Timothée Chalamet, who has earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, is being recognized for his incredible transformation into the iconic musician. While the film features a collection of period-correct Gibson acoustic guitars, Chalamet’s journey to playing the guitar began on a more humble note—learning to play on a $200 beginner Yamaha acoustic.
In a conversation with MusicRadar, Larry Saltzman, the session musician who taught Chalamet, recalls that when the actor first approached him for lessons, he didn’t even own a guitar. “I told him, ‘Show up without a guitar. I have a couple of guitars for us,’” said Saltzman. They had a tight timeframe to prepare, as the film’s production was set to start in just four months, with Chalamet only knowing a few chords.
By the time Chalamet needed his own guitar, he was already an Oscar nominee for Call Me By Your Name and an in-demand actor. However, despite his success, he opted for a modest approach. “He went to Guitar Center here in New York, on [West] 14th Street, and he did an incredibly humble thing,” Saltzman shared. “He went in there and bought a $200 Yamaha acoustic guitar. I loved that he showed up with a $200 guitar. He didn’t show up with a $2,000 guitar and he could have. It’s humble.”
Meanwhile, the production team reached out to Gibson to provide custom acoustics for the shoot. Gibson built a pair of J-50s to match Dylan’s original 1946 model, along with a more player-friendly Nick Lucas Special and several J-45s in different tunings. The production even aged the guitar strings to make them sound like Dylan’s instruments.
Chalamet faced the challenge of learning dozens of Dylan’s songs. He had a list of 30 to 40 tracks to master, though not all would make the final cut. His goal was to learn as much as possible to understand Dylan’s music more deeply. Chalamet’s choice of instrument initially raised some eyebrows.
Saltzman recalls a conversation with director Jim Mangold: “Jim was asking, ‘Does he have a guitar?’ I said, ‘Yeah, he went and bought a $200 Yamaha guitar.’ And Jim goes, ‘That’s interesting.’ I said, ‘Look, if he shows up with it and I think it’s not appropriate we’ll go shopping and I’ll return it.’”
But when Chalamet showed up with the Yamaha, it worked perfectly. “It was very playable and sounded good. It was fine!” Saltzman noted. “And the other thing that was good about it was that you don’t really have to worry about an instrument like that—if it falls over, it’s not the end of the world.”
The true test of a beginner guitar is whether it helps the player improve. In Chalamet’s case, it did. His dedication to learning Dylan’s unique and tricky playing style paid off. Although production was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Chalamet’s extra time allowed him to truly master Dylan’s technique. Despite the extended preparation, the only significant critique online was regarding an anachronistic microphone choice—an issue that didn’t detract from his performance.
Today, Chalamet is still playing guitar. “He does and he will,” Saltzman says. “He got so into it and he got really good. He’s a musician. He’s a really good singer. He knows all about music intuitively and he’ll keep playing.”
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