Trini Lopez - May 13, 1937 to August 11th, 2020 - His Life and Gibson Guitars

Trini Lopez (recent)

Singer, guitarist, and actor Trini Lopez passed away on August 11, 2020 at the age of 83 from complications of Covid-19.

Trinidad Lopez III as a child

He was born Trinidad López III on May 15, 1936 in Dallas,TX. He grew up on Ashland Street in the Little Mexico neighborhood of Dallas.

Jack Ruby owner of The Vegas Club

Lopez formed his first band in Wichita Falls, Texas when he was 15 years old. Around 1955/56 Trini Lopez and his band worked at The Vegas Club in Dallas. Interestingly this club was owned by Jack Ruby, who seven years later became the assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Trini and The Big Beats

By 1958, at the recommendation of Buddy Holly’s father. Trini and his group "The Big Beats" went to producer Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico where Buddy Holly and The Crickets got their start.


Norm Petty secured a contract for them with Columbia Records, which released the single "Clark's Expedition"/"Big Boy", both where instrumental recordings.

The Right To Rock

Shortly after this, Lopez left the group and made his first solo recording, his own composition "The Right To Rock", for the Dallas-based Volk Records, and then signed with King Records of Cincinnati, Ohio in 1959, recording more than a dozen singles for that label, none of which charted.

In late 1962, when the King contract expired, Lopez followed up on an offer by famed record producer Snuff Garrett to join the post-Holly Crickets as vocalist. .After a few weeks of auditions in Los Angeles, that idea did not go through.

Trini Lopez at PJ's

He landed a steady engagement at the well known Los Angeles nightclub called PJ's, where his audience grew quickly. He was heard there by Frank Sinatra, who had just started his own label, Reprise Records. Sinatra subsequently signed Lopez.

Trini Lopez At PJ's

His debut live album, "Trini Lopez at PJ's", was released in 1963. The album included Trini's version of "If I Had a Hammer". This recording reached number one in 36 countries (no. 3 in the United States), and was a radio favorite for many years. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

Trini Lopez - The Folk Album

Lopez later scored 13 chart singles through 1968, including "Lemon Tree" (1965), "I'm Comin' Home, Cindy" (1966), and "Sally Was a Good Old Girl" (1968).




On the adult contemporary chart, he racked up 15 hits, including the top-10 singles "Michael" (1964), "Gonna Get Along Without Ya' Now" (1967), and "The Bramble Bush" (1967).

Beyond his success on record, Trini Lopez became one of the country's top nightclub performers of that era, regularly headlining in Las Vegas. During the 1960s and 1970s, Lopez moved into acting, though his film career was not as successful as his music.

Palm Springs Walk of Starr
Trini Lopez

In 1993, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him. On May 15, 2008, his 71st birthday, Lopez was inducted into the Las Vegas Walk of Stars.

Trini Lopez - My Texas Roots

In 2002, Lopez teamed with Art Greenhaw for Legacy Records with an LP called  "My Texas Roots". The album used the "Texas Roots Combo" which included Lopez, Greenhaw, and Lopez's brother, Jesse.



A reviewer said that the album has an easygoing feel very similar to Lopez's classic live sets from the 1960s, only it rocks a good deal harder.

After that records release Trini focused on charitable work.

Trini Lopez "Into The Future"

Trini Lopez has continued to record, El Immortal was released in 2010, and in 2011 Trini released his 65th album "Into The Future".

In the history of Gibson Guitars there is a limited group that was good enough or popular enough to have Gibson put their name on a signature guitar.

In fact there are only a handful that have their name on more than one model. Les Paul is the obvious choice in this category. Howard Roberts had three Gibson models and one Epiphone (built by Gibson) model that featured his signature. But surprisingly Trini Lopez has two Gibson signature models.

Trini Lopez with Barney Kessel Model

Around the time that his break out live album, Trini At PJ's came out, Lopez was playing a 1961 Gibson Barney Kessel Custom model that had dual Florentine cutaways. His initial Gibson model was based on this guitar. It’s a testament to how “hot” Lopez was at the time.

Gibson would give him mot just one model, but two: the Trini Lopez Custom, and the Trini Lopez Standard.

On both of his models, Lopez specified a headstock with six-on-a-side tuner configuration, a preference that he developed playing Fenders in his early years in Dallas.

It’s hard to imagine Gibson agreeing to what was essentially a Fender-style headstock, though Gibson had introduced a six-on-a-side headstock in 1963 on the solid body Firebird guitars. (which Fender sued over since they thought it looked too much like a Jazzmaster/Jaguar body.)

1st Trini Lopez Deluxe

The Firebird headstock, with all of the tuners on the treble side, was “reversed” from conventional (Fender) design. Gibson exaggerated the Firebird headstock design slightly for the original Lopez Deluxe model, and it was fitted with banjo-style tuners, just as the Firebirds were. This is the only example of a Lopez with the reverse headstock, and it is also the original guitar presented to Trini.

On later models the headstock was changed to a “flipped over” version of the Firebird design, with all the tuners on the bass side. And the tuners were changed to traditional Klusons or Grovers.

I have also seen an early version of the Trini Lopez Standard with the reverse headstock.

Trini Lopez Deluxe and Standard

Both models were originally offered by Gibson in 1964, and continued through 1971. The first year Gibson only produced three standard models and two deluxe models according to shipping records.




The signature mark on both Trini Lopez models was the split diamond ornamentation motif on the fret markers and the diamond shaped sound holes. In 1964 the Standard, which had an ES-335 shaped body sold for $375, while the Deluxe model had a retail price of $645.

The body of the Deluxe archtop model was essentially a remake of a Barney Kessel guitar, which had a deep hollow body and the Fender-like six-on-a-side headstock. The truss rod cover was embossed with the word "Deluxe" on the headstock. A decal that said "Gibson" was included on the headstock's black laminate cover.

Gibson Trini Lopez Deluxe

This instrument came with a cherry sunburst finish, laminated maple body, and a mahogany neck with a rosewood fingerboard. It also had  a trapeze tailpiece that had an unfinished mahogany block inserted between the posts and a glued on metal plague that spelled out Trini Lopez.

The instrument came with an adjustable tune-o-matic bridge with metal adjustable saddles that were mounted on an rosewood block. I am told that some had nylon saddle.

A black hard shell case was included in the price. Some of the original models had slightly different fret markers.

Trini Lopez's Personal Guitar

All of the Deluxe models had cream binding on the body, the neck, sound holes, and the headstock. The headstock was slightly more pronounced on the Deluxe model when compared to the Standard. The pickguard on this model left room for the switch on the lower bout. However on Trini's guitar he had a diamond shaped pickguard, which perhaps was an add-on. There are some other picture that show Trini's personal guitar with differing pickguards.

1964 Trini Lopez Deluxe (block markers)

The Trini Lopez Deluxe guitar came with traditional model came with twin humbucking pickups, each with separate volume and tone controls.

1967 Gibson Trini Lopez Deluxe

The switch on the upper bout controlled the pickups, while the switch on the lower bout was a 'standby switch' that Trini insisted on having as a feature since his live shows included some audience acapella sing-a-longs, where he clapped along to the music and wanted to switch the guitars sound off.

The Deluxe model also had an ebony fretboard, typically topped with split diamond markers.

1966 Gibson Trini Lopez Std

The Trini Lopez Standard model was a variation on Gibson's popular ES-335 thin line semi-hollow model, The suggested price was almost $300 less than the Deluxe. This guitar included a laminated maple body, with a block between the two sections.

The guitar's neck was made of mahogany and topped with a six-on-a-side headstock very similar to the non-reverse Firebird. I have only encountered one video of a reverse headstock model.

I wrote to the fellow that posted it, and he assured me his guitar was an original 1964 model.

The body and neck of the Trini Standard were both bound and the fretboard was made of rosewood, and had split diamond markers. The sound holes were diamond shaped and bound. Both the original Deluxe and Standard bore the orange made-in-Kalamazoo label.

1965 Trini Lopez Standard

This guitar came with twin humbucking pickups which had separate volume and tone controls, and a single switch to control the pickup selection that was placed beneath the bridge saddle. The tune-o-matic bridge/saddle on this guitar generally had nylon saddle pieces, and was mounted directly on the guitars body, similar to that found on an ES-335.
The Standard came with the same trapeze tailpiece found on the Deluxe, with the wooden block between the posts and Trini's name on a metal plague.

1967 Trini Lopez

I own a 1967 version that I purchased new. Around 1975 I had a Bigsby B7 vibrato added to the guitar which created an unforeseen problem.

The distance from the tailpiece to the tuning post on the 1st string is longer than the length of most traditional guitar strings. I solved this by purchasing a set of banjo strings, which usually include several .009 or .010 mm strings that are a few inches longer than guitar strings.

1967 Trini Lopez Pelham Blue and Black

Though the Deluxe model was only offered in cherry burst, the Standard model came in a cherry finish, as well as Black and Pelham blue finishes. The ones done in Pelham blue by now have probably faded to an almost green color.

Dave Grohl Model DG-335

Gutiarist Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters favored the Trini Lopez Standard, and around 2007 Gibson came out with the DG-335 model, which was similar to the Trini Lopez Standard but the Grohl version included a stop tailpiece, no pickguard, and no binding on the sound holes.

Gibson DG-335

The DG-335 guitar was offered at the time in Pelham Blue, Black, and Metallic Gold finishes. By  2014 this was renamed the Dave Grohl model and offered in Pelham Blue.

Instead of the original Gibson Humbuckers found on a Lopez model, the Grohl versions use Gibson Burstbuckers which have a higher output.

2015 Gibson Memphis
Trini Lopez Standard

By 2015 Gibson reissued the Memphis Trini Lopez Standard guitar in an ebony finish. It was a very nice guitar, but did not include binding on the sound holes. Like the DG-335, this guitar had Gibson Burstbucker pickups.

Gibson "1964" Trini Lopez Reissue

Later on Gibson reissued the 1964 Trini Lopez model. At this time the guitar is  are out of stock. But this later model did include bound sound holes and was very similar to the original.




Though Trini Lopez got his break as a singer/guitars in the 1960s and 1970s, he moved into acting. His first film role in 1965 was in the movie Marriage on the Rocks.

Trini Lopez in The Dirty Dozen

By far his most remembered role was as Pedro Jimenez in the the 1967 movie The Dirty Dozen. He appeared as himself in a 1970 film called  The Phynx and played the title role in Claudio Guzman's film, Antonio in 1973.


He later branched into television and made two appearances on the television program Adam-12. In 1977, and  he played the role of Julio Ramirez in “The Mystery of the Silent Scream” which was part of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries TV series.

Trini Lopez Hullabaloo from Melbourne

I probably remember Trini Lopez best from his appearances on the 1960's TV shows Shindig! and Hullabaloo. He was one of the first performers to bridge folk and rock together.

Lopez at the 2019 NAMM

In 2019 Trini appeared on last time at the NAMM convention on behalf of Gibson Guitars to introduce the company's current version of the Trini Lopez Standard Guitar.

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