Just FTR ... not that it will be of any interest to anybody other than guitar geeks like myself ... Tom's guitar was kinda unique.

It was a 1929 Martin OO-40 H, which signifies that originally it was a Hawaiian guitar , meant for playing with a slide. It later got modified into a regular guitar by lowering the nut and saddle.

An interesting feature of his guitar was that it had a strip of marquetry inlaid into the top, in the center seam. I asked him about this , at the house concert where I last saw him play, and he said he had bought it like this.

I do know that he had the bridge altered by Brighton luthier Keith Johns, from a standard Martin pyramid bridge to a kind of hybrid pyramid / belly bridge.

His concert that evening was memorable ... he was frail, and suffering pain in his shoulder, which affected his ability to play fiddle, but it was truly a privilege to see and hear once again one of the true greats of American folk music.

R.I.P Tom Paley.