body as opposed to the 21's tortoiseshell look). ONE of these guitars (I think the 000-21, IF the story is true), he gave to Adam Faith. Lon loved a 'tall story', though, so nothing is certain. The guitar, according to the Gospel of Donegan, was destroyed when Adam's car was rear-ended.

At some point (when???) Lonnie acquired his final 000-28 - this was a 1967 Brazilian-bodied guitar, and he played it fairly exclusively until immediately before his death when he received his 'signature edition' sunburst 000 from Chris Martin IV.

If anyone can shed any light on the specifics of all this, I'd be obliged.

RR