Guitars

Airline

Res-O-Glas

1964

A fiberglass guitar from a mail-order catalog. Jack White called it a hollow piece of plastic, and meant it kindly.

Alembic

Series I

1972

The sound wizards behind the Grateful Dead got tired of noisy pickups, so they built bass players a better one.

Alvarez

Yairi

1970

Steve Earle traded a pre-war Martin for one, because the Martin wouldn't stay in tune.

Ampeg

AEB-1

1966

An electric bass with a violin scroll, built by an amp company whose boss thought fretted, steel-strung basses were a fad.

Ampeg

Dan Armstrong

1969

A repairman who spent his days inside other people’s guitars designed one you could see straight through.

Aria Pro II

SB-1000

1978

A Japanese through-neck with six clicks of tone, for bass players who didn’t want a Fender or a Gibson.

B.C. Rich

Eagle

1976

“You can’t play a Mockingbird, because I play one.” So Neil Giraldo took the Eagle.

B.C. Rich

Mockingbird

1976

It started as a bass player’s doodle. Then Joe Perry and Slash got hold of one.

B.C. Rich

Bich

1978

Neal Moser built it with ten strings. Plenty of the people who loved it took four of them off.

B.C. Rich

Warlock

1981

Bernie Rico drew it with French curves and pinned it to the wall. It stayed there until a player asked.

Benedetto

Fratello

1982

Benedetto hung the pickup off the pickguard, so nobody ever had to cut a hole in the spruce.

Bigsby

Merle Travis

1948

Merle Travis asked a friend for one guitar that would ring like a steel. He got exactly one.

BilT

Relevator

2009

Brandon Darner was tired of bending over his pedals. Two luthiers in Des Moines put them on the guitar.

Bourgeois

OM Vintage

2000

Tony Rice was polite about the dreadnought. Then he picked up the OM and didn't put it down.

Breedlove

Concert

1991

Two luthiers left a big company for a barn in Oregon to draw their own guitar. The drawing outlasted everybody.

Brian May / Brian May Guitars

Red Special

1964

A teenager and his dad built it from a fireplace mantel, a knitting needle, and motorcycle parts. It played every Queen show.

Burns

Bison

1961

Ike Isaacs said it looked like a bloody bison. Burns changed almost everything else about it. Not that.

Burns

Marvin

1964

Burns built Hank Marvin more than 30 prototypes to keep him in tune. Then somebody checked his jacket.

Burns

Flyte

1974

Pop stars posed with it for the cameras. The guy in David Essex’s band paid full price and played it.

Caparison

Dellinger

1998

Everyone thinks it was Caparison’s first guitar. Its designer made it wait about four years.

Carl Thompson

Piccolo

1974

Stanley Clarke asked for a bass an octave up. Carl Thompson delivered it at three in the morning.

Carvin

Holdsworth

1996

The guitar Allan Holdsworth couldn’t order, until Carvin built it: a flat board, a fat neck, hollow inside.

Charvel

San Dimas

1979

Named for a town, not a star: the place where a repair shop learned to build what players asked for.

Charvel

Model 4

1986

The stars got their Charvels from a shop in San Dimas. Everybody else could open a catalog and order a Model 4.

Charvel

So-Cal

2008

Charvel went through its old work orders, found what players asked for most, and put a pickguard on it.

Collings

D2H

1990

No famous owner, no famous record. Just a dreadnought recipe an Austin shop has never stopped making.

Collings

290

2006

Named for the highway outside the shop: a plain mahogany slab with two P-90s, built as carefully as a flattop.

Collings

I-35

2006

Named for the interstate through Austin and carved from solid wood. No waiting on a 1958 original required.

Coral

Electric Sitar

1967

Built so a session player could fake a sitar before lunch. Some of those afternoons are still on the radio.

D'Angelico

New Yorker

1936

One man carved them by hand on Kenmare Street. When he died in 1964, the name kept going. The guitar didn’t.

Danelectro

59

1958

Jimmy Page’s has been shown at the Met. The same two lipsticks and coke-bottle head are hanging on a shop wall near you.

Danelectro

Longhorn

1958

Garry Tallent worked in the Danelectro plant as a teenager. On Born to Run, he played its Longhorn.

Danelectro

Convertible

1959

Danelectro sold it with a pickup or without. The cheap one came with plugs in the knob holes, for later.

Dean

ML

1977

Half a Flying V, half an Explorer. Then Dimebag Darrell played one with a lightning bolt, and it was his.

Dingwall

Combustion

2009

Built to get a small bass shop through a recession. Then the pros started touring on the cheap one.

Dobro

Model 27

1932

It cost $27, so Dobro called it the Model 27. Josh Graves called his Julie.

Duesenberg

Starplayer

1995

It looks like a 1950s guitar. There is no 1950s Starplayer. It had to make its own past, starting in 1995.

Eastman

AR805

2002

A violin seller got handed a book about archtops. Now a hand-carved one is something you can just go and buy.

Eastwood

Sidejack

2002

Mike Robinson owned a perfect Mosrite. The Sidejack is the one he could stand to scratch.

Eko

Ranger 6

1967

Not the dreadnought anybody dreamed about. The one Europe could actually get.

Epiphone

Broadway

1931

No famous player, no hit record. Just a name that kept getting handed to the next guitar.

Epiphone

Sheraton

1958

Epiphone’s own catalog called it second best. John Lee Hooker and Noel Gallagher didn’t read the catalog.

Epiphone

Coronet

1959

Epiphone built the Coronet for shops Gibson wouldn’t sell to. Steve Marriott’s wore a third name.

Epiphone

Wilshire

1959

Jimi Hendrix played one upside down in a Nashville club, painted its pickguard white, then pawned it.

Epiphone

Casino

1961

Of all the Beatles’ famous guitars, the only one John, Paul, and George all had. Two sanded theirs bare.

Epiphone

Riviera

1962

Stevie Ray Vaughan traded his big brother’s Esquire for one. Robben Ford made a whole album on its neck pickup.

ESP

Mirage

1984

ESP’s Mirage keeps vanishing from the catalog. The guitar underneath it never really left.

ESP

Horizon

1987

Page Hamilton’s got smashed at First Avenue. Wooden dowels hold the horn on, and he says he’ll be buried with it.