Name that Twang
The fledgling Guild company scored a coup when it signed Johnny Smith to an endorsement deal in 1956. Perched atop the jazz-guitar scene at...
Duane Eddy
(Ed. Note: Duane Eddy was featured in the June ’95 issue of VG, following the release of his Twang Thang box-set anthology, which included...
Paul Bigsby’s Myrtlewood Guitars
=
Few things are as satisfying as a guitar with a good story to tell. Some vintage guitars might be beautiful and/or valuable, but boring...
1962 Premier E-727
One of the least un-derstood aspects of American guitar history is the role of musical instrument distributors. It’s one thing to be able to...
The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody
There are many ways for an advertiser to attract attention, and in the history of 19th- and 20th-century print hucksterisim there have been few...
The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody
Fretted-instrument advertising in the 20th century relied heavily on “glamor” or “cheesecake.”
Electric instruments and accessories, in particular, are still marketed to a primarily male...
The (Way) Back Beat: A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody
Last month, we began looking at some of the more entertaining fretted instrument advertising of the 20th century, in what could be loosely called...
D’Aquisto New Yorker Classic
During his 30-plus years as an independent guitarmaker, James L. D’Aquisto was acclaimed as the premier maker of archtop guitars. He gained the title...
1937 Martin 0-21
Martin is known for its orderly model-naming system, under which all guitars of a certain style from any particular year have the same materials,...
The Fender Tremolux
Most amp nuts are utterly fascinated by Fender’s rapid evolution from archaic to modern through the course of the 1950s. Within that arc, the...