La Dolce Chitarra
MODEL: “The Artist” 700/4AV
BUILDER: Eko, 1964
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Multi-cutaway body • Six “press-button automatic tone selectors” to give players multiple options for dealing with the four pickups, plus a rhythm-solo switch • “Hockey-stick” headstock
The largest European exporter of guitars during the rock and roll heyday of the 1960s, the Italian manufacturer Eko filled a niche—affordable instruments for the aspiring musician—with panache. Partly, perhaps, it was a vestige of the company’s earlier focus on accordions: Look at that pearl! Or maybe it’s just the Italian way with design. This Eko 700, with the triple-cutaway body, layers on not only a stage-worthy amount of eye candy, but the promise—or perhaps challenge—of four pickups. But the company did have serious cred—it produced Vox guitars during the same time, including popular models like the Mark III and the Vox Phantom.
The British Leo Fender
MODEL: Black Bison
BUILDER: Burns, 1961
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Deep “bison horn” cutaways • Four Ormston Burns low-impedance Ultra Sonic pickups • Curious metal cover over the tuning posts—the metal parts were originally gold-plated, providing even more of a rich contrast with the deep black body
A legendary English guitar maker, Jim Burns created desirable, technically sophisticated, and undeniably cool electrics—and yet somehow managed to lose money during the greatest electric guitar boom in twentieth-century history. Regardless, the models Burns put out during the Ormston Burns company’s first brief run, from 1960 to 1965 (often labeled Burns London), are classics, particularly the first Burns Bison, with its vaguely threatening horns and four pickups. Only fifty were built before Burns went to a revised three-pickup model—though with the three-pickup model came a knob that switched between these four factory settings: Split Sound, Bass, Treble, and Wild Dog. Forget cranking it up to eleven—who wouldn’t want to bang out a tune in “Wild Dog”?
MODEL: Super 400
BUILDER: Gibson, 1935
TYPE: Archtop Acoustic
OF NOTE: From gold plating on all the metal parts to the tiniest touches—note the parenthesis point at the end of the fretboard—the signs of luxury are everywhere • Unique layering technique used to achieve the marbleized-tortoise look of the pickguard
A decade after the milestone L-5, Gibson achieved the pinnacle of its archtop offerings with the Super 400, debuting in 1934. Here was an instrument that was simply bigger, bolder, richer—a massive 18-inch jazz masterpiece that exuded luxury from peghead to tailpiece. It was also quite an act of confidence on Gibson’s part, introducing a $400 instrument during the very depths of the Great Depression, but they justified it by announcing: “Its price is a criterion of its quality.” (Gibson’s next priciest guitar was the $302 L-5). Musicians agreed, the gamble worked, and Gibson’s competitors were quickly launching their own imitations.
People’s Instrument
MODEL: Esquire
BUILDER: Regal, 1939
TYPE: Acoustic Archtop
OF NOTE: “Coliseum” size • Brightly bound f-holes really pop against the sunburst carved spruce top • The headstock inlay: that figure of the guitarist confidently playing his instrument while walking away—who wouldn’t want to see himself in that moment of pure freedom?
Anumber of guitar makers decided to keep Gibson company in the area of 18-inch acoustic archtops, including Regal, another Chicago powerhouse of musical-instrument manufacturing. Founded originally in Indiana, picked up by Lyon & Healy at the turn of the century, Regal produced an amazing number of instruments until World War II reversed its fortunes. At the height of the big-bodied archtop war in the late 1930s, Regal offered four different models, including this penultimate top-of-the-line Esquire. At $125, it was a bargain compared to the Gibson 400.
THE BLUES
Scott Chinery bought his first guitar at the age of seventeen. Smitten immediately with the bug to buy his next, the future entrepreneur, who made a fortune in nutritional supplements, had assembled one of the most significant guitar collections ever before he died at the too-young age of forty. Particular among Chinery’s passions was the American archtop guitar. In 1994, he picked up a blue Centura Deluxe from one of his favorite builders, Jimmy D’Aquisto. Inspired by the instrument and D’Aquisto’s legend (the luthier died soon after building it), Chinery reached out to twenty-one other archtop makers with an unusual commission: Build an 18-inch cutaway archtop, like the Centura, and finish it in Mohawk’s Ultra Blue Penetrating Stain M520. The result is an astonishing survey of the contemporary archtop guitar. And oh, that BLUE.
D’Aquisto Centura Deluxe
James D’Aquisto
1994
Lacey Virtuoso
Mark Lacey
1996
Benedetto La Cremona AzZura
Robert Benedetto
1996
Bozo Chicagoan
Bozo Podunavac
1996
Scharpach Blue Vienna
Theo Scharpach
1996
Monteleone Rocket Convertible
John Monteleone
1995
Ribbecke Blue Mingione
Tom Ribbecke
1995
Manzer Blue Absynthe
Linda Manzer
1996
MODEL: OM-28
BUILDER: Martin Guitar, 1930
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: This early OM used banjo tuners, though they did not hold up well under the string pressure • No name on the headstock
Time and again in the guitar’s history, innovation is nudged along by a musician. The celebrated OM came about when a bandleader named Perry Bechtel approached Frank Henry Martin about building a guitar that was easier for a banjo player to use, suggesting an instrument with a longer, narrower 14-fret neck. Martin called it the OM for Orchestra Model. It didn’t immediately cast the spell that it has today. Within a few years Martin started making 14-fret necks the de facto choice, and so decided they should follow their traditional naming conventions and call the OM a OOO. Confusing. Fast-forward to today, and two things happened: Those original OMs are among the most highly sought-after Martins ever made. And the OM is heralded as perhaps the most versatile and well-balanced steel-string acoustic design, handling all the basics like fingerpicking, flat-picking, strumming, and vocal accompaniment with equal aplomb.
The Gibson That’s Always Good Enough
MODEL: J-45
BUILDER: Gibson, 1966
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: Standard sunburst finish, originally critical to the World War II–era J-45 because it could hide flaws in the wood available during wartime (a J-45 with a natural finish is designated a J-50)
Martin had the square-shouldered dreadnought, which for many epitomized the idea of a big acoustic guitar. And Gibson countered forever with their slope-shouldered jumbo. Multiple jumbos: the mythical Advanced Jumbo, the round-bottomed and often pinch-waisted Super Jumbos, the prewar J-35, and the rare, short-lived J-55 with its mustache bridge and stairstep peghead. Then, in 1942, Gibson introduced one of those special models where everything comes together: the workaday J-45. With its warm, sweet mahogany-body tone, superb playability, and outstanding value—listed originally at $45, hence the designation—the J-45 is among Gibson’s most popular and successful guitars, appealing to a range of players from folk-blues artists like Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin’ Hopkins to Jeff Tweedy, Aimee Mann, and Bruce Springsteen.
Melt in Your Hands
MODEL: Emma Maria
BUILDER: Juha Ruokangas, 2018
TYPE: Archtop Acoustic
OF NOTE: The back, sides, and neck are made from arctic birch, a wild and notoriously difficult local wood to work with • All the woods except for the ebony neck have been thermally treated through a process called torrefaction, developed in Finland in the 1990s to replicate the cellular change that occurs in aging • Princess inlay on the fretboard inspired by the work of Swedish artist John Bauer, whose illustrations for fairy tales are beloved by Juha’s wife, Emma Maria
Juha Ruokangas builds guitars in Finland that, in looks and tone, rival anything made anywhere. When the guitar is good enough, he believes, it will melt in your hands. And those are just his standard models. Then come the instruments where he pushes his and his team’s boundaries. Emma Maria, named after the love of his life, is the first Ruokangas acoustic archtop. In setting out to build such an instrument, the team set the bar really high, and delivered a guitar that captures all the passion and obsession that have driven Juha throughout his extraordinary career.
“The First Electric Guitar in the World”
MODEL: Captain Nemo
BUILDER: Juha Ruokangas, 2018
TYPE: Semi-Hollow Electric
OF NOTE: Glass porthole, just like on the Nautilus, housing the patented Valvebucker®, a glowing, tube-powered pickup • In keeping with the steampunk aesthetic, the glass instrument display on the upper left bout is a “Sustain” meter
A collector came to Juha Ruokangas with a request and a thought experiment: build him the “first electric guitar in the world”—with the idea that it had been invented circa 1895. Five years later, Juha came back with this steampunk masterpiece named after the captain who first appeared piloting the Nautilus in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Why five years? Because, among other reasons (artistry, craftsmanship, design), behind that glass porthole is the first ever tube-powered active pickup, what Ruokangas calls the Valvebucker.
Space Age
MODEL: Saturn 63
BUILDER: Hopf, c. 1965
TYPE: Semi-Hollow Electric
OF NOTE: Carved spruce top with teardrop sound holes on the bass side, bound in inlaid metal beading • Space-age control panel with a three-pin socket • Neck made of dozens of strips of 1-mm beech glued together to prevent warping
Hamburg’s legendary Star-Club opened in 1962 and for the next seven years hosted some of the most important rock bands of the day, starting with the Beatles and including Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Little Richard, and many, many more. And this was the guitar they featured in their advertising, the Hopf Saturn 63, with a name and a look that has one foot in the world of earthy rock and roll and the other on an imaginary spaceship heading to Saturn.
Flying Samurai
MODEL: SG-5A
BUILDER: Yamaha, 1967
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Asymmetrical reverse body shape—like the guitar is leaping forward—inspired the “flying samurai” nickname given to these 1960s Yamaha electrics • Crossed tuning fork logo on the narrow paddle headstock
Yamaha, who seems to make everything, including a lot of guitarists’ first motorcycles, started manufacturing acoustic guitars after World War II and came out with its first solid-body electrics in the mid-1960s. And like this popular SG-5A, they were strong instruments in their own right—appearing before Japanese makers picked up a reputation, starting in the early 1970s, as low-quality copiers of Strats and Les Pauls. Ten years later, Yamaha would achieve real success when Carlos Santana started playing its double-cutaway SG-200.
MODEL: ES-335
BUILDER: Gibson, 1959
TYPE: Semi-Solid Electric
OF NOTE: Aficionados call this one a “dot neck” because of the style of fret markers that were used until 1962 • Tune-O-Matic bridge and stop tailpiece • Sunburst finish—cherry red, which was the color of Eric Clapton’s famous ES-335, wasn’t available until 1960 (P.S., that particular instrument sold for $847,500 at Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Auction)
The year 1958 was a busy one for Gibson, which saw not only the introduction of the flamboyant but faltering “Modernistic” series of guitars (see here), but also the thin-line design heralded by the ES-335. Considered one of the greatest milestones in electric guitar design, the 335 is a double-cutaway that marries the warmth of a hollow-body jazz guitar with the sustain of a solid-body electric. The innovation lies in the use of a maple block that runs down the middle of the “wonder-thin” body and eliminates the feedback problem endemic to hollow-body guitars played at high volume.A few variations followed almost instantly, including the fancy ES-355TD (see here), also launched in 1958, known to blues fans around the world as the Lucille guitar played by B.B. King.
B.B. King
1925–2015
“The King of the Blues,” B.B. King made the transition from a Mississippi plantation childhood to a kind of worldwide ambassadorship for the blues, for music, for brotherhood. He toured nonstop; listened to everything (he traveled with his digitized collection of tens of thousands of albums); influenced virtually all of rock and roll’s guitar gods. And at the heart of his playing? The spare, haunting, single-note solos he coaxed out of the moveable “B.B. box,” a cluster of just a few notes on the treble side of the fretboard, using butterfly vibratos, microtones like the blue third (mysteriously hovering between major and minor), and his famous bends.
It’s Pronounced Bo-zho
MODEL: Bozo Requinto/Requinto
BUILDER: Bozo Podunavac, c. 1996
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: The extraordinary amount of decorative inlay • Neck joins the body at the 16th fret • That head on the headstock
A Serbian master luthier, Bozo Podunavac emigrated to the US and started building his own guitars in Chicago in 1964. His instruments shimmer with pearl and abalone and are known for their rich tone and sustain, attracting players like Leo Kottke, who played 6- and 12-string Bozos in the early 1970s. When Bozo started building flattops, he first followed the traditional dreadnought design, but within a few years created a shape he called the Bell Western, which features a much larger lower bout topped by a much smaller lower bout. This Requinto shows Podunavac’s unique Bell Western template, and also the Serbian’s love for the ornate. By the way, a “Requinto guitar” is a small-bodied acoustic lead guitar in a mariachi band.
Flagship of the Martin Line
MODEL: D-45
BUILDER: Martin, 1938
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: With its unique sunburst finish, this may be one of the rarest of the rare • Also unusual are the hexagon fretboard inlays, taken from Martin’s ill-fated F-9 archtop • D-45s glitter with abalone, a shellfish whose mother-of-pearl interior gives us the name “pearl”
In 1933, at the height of his popularity, the singing cowboy movie star Gene Autry contacted Martin and requested a custom guitar, a 12-fret dreadnought with style-45 trim and his name writ large in abalone along the fretboard. Martin then put the guitar into production as a 14-fret model, the D-45. Only ninety-one were built between 1933 and 1941, and they possessed extraordinary tone, quality, looks, and sheer presence. Neil Young, hearing that magic in old guitars—and who often shared the stage with Stephen Stills, whose D-45 hails from 1939—bought his own D-45 in 1967. Today, one of these prewar beauties carries an astronomical price tag.
MODEL: Nick Lucas
BUILDER: Gibson, 1928
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: Though it is among the finest flattops Gibson ever made, the Nick Lucas saw a lot of tweaking in its original decade-long run—different woods, changes in the body shape. The main design constant was the significantly deeper (4½-inch) body • Banjo tuners
These days, artists’ models and endorsements are a common strategy to connect customers with their favorite musicians—and builders with new customers. It all started when Gibson approached the most popular guitarist of the 1920s, the “Crooning Troubadour,” Nick Lucas, who played a Gibson L-1 and who sold more than eighty million records, including hits like “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” and instrumental tracks such as “Teasing the Frets.” Gibson may also have invented GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) with this bit of catalog description: “Here is an instrument with a big, harp-like tone, responsive to the lightest touch, balanced in every register. Crisp, sparkling treble and solid, resonant bass that makes your whole being sway to its rhythmic pulsations . . . an instrument by an artist, for an artist.”
Plain as Poetry
Model: 00-17
BUILDER: Martin, 1949
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: Bob Dylan has used countless guitars in his never-ending life as a performer—this particular guitar he played almost exclusively during his earliest years in New York • The predecessor to this model, Martin’s 2-17, has an even greater claim to guitar history—it was the first Martin braced for steel strings
Mahogany has always been considered a lesser tone wood, not just for the body of a guitar—rosewood is traditionally the preferred choice—but especially the top: “brown” guitars exude a Depression-era homeliness. On the other hand, an all-mahogany guitar, in the words of Taylor Guitars’ Bob Taylor, “creates a warm, full tone with a sound all its own.” So, occasionally even contemporary luthiers, who admire mahogany for its quick response and punchiness, will offer an updated version of this plain old Martin. Whether because of price or tone, blues and country players were the first to adopt mahogany guitars, and later folk singers, also looking for quality and plain authenticity at a low price, followed suit.
Jimmy Page
1944–
At the top of the pantheon of rock guitar gods stands the triumvirate—Hendrix, Clapton, and Jimmy Page. And of them, Page has perhaps the most varied career. He started, as a teenager, as a nonstop session musician, “Lil’ Jim Pea,” appearing on a ton of hits like Lulu’s “Shout,” Tom Jones’s “It’s Not Unusual,” and Petula Clark’s “Downtown.” From there he went to the Yardbirds as the third brilliant English blues guitarist after Clapton and Jeff Beck, and then, of course, came his masterpiece, Led Zeppelin, which Rolling Stone called “the heaviest band of all time.” Not only was he Zeppelin’s guitarist, churning out one massively cool riff after another, followed by his breathtaking solos, but he essentially created the whole “light and shade” Led Zeppelin sound as its principle songwriter and producer. Humble may be the last word to describe Jimmy, but this quote does attest to his self-knowledge as an artist: “There are mistakes in my solos, but it doesn't matter. I will always leave in the mistakes.”
“The Coolest Guitar in Rock”
MODEL: EDS-1275
BUILDER: Gibson, 1964
TYPE: Solid-Body Double-Neck Electric
OF NOTE: The original EDS-1275 was launched in 1958 and was actually a semi-hollow-body instrument; in 1962, they switched to this solid-body with SG styling • The model went in and out of production a few times—when Page wanted his in 1971, it had to be custom-made
If you are of a certain age, were lucky enough to score tickets, and were actually clearheaded enough to remember, this is the model that you saw Jimmy Page wail on during live performances of “Stairway to Heaven” in the ’70s. You might also have seen it in the hands of John McLaughlin, Steve Miller, Alex Lifeson of Rush, Don Felder for “Hotel California,” and Steve Howe—this blond one pictured, in fact, is Howe’s instrument.
Guitar, Italian Style
MODEL: Bartolini
BUILDER: Bartolini, 1960s
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Lots of sparkle and pearl, showing the maker’s literal transition from accordions to guitars—that heavy black edging is actually a vinyl strip connecting the front piece to the back • Four pickups, and the accordion-style push-button controls
The guitar boom came to Italy in the early 1960s just as it did in America, England, Germany, and elsewhere. But the Italians, like many European builders, had their own singular response, converting the manufacturing of accordions into the manufacturing of guitars. This meant repurposing the materials (the glittery plastic and vinyl covers, the excessive amount of pearl) and the mind-set (push-button controls) through a distinctly Italian design sensibility. Maybe the guitars weren’t great instruments, but boy, they looked cool. There’s a photo of American blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin holding a Bartolini like this one, probably while on tour with Howlin’ Wolf. Did he actually play it? Who knows . . . by the end of the ’60s, Japan swept up all the low-end guitar business and these dazzling Italians went away forever.
Mr. November
MODEL: Les Paul “Black Beauty” ’57 Centennial
BUILDER: Gibson, 1994
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Elegant ebony-black finish, with gold appointments throughout—in this centennial edition, they are 24K gold-plated • Another touch of classic: the split diamond headstock inlay, used on the Super 400
1994 marked Gibson’s centennial, and the company responded with a model-of-the-month reissue of some of its most historic electric guitars. Shipping that November was a limited 100-instrument run of the beloved “Black Beauty,” aka the Les Paul Custom that Paul himself requested be an elegant all-black, “like a tuxedo,” to show off the guitarist’s hand. Why this model is so important: Frank Zappa, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, Slash, Robert Fripp, the Edge, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Trent Reznor, Johnny Marr, Mick Ronson, Peter Frampton, Ace Frehley, Mick Jones, Zakk Wylde, and on and on. Not to mention Les Paul.
Inspired Hybrid
MODEL: FTC, 40th Anniversary
BUILDER: Santa Cruz, 2016
TYPE: Flattop/Archtop Acoustic
OF NOTE: Hybrid design of a midsize jumbo—the top is flat, the back carved like an archtop—offers the sustain of a flattop with the projection of an archtop • Schaller tuners modeled after old Grover Imperials
Richard Hoover developed the boutique guitar concept when he knew he didn’t have the patience to do by himself all he wanted to accomplish as a guitar maker and designer. Since then, he and his small band of skilled craftspeople have created a company and line of instruments that are exceptional. Among Santa Cruz’s hallmarks: models that borrow from the American classics, but with innovations, some seen and some not; guitar bodies that are light and slightly rounded, more like naturally strong eggs than rigid boxes; an obsessive attention to detail and quality; and a recognizable, focused sound, rich with sustain, overtones, and a lovely complexity.
Functional Genius
MODEL: H-12
BUILDER: Froggy Bottom, 2016
TYPE: Acoustic Flattop
OF NOTE: Adirondack spruce top and Bastogne walnut back and sides (see here) • Neck meets the body at the 12th fret, which tends to produce a warmer, fuller-sounding instrument • Frog inlay on the slotted headstock, delicate fret markers
Yes, each guitar is a work of art. Yes, the finish is impeccable, and yes, the embellishments are beautiful. But what sets a Froggy Bottom guitar apart is its distinctive voice, a balance of warm woodiness and shimmering clarity that players describe as “magic” and “heavenly” and “perfection.” Working out of a small shop tucked into the Vermont woods, Michael Millard is a singular builder who still assembles his steel-string, acoustic flattop guitars in a free-form dance, and who has an uncanny ability to coax every element in the guitar’s build, from its back braces to top, to suit the player’s needs. “My satisfaction doesn’t come out of making the guitar I want,” he says, “[but] when I’ve made the guitar somebody else wants.”
“Enjoy the Wonderful World of Electrodynamics”
MODEL: Belmont
BUILDER: Supro, 1960
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Peanut-shaped body and “rich maroon ‘no-mar’ finish” • The single pickup looks like a humbucker but is an oversize single coil, more like a P-90
Despite postwar prosperity, not every kid with rock-and-roll dreams could afford a Gibson Les Paul or Fender Stratocaster. Enter the value lines like Supro. One of several brands launched by a company called Valco—named after its founders, who included owners of the National Dobro Corporation—Supro in its early years was making solid-body electrics out of wood, then sheathing them in pearloid plastic. Or, as some guitar geeks whimsically call it, “mother of toilet seat.” You can hear them being played on YouTube, and they sound gorgeous—capable of twang and grit, and with the right modulation, even warm jazz tones too. After a few years, Valco/Supro ditched the wood altogether and introduced a line of fiberglass-bodied guitars, best known under the sister brand name, National.
The 2663 Cometh
MODEL: Artist 2663, The “Iceman”
BUILDER: Ibanez, 1975
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Swoopy, curvy, pointy—and that flyaway cutaway on the treble side • The use of one triple-coil pickup—in some models, this was mounted on a slide to take advantage of different positions
After getting into the electric guitar business by producing Fender and Gibson knockoffs, the Japanese company Ibanez launched its first significant original model in 1975 with the Artist 2663, soon to be known as the “Iceman.” Then, when KISS was on tour in Japan, the company reached out to rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley to design a signature model, which debuted in 1977 as the Iceman PS10. Stanley loved the edgy, eye-catching look of the 2663, though he recalls saying to the company: “You’ve got something here, but you don’t know what to do with it.” Stanley also made the analogy that the PS10 is to the original Iceman what a Rolls-Royce is to a Chevy. But take a good look—this is one sharp-looking Chevy!
Jerry Garcia
1942–1995
To Deadheads, both actual and honorary, Jerry Garcia was always a guitar hero, Captain Trips steering the Dead and its fans along on a magical soundscape. To others, he was the Cosmic Noodler. After his death at the age of fifty-three—one of the first events to demonstrate the interweb’s wildfire nature as the tributes went viral overnight—appreciation for Garcia’s work deepened, and he began to be seen as a true American artist, one who took the essentials of blues, jazz, and country to create a richly expressive new sound. Carlos Santana took it one step further, noting how he played the blues “but mixed it with bluegrass and Ravi Shankar.” Garcia had one of those singular tones where people knew his playing from the first note. P.S.: Can’t get enough of that sound? No worries—there are 15,000 documented hours of him playing.
Musical Alchemy
MODEL: Jerry Garcia
BUILDER: Alembic, 2006
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Though not fully visible, the stunning use of assorted woods like cocobolo, flame maple, and vermilion • Three Alembic pickups and cutting-edge electronics
Like partners in high-tech psychedelia, Alembic and the Grateful Dead shared origins in the late 1960s, explored innovations in sound, live recording, and electronics, and exploded the nature of a rock concert through the Dead’s massive “Wall of Sound” PA system—all under the guiding spirit of the infamous Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the LSD genius who turned on The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and the Summer of Love (not to mention the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour). Alembic, originally a consulting company for the Dead and other bands, moved into building instruments because they realized it was the only way to control the complete signal path between musician and listener during a concert. Its first was the $4,000 “mission-control” bass created for Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane. This recent Alembic Jerry Garcia is a tribute both to the artist and to the guitars that luthier Doug Irwin built for Garcia, like Tiger, Rosebud, and Lightning Bolt.
Cheaper by the Dozen
MODEL: 1200 Stereo
BUILDER: Vega, 1959
TYPE: Archtop Electric
OF NOTE: Six individual pickups on the treble six, six on the bass side, each intended to feed a separate channel, resulting in stereo sound • Massive yet asymmetrical sparkly gold pickguards
Readers will get the wrong idea about Vega from this and the Cremona (see here), but how to resist an instrument as over-the-top as this jazz guitar from the late 1950s? The underlying guitar, of course, is as familiar as any of the dozens of amplified archtops made in the postwar era. But twelve pickups? And flanked by those pickguards?
A Surprising Value
MODEL: Duo-Tron
BUILDER: Vega, c. 1948
TYPE: Archtop Acoustic-Electric
OF NOTE: Floating humbucker pickup, controls mounted on the tailpiece • Remember my name: “Duo-Tron” repeated, once on the tailpiece, once on the truss-rod cover
Less outlandish than the 1200 Stereo, Vega’s early Duo-Tron nonetheless shows how its designers liked to think differently, positioning critical elements—the pickup, the controls—in such a way that they interfered as little as possible with the acoustic tone of the guitar. This also offered a lot of value. Sure, the top is laminate spruce and not carved, but through its careful design and construction, the guitar offered a lot of warm, woody, jazzy tone.
Birth of the Superstrat
MODEL: Randy Rhoads
BUILDER: Jackson/Charvel, 1983
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: A 22-fret neck and cutaways so deep that you can easily reach every last note • Floyd Rose tremolo system • The signature drooped pointy headstock
Which comes first, the guitar or the music? In the case of some radical designs, like the Gibson L-5, it took years for the music to catch up. But here the nascent partnership of guitarist and tinkerer Grover Jackson with Wayne Charvel of Charvel’s Guitar Repair was about hurrying to fulfill the needs of hotshot guitarists who had outgrown their Gibsons and Fenders. Working with supershredders like Eddie Van Halen, they created stripped-down, speeded-up “super-Strats,” perfect machine-gun-like guitars with aggressive looks and the fast, fat tone that served the needs of 1980s heavy-duty rock. This first “Jackson” came out in 1983 and was designed in collaboration with Randy Rhoads, who wanted a Flying V but “more shark-fin-y.”
The People’s Instrument
MODEL: Sundale
BUILDER: Stella/Harmony, 1955
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: The angular, highly graphic blue-and-white design with pink binding—other Sundales are equally bizarre, including one with a reverse avocado-green sunburst and another with a sculpted mountain silhouette against a gray-green sky
Even going back centuries, the guitar had a split personality—at home in both the king’s private salon and the corner tavern. In America, almost anyone who wanted a guitar could afford one—a page from the 1908 Sears catalog lists guitars starting at $1.89. Or maybe someone would come around and sell you one—that’s how the Oscar Schmidt Company got its inexpensive, easily available Stella guitars into the hands of some pretty significant blues players like Blind Willie McTell, Charlie Patton, Blind Blake, and, most famously, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter, who made legendary music on a Stella 12-string. Later, Harmony would pick up these brands and keep the same idea—affordable, playable guitars, often made of birch, with eye-catching finishes.
MODEL: Orchestre
BUILDER: Selmer-Maccaferri, 1932
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: The “D”-shape sound hole, the “grande bouche,” built to accommodate an internal resonator • Floating mustache bridge, slotted headstock, a mandolin-style tailpiece • Fretboard extension over the sound hole, giving the treble two full octaves
A luthier, a gifted classical guitarist, and a pioneer in the use of plastics, Mario Maccaferri may be best known for the guitars that he designed during a brief two-year partnership with the French saxophone company Selmer. The Selmer-Maccaferri models achieved lasting fame because of one player—gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Large-bodied and square-shouldered, many with single cutaways—the first production guitar to offer such—these Selmers incorporated elements of both the flattop and archtop styles, with a gentle dome on the top created by bending, rather than carving, the wood. In addition, Maccaferri patented an internal resonator that came as an option—though many players would remove it as it tended to loosen with use, then rattle and buzz.
Django Reinhardt
1910–1953
The gypsy jazz genius is one of the most startlingly original musicians ever to play the guitar, and he did it after a fire fused the third and fourth fingers of his fretting hand. During his recovery two central events occurred to the eighteen-year-old: One, he figured out how to play the guitar with a unique fingering system.
And two, according to legend, he discovered American jazz through a recording of Louis Armstrong’s “Dallas Blues.” By the 1930s, Django was leading Le Quintette du Hot Club de France, astonishing listeners with his trills and octaves, double-stops and arpeggios, blazing fast runs and muscular comping.
Depression-Era Cool
MODEL: Le Domino 410
BUILDER: Regal, c. 1932
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: The domino fret markers actually give the position—i.e., a one and four on the 5th fret, boxcars on the 12th! • Decals on the body and around the sound hole are in remarkably fine condition
Is it a toy? Is it a masterpiece? Neither, really. Built by the Chicago-based powerhouse, Regal, after it acquired the Le Domino brand from a smaller shop, this extraordinarily good-looking guitar is just a solidly decent small-bodied flattop with a serious amount of flash to lure buyers who might be tempted by so many other inexpensive birch-bodied guitars.
One Word: Plastics
MODEL: G-40
BUILDER: Maccaferri, 1950s
TYPE: Archtop Plastic acoustic
OF NOTE: Selmer-style design, especially in the bridge and tailpiece • “Rosewood”-colored plastic neck, cream body • Not visible: wood ladder bracing and a heel-less neck joint with a wooden core that went into the body and could be adjusted to alter the pitch of the neck
After leaving Selmer in 1933, Mario Maccaferri drifted into and out of various businesses until, when World War II cut off the supply of natural materials, he channeled a fascination with plastics into making a fortune manufacturing plastic clothespins. In 1949, he introduced the Islander, a plastic ukulele—and sold nine million of them thanks to an endorsement from Arthur Godfrey. So why not a plastic guitar? Working with Dow Chemical, he developed both a “spruce” and “rosewood” formulation, and in 1953 introduced the very Selmer-like archtop G-40 and its cheaper flattop G-30, both designed to be played, and respected, as legitimate instruments. Compared to other budget, mass-produced guitars, they were actually quite superior. But bottom line, they were thought of as toys and were never really taken seriously.
Cult Status
MODEL: Coronado II Wildwood
BUILDER: Fender, 1967
TYPE: Thinline Electric
OF NOTE: Fender calls this finish Wildwood, referring to a process in which dyes are injected into growing beechwood; when harvested a year later, the grain pops with color and contrast • DeArmond pickups, a Tune-O-Matic bridge, and a suspended tailpiece
Introduced in the mid-1960s, the Coronado was a true departure for Fender, which dominated the solid-body market with the Telecaster and Stratocaster. But watching the Beatles elevate the fortunes of Rickenbacker, Gretsch, and Epiphone with Paul’s beloved Casino, Fender hired designer Roger Rossmeisl to create a hollow-body thinline to compete. But the Coronado never took off. Unlike the Gibson 335, it had no block under the hood, so it was prone to feedback when played at rock volumes. Meanwhile, the bolt-on neck didn’t appeal to jazz players. Flash-forward three decades and the Coronado was rediscovered by some pretty serious musicians, showing up in bands like Radiohead, Blur, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Minimalist Master
MODEL: Sinfonietta Custom
BUILDER: Robert “Bob” Benedetto, 2012
TYPE: Archtop Acoustic
OF NOTE: The restrained Benedetto style—all-wood appointments, virtually no inlay, no pickguard, no binding • Simple oval sound hole, unusual on an archtop • Stunning quilted redwood top and, not visible, walnut back and sides
Repeating the essence of an experiment from a century earlier, when Antonio de Torres Jurado created a guitar with a papier-mâché back to prove the importance of the top, Robert Benedetto—one of the premier contemporary builders—once built an archtop out of construction-grade pine to prove that craftsmanship is as important as the quality of the tone woods. This mastery placed him on par with Jimmy D’Aquisto as the premier contemporary builder of jazz guitars. One reason he’s achieved this: through listening to what jazz players had to say about what worked and what didn’t, with the result that he’s built instruments for the leading musicians of the day, including Chuck Wayne, Bucky Pizzarelli, Kenny Burrell, Andy Summers, and Pat Martino.
Too Cool for Words
MODEL: Glenwood 99
BUILDER: Valco, c. 1965
TYPE: Semi-Hollow-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Three pickups—there’s a piezo under the bridge • That seafoam green—the use of pigment-dyed resin gives these guitars a deep glowing color
In the 1940s, former partners of the National Dobro Company founded a company called Valco and started manufacturing some of the coolest electric guitars ever. Affectionately called “map guitars” for their quirky shape and with bodies made out of molded fiberglass—which the company named Res-O-Glas in classic marketing speak—these guitars burst onto the world in the early ’60s . . . and kind of fizzled. Too odd looking? Too expensive? Too confusing? Whatever the reason, they were done by 1968. But today collectors love them.
One of a One of a Kind
MODEL: Thomas Custom
BUILDER: Thomas Custom Guitars, c. 1962
TYPE: Hollow-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Custom-shaped body with a variety of points and cutaways • Angled neck pickup, à la Fender • Unusual green sunburst
Even in the realm of eccentric builders, a character like Harvey Thomas stands out. Working from his shop in Kent, Washington, he created some of the most unusual guitars around—guitars that make this massive custom hollow-body, and the Maltese Cross (see here), seem almost tame. Among his offerings were the septagonal Riot King; the Mod, with a body shaped like an individual paisley offset teardrop; the Lyer Custom, which looks like the silhouette of a howling wolf; and a double-neck guitar with the body of a naked Polynesian woman. He also played a triple-neck custom guitar that he called his Infernal Music Machine, and dressed up in a gorilla costume for his catalog.
Wes Montgomery
1923–1968
Wes. At the height of his fame, and among jazz fans ever after, Montgomery achieved the kind of status conferred on an artist known by just one name. He had huge ears and a natural gift, like his hero Charlie Christian, and in fact started playing music professionally by memorizing all of Christian’s solos. Playing with just the fleshy part of his thumb on a big, hollow-bodied Gibson electric, Wes conveyed extraordinary feeling and power through his rich, round, physical tone, surprising listeners with endlessly inventive musical ideas, including the long single-line solos that dipped into unexpected scale patterns, sophisticated chord melody playing, and the octaves that became his signature sound.
Striking the Right Balance
MODEL: ES-175
BUILDER: Gibson, 1960
TYPE: Archtop hollow-body Electric
OF NOTE: Along with the introduction of electric-only instruments like this ES-175, Gibson also began offering cutaways—after all, before amplification those high treble notes would’ve been lost anyway • The fancy zigzag tailpiece
Gibson has made dozens and dozens of electric guitars since the ES-150 (see here). But in 1949, it issued a new model—the ES-175—that found just the right combination of quality and value, giving it the distinction of being both Gibson’s first successful electric and most long-lived postwar electric. With its relatively small body made of pressed, laminated maple/basswood, it has a bright cutting tone. A list of ES-175 players reads like a jazz hall of fame—not only Wes Montgomery (though he is more associated with his L5 CES), but Joe Pass, Jim Hall, Herb Ellis, and Pat Metheny. But with that tone it also appeals to non-jazz players, most famously Steve Howe of Yes.
Parallel Stream
MODEL: Thunderbird S-200
BUILDER: Guild, 1966
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: Distinctive, if not a little off-putting, body, matched by a curiously asymmetrical headstock • Not visible: a truly unique feature—a hinged metal leg in the back billed as the “Guild Built-In Guitar Stand” available “at no extra cost”
In a world dominated by two names, Fender and Gibson, smaller builders like Guild still managed decades of growth, innovation, and influence. And they provided, for those who found them, a high-quality alternative to the big guys. Founded in 1952 by Alfred Dronge, a professional guitarist, and stocked in the early days with highly skilled workers from the recently defunct Epiphone, Guild got its start with archtops and enduring flattops, including the F-50 (see here). Then it entered the solid-body electric world in 1963 with the fabulous Thunderbird. Despite its odd looks—it’s been described as like a “Hershey bar left too long in the sun” and nicknamed “Gumby”—it did have its share of great players. This one pictured belonged to Muddy Waters.
MODEL: Mark I Ventures
BUILDER: Mosrite, 1960s
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: “M”-shaped headstock • All parts, including pickups and vibrato, labeled “Mosrite of California” • The name “Moseley” on the bottom of the bridge
Semie Moseley, already playing guitar at age thirteen with a gospel group, created crazy custom models for both individual players (see here) and groups (see here), and designed one of the most successful solid-bodies of the 1960s, the Mosrite Ventures. He got his start with Rickenbacker but soon headed out on his own, struggling to get by until one of his models was endorsed by Nokie Edwards, a guitarist for the Ventures, the preeminent instrumental group of the early 1960s. The Ventures had started out playing only Strats—the Fender sound was their sound—but suddenly a different guitar began appearing on their album covers and, on the back, the words “The Ventures play only the Mosrite guitar.” Soon, fans were looking for this mysterious Mosrite, and by 1968 Semie Moseley and his company were manufacturing six hundred guitars a month. Yet by 1969, the company closed its doors; the finances of running a major manufacturing company were beyond the scope of its owner. It was only the first of many ups and downs.
MODEL:Mosrite Custom
BUILDER: Semie Moseley, 1980
TYPE: Solid-Body Electric
OF NOTE: The beautifully carved body is made of laminated walnut and maple • Take a close look—all the bronze pieces are individually cast, including the knobs, strap buttons, pickup covers, and bridge with its odd tailpiece engraved with the artist’s initials • Free-form pickguard and arrow fret markers
After Mosrite’s crash and bankruptcy in 1969 (see here), Semie Moseley began a new phase of guitar building. He reclaimed the Mosrite name in the 1970s, and fired up the first of what would be three factories. But the fact is, he was much more a visionary than a businessman, pursuing ideas instead of focusing on the bottom line. A perfect example: this extraordinary custom instrument that he built for a business partner in 1980. There’s not much to say except look.
Song of Solomon
MODEL: Decodence
BUILDER: Erich Solomon, c. 2018
TYPE: Archtop Acoustic
OF NOTE: The chamfered, angular sound hole • Solomon’s unusual Phidelity tailpiece
Imagine never hearing an archtop live, yet being inspired by a vision to build one. Then, imagine following through, almost solely by trial and error, and coming out the other end as a self-taught master. Perhaps it’s too early to judge the career of Erich Solomon, who builds only a handful of instruments a year in his New Hampshire workshop, but the happy owners of his guitars praise them as the ones “they’d pull out of my burning house.” One thing that unites all his instruments: the quest for “phi,” or the golden ratio, which Solomon encountered when reading The Da Vinci Code, becoming obsessed with Professor Langdon’s lecture about “phi” in architecture, music, nature—and, clearly to Solomon, in classic guitar design.
Charlie Christian
1916–1942
“Guitarmen, Wake Up and Pluck! Wire for Sound; Let ’Em Hear You Play.” So proclaimed the jazz pioneer Charlie Christian in a manifesto he published in DownBeat magazine in 1939. Nourished on Lester Young, the tenor saxophonist, and Django Reinhardt, Christian revolutionized the guitar’s role in jazz, and fundamentally all of pop, by being the first to capitalize on the electric guitar’s possibilities as a solo instrument. In Christian’s hands, the guitar left the rhythm section and took center stage as he fashioned gorgeous, swinging, single-note lines, full of bluesy riffs and offbeat accents.
“A New Lease on Life”
Model: ES-150
BUILDER: Gibson, 1938
TYPE: Hollow-Body Electric
OF NOTE: The early Charlie Christian pickup—a “bar” or blade pole piece, and a pair of 5-inch magnets under the top, secured by three visible bolts
With those words—“a new lease on life”—Charlie Christian praised the use of electric amplification, a sea change that brought the guitarist out from the rhythm shadows and into the spotlight. It was a sea change for Gibson too. Introduced in 1936, the ES-150—the “ES” stands for “Electric-Spanish,” with “Spanish” used to differentiate this style of guitar from a Hawaiian lap steel—was the first commercially successful electric guitar. And it’s clear from the lack of appointments and bling—plain sunburst, simple dot markers, unadorned headstock, no fancy metal parts or engraving, inexpensive price tag (the guitar, at $77.50, with an amp for around $75, equals the 150 of the name)—that Gibson was hedging its bets. But boy, did it work.
“Do You Love a Deep, Throaty Guitar?”
MODEL: Advanced Jumbo
BUILDER: Gibson, 1938
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: “Advanced” size—i.e., “big” in Gibson-speak • Only three hundred made between 1936 and 1939 • The first guitar to appear on TV—and, fifteen years later, on color TV—both times in the hands of “Canadian Cowgirl” Helen Diller Hinn
A classic case of competition resulting in excellence that might not have been achieved otherwise: the Advanced Jumbo, released by Gibson in 1936. Maybe the flattop side of Gibson was always playing catch-up to Martin, particularly during the dreadnought era of the 1930s, but this classic round-shouldered Gibson jumbo—the first with a rosewood body—delivered an unsurpassed marriage of power, tone, clarity, and balance. “If you’re lucky enough to play one of these prewar creations,” write the authors of Gibson’s Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars, “be prepared for attitude readjustment and brain alteration.”
MODEL: F-50
BUILDER: Guild, early 1960s
TYPE: Flattop Acoustic
OF NOTE: As the Guild flattops found greater success, design changes were made—this early model still has the Gibson-like headstock • Guild found no shortage of famous players—one catalog from the ’60s has Eric Clapton, George Benson, Richie Havens, and the Smothers Brothers on the cover
Launched in 1958 with the Kingston Trio’s unexpected hit “Tom Dooley”—imagine that, a cover of a song from the 1800s sold more than six million copies and topped the charts—America’s folk revival turned into a folk boom. And everyone wanted to sing along. “Guitars hit a cashbox crescendo,” Businessweek reported, and guitar makers of every stripe rushed to put an instrument in people’s hands. There’s no better guitar for vocal accompaniment than a big, bassy flattop—and the skillful and savvy makers at Guild, led by its founder Alfred Dronge and his son, Mark, created some of the 1960s’ finest, including this jumbo F-50.
