• The Electra Endorser

    Classic Instruments

    The Electra Endorser

    Flame-top guitars were fairly common during the 1970s “copy era,” but few reached the levels of figure we often see on modern high-end guitars. Then came the Electra Endorser X935CS, which set new standards for psychedelic woodgrain. “But it’s not a ’70s guitar,” you object. No, but arguably, the Endorser CS – which was only…

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Sun Rises Again

Sun Rises Again

January, 1950: 27-year-old Sam Phillips opens Memphis Recording Service, soon to become famous as Sun Studio and launching rock and roll with the 1951 Jackie Brenston-Ike Turner ode to an…

Fender Harvard

Given the current craze for semi-small “home” and “recording” amps, Fender’s 5F10 Harvard of 1955-’60 could be the ideal tweed amp, yet, in its day, it fell between two stools…

Pieces of a Prototype

Secrets of a Socal "Parts" Guitar

  If you were a guitar – particularly one with a natural or translucent finish – your “fingerprint” would be the grain of the wood used to make your body. …

Tele of Two Legends

The Amazing Story of One Unique Fender

One day in the mid 1950s, up-and-coming thoroughbred jockey Bill Shoemaker was playing host to his friend, bandleader Hank Penny, who had come calling with a special gift in a…

Freddie King’s ’73 ES-355

Thinline Crown

Influenced by Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, and others including jump-blues saxophonist Louis Jordan, Freddie King was an integral piece of…

Sonny James's Epiphone Excellente

Epiphone Excellente

Sonny James' Epiphone Excellente

The Epiphone Excellente was the fanciest flat-top Gibson made in the 1960s, and to some ears it was Gibson’s best. But in its seven-year production run, from late ’63 until…

Gibson Custom Colors in the 1960s

Burning Embers, Chilled Whites

Unlike its rival from the West Coast, Gibson did not readily embrace the concept of offering custom-color finishes. It wasn’t averse to custom work or colorful finishes, but saw them…

National Bel-Air, Photo courtesy George Gruhn Big thmbnail

National Bel-Air

The idea of Gibson providing guitar parts to another prominent guitar maker is laughable today, but in the 1940s and ’50s, relationships were cozier between some of the major instrument…

Tokai Talbo

For aficionados of copy guitars – replicas of mostly American classics that give U.S. manufacturers apoplectic fits – perhaps no company is more respected than Tokai, whose 1970s and early-’80s…

Classics: December 2023

Cliff Antone’s 1952 Fender Precision

Texas is known for music, especially Austin, which in the mid ’70s became a hotbed thanks to clubs like Armadillo World Headquarters, Castle Creek, and Soap Creek Saloon, which mostly…

Antonio de Torres

The Birth of the Modern Guitar

To date, I have covered most of the major schools of guitar construction/design, and some of their contributions to the evolution of the gut/nylon-string guitar. In the April ’96 issue…

Easy Pickins

The Fine Art of Pick Collecting

You collect guitar picks? Is this a joke? Umm, no…and in a world where books are dedicated to the collectibility of happy meal toys, why should an interest in guitar…

Gibson EDS-1275 and EMS-1235

It’s hard not to associate doubleneck electric guitars with images of Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page or fusion guru Mahavishnu John McLaughlin in the ’70s; however, the fact is that by…

Warwick Thumb Bass

Generational Innovation

Founded in the early 1980s by Hans-Peter Wilfer, Warwick has a familial connection to another well-known German brand from a time when that nation was divided following World War II.…

G.L. Stiles Solidbody

Every once in awhile, a guitar comes out of left field. In the case of this solidbody electric labeled “Lee Stiles,” the throw came from West Virginia by way of…

Peavey Forum

Peavey Forum Basses

Durable, Dependable

In his 2003 book, American Basses, author Jim Roberts noted that for all of Peavey’s innovative offerings in the 1990s, “…the company hadn’t forgotten their regular customers,” specifically citing the…

Robert Perine

How I helped Leo Fender

In all modesty, my role was small – especially in Leo’s eyes. Here was a man whose sole interest was making guitars and amps sound better, not worrying about the…

United They Stood, Part 2

Ghosts of Jersey City

In the history of guitars, the tale of United Guitar Corporation is a ghost story – little documented and lost in partially self-imposed obscurity. Operating from 1939 into the late…

Ovation GS2-R “Ripley”

1986 Ovation GS2-R “Ripley”, For a guitar detective, there’s nothing like a good mystery. What’s the story on this guitar? Where was it made? Who made it? If you’re lucky,…

Six-String Basses from the 1950s and ’60s

The Big Twang!

Electric bass, bass guitar, baritone guitar; four, five, or six strings – many varieties of low-tuned instruments are available today. In the 1950s, however, choices were fewer. Bassists played upright…

Kay Violin-Style Guitar

1938 Kay Violin-Style Guitar. One prominent thread in the story of the guitar is a quest for more volume – a search that was effectively achieved with the dominance of…

Alamo Guitars

Remember the Alamo, Part 1

Mention the Alamo and most of us conjure up a rich variety of images. Whether it’s Davy Crockett (Fess Parker, maybe John Wayne) swinging his flintlock rifle as General Santa…

Jimmy James’ Psychedelic R&B

“Parlor Strut” on a vintage Harmony! Proving that ’60s import guitars can make cool sounds, Parlor Greens guitarist Jimmy James plugged in to demonstrate. Yes, he modded his Harmony H54…

PRS Basses

Subjective Funk & Cool

The Paul Reed Smith bass was introduced at the January ’96 NAMM show. Set-neck and bolt-on (CE model) models were offered, with mahogany bodies and one-piece mahogany necks. On Bass…

Lloyd Loar

An Alternative View

The Master Model instruments created at Gibson in the early 1920s are famous for their sound and build. Credit for their design is often laid at the feet of “acoustic…

Dobro Model 27

Brother Oswald's Dobro – Country Music History Maker

The melodic, evocative warbling of a resonator guitar has for decades been a fixture in country music, and knowledgeable fans will tell you there’s one primary individual to thank for…

The 1966 Murph Squire II-T

So-Cal Attention Getter

Despite what many enthusiasts believe, there has been only one really significant “lawsuit” that defined a class of guitars – Norlin v. Elger, 1977 – but there have been plenty…

Gizmotron

Most Bizarre Guitar Effect of All Time?

Led Zeppelin’s final studio album, 1979’s In Through The Out Door, opens with an eerie, otherworldly drone that weaves and winds its way before segueing into the searing Stratocaster riffs…

The ‘‘Blackburst’’

The ‘‘Blackburst’’

Les Paul Standard of a Different Shade

Among experienced (and often jaded) veteran guitar collectors, precious few things create an adrenaline rush – strange one-offs, oddball brands that never quite blossomed, guitars with non-standard parts/materials from the factory, or those once owned…

Bigsby Merle Travis Electric Guitar

In it's original configuration

Longtime vintage guitar enthusiasts are probably familiar with one of the icons of solidbody electric guitars – the late 1940s Bigsby instrument built for legendary picker Merle Travis. The guitar…