275 stories and counting
Every guitar has a story.
Pull up a stool. These are the ones we’d tell you if you came into the shop on a slow afternoon, checked against the record, with the myths labeled as myths.
Red SpecialA teenager and his dad built it from a fireplace mantel, a knitting needle, and motorcycle parts. It played every Queen show.Read the story 4 min
StratocasterThe guitar most people mean when they say “electric guitar.” Designed by a man who didn’t play one.Read the story 4 min
Flying V (1958–59 korina)Gibson drew the future in 1958, and almost nobody bought it. Ninety-eight guitars later, it was finished. Then the future caught up.Read the story 4 min
Les Paul StandardGibson made about 1,500 sunburst Les Pauls, decided nobody wanted them, and stopped. Then the British blues boom happened.Read the story 4 min
JazzmasterFender built it for jazz players. Jazz players said no thanks. Surfers, punks, and noise bands said yes.Read the story 4 min
Res-O-GlasA fiberglass guitar from a mail-order catalog. Jack White called it a hollow piece of plastic, and meant it kindly.Read the story 4 min
0-18Martin keeps dropping the little 0-18 from the catalog. The people who own one never put it down.Read the story 3 min- 00-1800-18Not the big dreadnought. The small mahogany Martin you can carry into a field and write a song on.Read the story 3 min
- 5-185-18Martin sold it as a guitar for children. Marty Robbins took it onstage.Read the story 3 min
- OM-28OM-28In 1929 one player asked Martin for a longer neck. The answer was a new guitar, and it lasted about four years.Read the story 3 min
Style OA nickel-plated brass guitar from 1930s Los Angeles, and the one Mark Knopfler wouldn’t sell.Read the story 2 min- BroadwayBroadwayNo famous player, no hit record. Just a name that kept getting handed to the next guitar.Read the story 3 min
L-00Gibson’s plainest flat-top of the Depression. Famous names keep getting pinned on it. It never needed them.Read the story 3 min
D-18Elvis traded his D-18 up for a leather-covered D-28. The plain one had already been there for the Sun records.Read the story 3 min
D-28You’ve heard a D-28 your whole life. It just never asked for the credit.Read the story 3 min- Model 27Model 27It cost $27, so Dobro called it the Model 27. Josh Graves called his Julie.Read the story 3 min
A-22 Frying PanThe first electric guitar you could buy looked like a frying pan. The patent office didn’t believe it worked.Read the story 3 min
D-45Pearl takes time. When the war took Martin’s time away, the D-45 stopped, and it waited 26 years to come back.Read the story 3 min
Super 400Gibson priced it at $400 in the middle of the Depression and put the price right in the name.Read the story 3 min
000-18Julian Lage’s 1939 000-18 had been in pieces. It showed up when his own left hand needed putting back together.Read the story 3 min- 000-28000-28Eric Clapton met the 000-28 in pictures of Big Bill Broonzy. Now people meet it in pictures of Clapton.Read the story 3 min
New YorkerOne man carved them by hand on Kenmare Street. When he died in 1964, the name kept going. The guitar didn’t.Read the story 2 min- J-35J-35Named after its $35 price. The J-45 that replaced it looked just like it, give or take a pickguard.Read the story 3 min
- Modèle JazzModèle JazzBuilt so a guitar could be heard over a dance band. In Django Reinhardt’s hands, it led one.Read the story 4 min
J-200Gibson built the first one for a singing cowboy. It has been making people look like stars ever since.Read the story 3 min- SynchromaticSynchromaticGretsch’s answer to Gibson had cat’s eyes, a harp, and a neck with no rod in it. The files burned.Read the story 3 min
J-45Born in 1942 out of whatever wood a wartime factory could find. Gibson calls it its best-selling acoustic ever.Read the story 3 min
J-50The J-45 with nothing to hide: a bare natural top, five dollars more, and Bob Dylan’s first album cover.Read the story 3 min- Merle TravisMerle TravisMerle Travis asked a friend for one guitar that would ring like a steel. He got exactly one.Read the story 4 min
ES-175A laminated jazz box that kept changing hands: bought used, given as a gift, borrowed for a hit.Read the story 3 min
EsquireFender’s first electric Spanish guitar settled on one pickup, and it’s been mistaken for its little brother ever since.Read the story 3 min
TelecasterLeo built it like a tool. The famous ones look like they just clocked off a double shift.Read the story 4 min
Precision BassLeo’s bass let the player at the back be heard. You know their lines by heart. You mostly don’t know their names.Read the story 3 min
L-5 CESIn the ’50s Gibson shipped a few dozen a year. Wes Montgomery and Scotty Moore made them count.Read the story 3 min
ES-295Scotty Moore traded a Fender for the gold guitar in the window. Four Elvis singles later, he traded it away.Read the story 3 min
StratotoneIn 1954 a Strat cost about $250. Harmony’s Stratotone cost $64.50, and it had the name first.Read the story 3 min
Thin TwinKay gave it a catalog number. Chicago blues gave it a name: the Jimmy Reed.Read the story 3 min
Duo JetGeorge Harrison bought his used in Liverpool as a teenager. In 1987 he put it on an album cover.Read the story 3 min
Les Paul CustomJimmy Page paid his off in installments at 18. It was stolen in 1970. He got it back over 40 years later.Read the story 3 min
Les Paul JuniorOne pickup, two knobs, no switch. Built for beginners. Mountain and the New York Dolls never needed more.Read the story 3 min- Country ClubCountry ClubSame body as the White Falcon, none of the glitter, and hardly any famous owners.Read the story 3 min
- RancherRancherThe experts call it a stage prop. That’s exactly why the movies kept casting it.Read the story 3 min
F-50Guild built its fanciest jumbo around a shortcut from the archtop shop. Seventy years on, it still hasn’t let go.Read the story 3 min
Dual ToneLink Wray posed with one for Rumble. Bowie found two on eBay. James Murphy bought his because Bowie said so.Read the story 3 min
Les Paul SpecialDan Armstrong modified it. Marc Bolan traded it in. Bob Marley bought it and made it his.Read the story 3 min
6120Joe Walsh gave Pete Townshend one. Steve Miller gave Brian Setzer one. Chet Atkins just lent it his name.Read the story 3 min
White FalconGretsch built it to stop people in the aisle of a trade show. It never stopped doing that.Read the story 3 min
White PenguinGretsch barely bothered to sell it. So every White Penguin anybody knows about had to be found.Read the story 3 min- Club 40Club 40John Lennon and George Harrison both saw a Club 40, and in John’s words, both “thought it was the end.”Read the story 3 min
500/1McCartney bought the bass he could afford in Hamburg. It was stolen in 1972, and it came home in 2024.Read the story 3 min
Country GentlemanChet Atkins asked for a guitar without the cowboy flash. On Ed Sullivan, it didn’t even show its color.Read the story 3 min- Mark VMark VPaul Bigsby designed it, with his own vibrato on the tail. Everybody went home with the amp instead.Read the story 3 min
59Jimmy Page’s has been shown at the Met. The same two lipsticks and coke-bottle head are hanging on a shop wall near you.Read the story 2 min
LonghornGarry Tallent worked in the Danelectro plant as a teenager. On Born to Run, he played its Longhorn.Read the story 3 min- SheratonSheratonEpiphone’s own catalog called it second best. John Lee Hooker and Noel Gallagher didn’t read the catalog.Read the story 3 min
EDS-1275Jimmy Page had no way to play “Stairway to Heaven” live. So he ordered a guitar Gibson had stopped selling.Read the story 3 min
ES-335Larry Carlton played three 335s off a shop wall, unplugged, paid $850 for one, and became Mr. 335.Read the story 3 min
ES-355B.B. King ran into a burning dance hall to save a guitar. Every Gibson after it was Lucille too.Read the story 3 min- Explorer (1958–59 korina)Explorer (1958–59 korina)Gibson shipped twenty-two of them. Everybody knows the shape. Hardly anybody has held the real thing.Read the story 4 min
TennesseanThe cheap Chet Atkins Gretsch: one pickup, $295. It’s the guitar on the intro to “House of the Rising Sun.”Read the story 3 min- M-20M-20Guild’s plainest guitar trained a new factory’s workers, then ended up on the cover of a Nick Drake album.Read the story 3 min
325Lennon bought it natural in Hamburg and had it painted black. The reissues copy the ends of that story, not the middle.Read the story 3 min
330 / 360Same body, same neck, same pickups. The 360 got the binding. The 330 got Paul Weller’s, with “I AM NOBODY” on it.Read the story 3 min- ConvertibleConvertibleDanelectro sold it with a pickup or without. The cheap one came with plugs in the knob holes, for later.Read the story 3 min
CoronetEpiphone built the Coronet for shops Gibson wouldn’t sell to. Steve Marriott’s wore a third name.Read the story 3 min
WilshireJimi Hendrix played one upside down in a Nashville club, painted its pickguard white, then pawned it.Read the story 3 min
ES-330From across the room it looks like a 335. Inside, it’s all air, and the people who play one like it that way.Read the story 3 min
ES-345Marty McFly plays one in 1955, four years before Gibson made it. Nobody in the theater minded.Read the story 3 min
Melody MakerGibson built it to be outgrown. Billy Gibbons pinstriped his on day one. Joan Jett never traded up.Read the story 3 min- RocketRocketChris Stein started on one at twelve. Decades later, Jack White was swapping one in for his Airline.Read the story 3 min
Jazz BassBuilt for jazz players who mostly passed on it. Then bass players started using it to take the solo.Read the story 3 min
HummingbirdGibson gave it a hummingbird on the pickguard. Keith Richards gave it a cassette recorder.Read the story 3 min
StarfireBefore they were the Grateful Dead, they were the Warlocks, and Jerry Garcia was playing a Guild Starfire.Read the story 3 min- Rapier 33Rapier 33The Strat was the guitar everybody knew. The Rapier was the one a British kid could take home.Read the story 3 min
BisonIke Isaacs said it looked like a bloody bison. Burns changed almost everything else about it. Not that.Read the story 4 min
CasinoOf all the Beatles’ famous guitars, the only one John, Paul, and George all had. Two sanded theirs bare.Read the story 3 min
Bass VISix strings, an octave down. It’s what a guitar player picks up when somebody hands them the bass part.Read the story 3 min
EB-3Jack Bruce wanted to bend bass notes like a guitarist. At thirty and a half inches, the EB-3 let him.Read the story 3 min
SG CustomWhite paint, gold hardware, three pickups. Nobody carries this guitar onstage hoping to blend in.Read the story 3 min- SG SpecialSG SpecialTownshend smashed them. Iommi stuck a monkey on one. Nobody was ever gentle with an SG Special.Read the story 3 min
SGGibson has never stopped making SGs. Angus Young has lost count of his. He still only means one.Read the story 3 min- 40014001Geddy Lee bought one to sound like Chris Squire. He plugged it in. It didn’t.Read the story 4 min
RivieraStevie Ray Vaughan traded his big brother’s Esquire for one. Robben Ford made a whole album on its neck pickup.Read the story 3 min
JaguarIt was the top of Fender’s catalog in 1962. By the late ’70s it was a pawn-shop guitar, and somebody’s only one.Read the story 3 min
DoveIt has the Hummingbird’s square shoulders and a bird on the guard. Different wood, longer neck, new voice.Read the story 2 min
1448A beginner’s electric from the Sears catalog, with the amp in the case. Beck has played one his whole career.Read the story 3 min
PhantomNo Fenders in Britain, so Vox built a Strat in a five-sided coat you could spot from the back of the hall.Read the story 3 min
FirebirdGibson fixed the Firebird in 1965. Players have been hunting for the unfixed one ever since.Read the story 3 min
ThunderbirdJohn Entwistle thought the neck was too thin. So he kept the body and changed the neck.Read the story 3 min- VenturesVenturesSemie Moseley offered Nokie Edwards the guitar free. He paid $200, and the Ventures dropped their Jazzmasters.Read the story 3 min
- 360/12360/12George Harrison was too sick to see it. Roger McGuinn saw it in a movie theater. Tom Petty bought one because McGuinn had one.Read the story 3 min
- Mark IIIMark IIIVox built Brian Jones a white teardrop, then sold everyone else a different guitar. The reissues chose his.Read the story 3 min
MarvinBurns built Hank Marvin more than 30 prototypes to keep him in tune. Then somebody checked his jacket.Read the story 3 min
MustangFender’s 1964 student guitar. It was built to be outgrown, and a lot of people never bothered.Read the story 3 min
LG-140TFour pickups, a slider for each, and at least three names. Every famous Guyatone is a different model.Read the story 3 min
VikingElvis needed something flashy for the Comeback Special. A session man had a Swedish guitar in his trunk.Read the story 3 min
D-35Martin split the back in three to save rosewood. The bass it made was just what Johnny Cash’s voice needed.Read the story 3 min
AEB-1An electric bass with a violin scroll, built by an amp company whose boss thought fretted, steel-strung basses were a fad.Read the story 3 min
CoronadoFender built it to stand next to a 335. It became the guitar nobody else at the gig has.Read the story 4 min
Mustang BassLeo Fender’s last bass for Fender was a short, cheap student model. That was the whole idea.Read the story 3 min- RangemasterRangemasterIt has nine buttons where one switch would do, and more than half a century later they still work.Read the story 3 min
BalladeerA helicopter builder looked at a guitar and asked why the back had to be made of wood. This was his answer.Read the story 2 min- Spectrum 5Spectrum 5Five colored buttons, stereo out, and a Japanese badge nobody took seriously. Mark Knopfler ended up with three.Read the story 3 min
- FG180FG180Built to survive a ship’s hold. Decades later, the photos put one in Elliott Smith’s hands at the Oscars.Read the story 3 min
Electric SitarBuilt so a session player could fake a sitar before lunch. Some of those afternoons are still on the radio.Read the story 3 min- Ranger 6Ranger 6Not the dreadnought anybody dreamed about. The one Europe could actually get.Read the story 3 min
Telecaster BassFender’s first reissue was a bass it had already thrown away. George Porter Jr. found one covered in cobwebs.Read the story 3 min
Telecaster ThinlineFender hollowed out the Telecaster to take the weight off your shoulder. Tab Benoit has carried his since 1992.Read the story 3 min- D-55D-55Guild’s D-55 got its name from television. It kept its place as the guitar people play with the cameras off.Read the story 3 min
Hi-FlierA Japanese copy of a Mosrite, found in pawnshops by a kid who kept breaking them.Read the story 4 min
Dan ArmstrongA repairman who spent his days inside other people’s guitars designed one you could see straight through.Read the story 3 min- SpacetoneSpacetoneA Maryland guitar you intonate at the nut, with a bar that dips whole chords in tune. Some even broadcast FM.Read the story 4 min
- YairiYairiSteve Earle traded a pre-war Martin for one, because the Martin wouldn't stay in tune.Read the story 3 min
- BluesbirdBluesbirdGuild took the name off the price list in 1974. The players kept calling it a Bluesbird anyway.Read the story 4 min
SwedeThe first ones said L.P. on them. Then Hagstrom named the guitar after where it came from.Read the story 3 min- VelenoVelenoA rocket-parts machinist built an aluminum guitar, hid it in a closet, and waited to be asked twice.Read the story 3 min
Metal FrontA sheet of metal stopped the hum. A shotgun engraver made it the thing you stare at.Read the story 3 min- Series ISeries IThe sound wizards behind the Grateful Dead got tired of noisy pickups, so they built bass players a better one.Read the story 3 min
Telecaster CustomA borrowed name, a copied hot-rod, modest sales. Keith Richards still sent it onstage in Micawber’s place.Read the story 3 min
Telecaster DeluxeA Tele body, a Strat headstock, and two big humbuckers. The odd cousin in the family, and somebody’s favorite.Read the story 3 min
GrabberGibson named its cheapest bass after what your hand did to the pickup: grab it and slide it.Read the story 3 min
L-6SBill Lawrence drew a guitar with nine sounds. The budget cut it to six. Santana called it his rainbow.Read the story 4 min
RipperA bass so complicated Gibson pressed a record to explain it. The best review took one sentence.Read the story 3 min
MadcatIt was built in Japan to be anything but a Telecaster copy. Then Prince made it famous as his Tele.Read the story 3 min
620The Rickenbacker on the Damn the Torpedoes cover isn’t a 620. It’s still the reason the 620 is around.Read the story 3 min- FlyteFlytePop stars posed with it for the cameras. The guy in David Essex’s band paid full price and played it.Read the story 4 min
- PiccoloPiccoloStanley Clarke asked for a bass an octave up. Carl Thompson delivered it at three in the morning.Read the story 3 min
StandardThey built the first one for Paul Hamer. It ended up with Rick Nielsen, and he still has it.Read the story 3 min
TB1000A motocross racer watched a repairman fight wooden necks all day. So he made one out of aluminum.Read the story 3 min
GittlerAllan Gittler kept taking parts off a guitar until all that was left was the guitar.Read the story 4 min
DestroyerIbanez copied the Explorer, right up until Gibson sued. Eddie Van Halen got a sound out of it nobody could copy.Read the story 3 min
IcemanIbanez drew this one itself in 1975. When the lawyers made the copies go away, it got to stay.Read the story 3 min
MasqueraderTwo men spent twenty years making guitars with other people’s names on them. Then they made this.Read the story 4 min- EagleEagle“You can’t play a Mockingbird, because I play one.” So Neil Giraldo took the Eagle.Read the story 3 min
- MockingbirdMockingbirdIt started as a bass player’s doodle. Then Joe Perry and Slash got hold of one.Read the story 3 min
StarcasterFender built it for 335 players. They walked right past it. Twenty years later, Radiohead didn’t.Read the story 3 min
HD-28For almost thirty years, a herringbone Martin meant finding an old one. In 1976 Martin added a letter.Read the story 4 min
StingRayLeo Fender wanted a wide, bright bass. Louis Johnson hit it with his thumb, and funk had its sound.Read the story 3 min
AdamasSeven years, 186 changes, and no hole in the middle. Ovation rebuilt the acoustic guitar top from scratch.Read the story 3 min
SG-2000Santana told Yamaha to put a chunk of metal under the strings. They listened, and the notes stopped dying.Read the story 3 min- MLMLHalf a Flying V, half an Explorer. Then Dimebag Darrell played one with a lightning bolt, and it was his.Read the story 2 min
- RD ArtistRD ArtistGibson put a Moog inside it, then blamed the outside. The outside is the part that lasted.Read the story 4 min
- O-25O-25George Lowden refused to copy an American guitar. Twenty years on, David Gray bought one and made White Ladder.Read the story 3 min
- SB-1000SB-1000A Japanese through-neck with six clicks of tone, for bass players who didn’t want a Fender or a Gibson.Read the story 3 min
- BichBichNeal Moser built it with ten strings. Plenty of the people who loved it took four of them off.Read the story 3 min
- MusicianMusicianIbanez chased sustain with a wooden sandwich, brass, and a three-band EQ. Everything it added, you carried.Read the story 4 min
- MoonsaultMoonsaultFifty thousand guitars a month with other people’s names on them. Then Kawai had to draw its own.Read the story 4 min
- QuantumQuantumAn aerospace engineer looked at Phil Lesh’s bass and decided the problem was the wood.Read the story 3 min
T-40Peavey’s first production bass got two basses’ worth of sound out of one tone knob, and no battery.Read the story 3 min
T-60Peavey’s guitar man said the big guys told dealers: no amps, no guitars. So the amp company built its own.Read the story 3 min- BB-2000BB-2000Andy Rourke’s main bass was a Precision. For the funky stuff, he picked up a Yamaha.Read the story 3 min
San DimasNamed for a town, not a star: the place where a repair shop learned to build what players asked for.Read the story 3 min
Lead IIFender built it to fill a gap in the price list. It kept turning up as somebody’s first.Read the story 4 min
AS200Ibanez handed John Scofield one in 1981. Twenty years later, they had to scan his to remember how it was made.Read the story 3 min
Model 1In 1978 Rick Turner was fired from the company he co-founded, and his house burned down. He kept the drawing.Read the story 4 min- NS-2NS-2It started with a man looking for a belt sander. Sting found his lying on the stage before soundcheck.Read the story 3 min
L-2000Leo Fender had already built the Precision and the StingRay. In 1980 he built one more, with more switches.Read the story 3 min
BuzzardA fusion bassist botched his homemade fretless. The builder who fixed it went on to build him a better one.Read the story 3 min
4003Rickenbacker’s first answer to players’ new strings was to void the warranty. The 4003 was the better answer.Read the story 3 min
Custom BassGeddy Lee borrowed his producer’s. Justin Chancellor borrowed a friend’s. Then both ordered their own.Read the story 3 min- WarlockWarlockBernie Rico drew it with French curves and pinned it to the wall. It stayed there until a player asked.Read the story 3 min
- RhoadsRhoadsRandy Rhoads drew it on a scrap of paper. He got about a year with it. A generation of metal kids got the rest.Read the story 3 min
- Tony RiceTony RiceTony Rice already owned the one guitar he couldn’t replace. Santa Cruz built him one he could.Read the story 3 min
- FratelloFratelloBenedetto hung the pickup off the pickguard, so nobody ever had to cut a hole in the spruce.Read the story 3 min
ModerneGibson patented it in 1958. One man says he could have had one for $50. Nobody has ever proved one existed.Read the story 3 min- PhantomPhantomHamer built Andy Summers a guitar out of his own ideas. He still went back to his Telecaster.Read the story 3 min
NYC BassBuilt for the New York session bassist whose engineer wasn’t going to reset the board for him.Read the story 3 min- S6S6Kim Deal liked it because it sounded flat and dull. James Blunt took his to Kosovo.Read the story 3 min
MonarchIn 1983 a new Brooklyn shop brought a bass to a teenager’s session. It’s still Victor Wooten’s number one.Read the story 3 min
KellyIt’s named after a guitarist from an Australian band called Heaven. Marty Friedman is why you know it.Read the story 3 min
SteelCasterA Telecaster shape in hollow steel, left outside to rust on purpose, so no two could ever match.Read the story 3 min- BarettaBarettaOne humbucker, a bolt-on neck, a banana headstock. Kramer’s 1983 superstrat kept the loud part.Read the story 2 min
TalboThe copy company’s own idea: a guitar body poured like an engine block. Its fans wouldn’t let it stay gone.Read the story 3 min- MirageMirageESP’s Mirage keeps vanishing from the catalog. The guitar underneath it never really left.Read the story 3 min
SoloistGrover Jackson took the Strat shape and ran the maple neck straight through it. Jeff Beck’s was pink.Read the story 3 min
G-707Roland bent a guitar into a strange shape so a machine could hear it. Then the machine learned to hear any guitar.Read the story 3 min
Series IIRob Green looked at a room full of expensive basses and said he could build a better one. Then he did.Read the story 3 min- GLGLNo headstock, no wood, and designed by a man who didn’t play. Eddie Van Halen wrote two songs on it in days.Read the story 3 min
StreamerIt started as a German copy of a bass Europe couldn’t get. By the time the lawyers came back, it wasn’t one.Read the story 3 min- ASATASATThirty-five years after his first Broadcaster, Leo Fender built another one. Gretsch objected again.Read the story 3 min
King VIt started as a giant V for a giant guitarist. Then Jackson cut the wings down so everyone else could wear it.Read the story 3 min
Custom 24Paul Reed Smith spent a decade building guitars one at a time for touring stars. The Custom was for everybody else.Read the story 3 min
ThumbNamed for one funk player’s thumb, fixed by Jack Bruce’s complaint, and the bass Bruce said he’d quit without.Read the story 3 min- Model 4Model 4The stars got their Charvels from a shop in San Dimas. Everybody else could open a catalog and order a Model 4.Read the story 3 min
- SilhouetteSilhouettePeople laughed at Music Man’s first guitar. Then Keith Richards picked one up.Read the story 3 min
- ClassicClassicYou didn’t take a Tobias Classic off a wall. You ordered one from a Hollywood shop, and you waited.Read the story 4 min
HorizonPage Hamilton’s got smashed at First Avenue. Wooden dowels hold the horn on, and he says he’ll be buried with it.Read the story 3 min
JEMSteve Vai wanted a handle through the body and a finish that matched his curtains. Ibanez put it in the catalog.Read the story 3 min- RG550RG550Nobody’s name on it. Just a thin neck, 24 frets, and a locking trem, and it keeps coming back.Read the story 3 min
- Studio EliteStudio EliteBuilt in a North Hollywood shop with no sign, for the session players whose names were in the small print.Read the story 3 min
- XMXMBill Wyman said the little Steinberger looked like a machine gun. The full-size one, he kept.Read the story 3 min
- Custom ProCustom ProThe top of the line at Valley Arts wasn’t a spec sheet. It was “any way you wanted it.”Read the story 3 min
- ComancheComancheThirty-four years after the Stratocaster, Leo Fender was still trying to get the hum out.Read the story 3 min
- H-150H-150Gibson left Kalamazoo. A few of the people who built its guitars stayed in the building and kept going.Read the story 3 min
EBG808It started as the measurements off a smashed Martin, for the quiet players in a Melbourne folk club.Read the story 3 min- MK-1MK-1Mark Knopfler was tired of swapping a Strat for a Les Paul, so a New York shop carved him one guitar instead.Read the story 3 min
- CE 24CE 24PRS meant it to be the cheaper, quicker one. Then a second-hand black one made Opeth’s Blackwater Park.Read the story 3 min
WarriorFour points, a neck straight through, and no polite angle anywhere. Some players see it once and that’s that.Read the story 3 min- 1200S1200STwelve years of ugly guitars, one talk with Ned Steinberger, and a drawing that took half an hour.Read the story 3 min
- D2HD2HNo famous owner, no famous record. Just a dreadnought recipe an Austin shop has never stopped making.Read the story 3 min
- M-IIM-IIKirk Hammett’s famous ESP grew out of this one. Josh Middleton just wanted the plain version.Read the story 3 min
ZO-3A guitar shaped like an elephant, with the amp in its ear. Dave Navarro put one on a Chili Peppers record.Read the story 3 min
JSA Les Paul dug into Joe Satriani’s forearm. Ibanez built him a guitar that didn’t.Read the story 3 min- Single CutawaySingle CutawayA Sears guitar came in for a setup and left Jerry Jones holding the blueprint.Read the story 3 min
- SKBSKBRoscoe’s middle-size bass is the one called Skyscraper. The big one came along about ten years later.Read the story 3 min
N4Washburn could copy Nuno Bettencourt’s guitar down to the last ding. It couldn’t copy the years in it.Read the story 3 min
PacificaNo hit record, no famous owner, no legend. Just the guitar that’s ready when a beginner is.Read the story 2 min- ConcertConcertTwo luthiers left a big company for a barn in Oregon to draw their own guitar. The drawing outlasted everybody.Read the story 3 min
AxisThey copied the neck off Eddie Van Halen’s worn-out Kramer. Then Eddie left, and the guitar stayed.Read the story 3 min
ClassicTom Anderson grew up on vintage guitars and wanted them a little better. Forty years later, he’s still at it.Read the story 3 min- ExcaliburExcaliburPatrice Vigier gave his strangest ideas the most ordinary body he could find, so people would pick them up.Read the story 3 min
SA2200It borrowed someone else’s outline in 1991, and it has been quietly refusing to change ever since.Read the story 4 min
CorvetteWarwick’s first bolt-on was never shaped by hand. Then the players got their hands on it.Read the story 3 min
SonusJoe Zon spent years fixing other people’s bass necks. Then he built one with nothing on it to adjust.Read the story 3 min- EclipseEclipseESP’s single-cut has no famous record to lean on. It has to win you over the honest way, in your hands.Read the story 2 min
NighthawkFrom across the room it’s a Les Paul. Up close it’s Gibson trying to do a Stratocaster’s job.Read the story 3 min- MultiacMultiacA nylon-string guitar that can stand next to a drummer, and talk to a synthesizer while it’s at it.Read the story 3 min
- FlyFlyKen Parker built it like a lobster: wood on the inside, and all the strength in a skin thinner than the paint.Read the story 3 min
ATK 300Ibanez called it the anti-Soundgear: a big ash body, a thick neck, and one huge pickup at the bridge.Read the story 3 min- TalmanTalmanNamed for a bluesman who never existed, it kept getting dropped, and players kept asking for it back.Read the story 3 min
McCartyNamed for a man who never played guitar, built for a player who turned down having his own name on it.Read the story 3 min- TRB-5TRB-5When the synthesizers came for the low end, bassists added strings. This was the five you could buy.Read the story 3 min
StarplayerIt looks like a 1950s guitar. There is no 1950s Starplayer. It had to make its own past, starting in 1995.Read the story 3 min- KH-2KH-2Kirk Hammett walked into ESP in 1987 knowing exactly what he wanted. He’s been playing it ever since.Read the story 3 min
- M4VM4VMike Lull didn’t want to reinvent Leo Fender’s wheel. He just made it about a fifth smaller.Read the story 4 min
- SantanaSantanaPaul Reed Smith kept building guitars for Carlos Santana until Santana called him a guitar maker.Read the story 3 min
HoldsworthThe guitar Allan Holdsworth couldn’t order, until Carvin built it: a flat board, a fat neck, hollow inside.Read the story 3 min- BlueshawkBlueshawkIt looks like a small Les Paul, plays on a Fender scale, and hides a coil that never hears the strings.Read the story 3 min
BSRKen Smith drew his first bass for playing sitting down. The BSR is the one he drew for standing up.Read the story 3 min
55-94A five-string for bass players who never wanted one: an extra inch of scale, and a neck that feels like home.Read the story 3 min- 814ce814ceTaylor has rebuilt its flagship from the braces out, again and again, and kept the same three numbers on it.Read the story 3 min
- BN5BN5Half an inch longer than a Jazz Bass, so the low B sounds like a note instead of a rumble.Read the story 3 min
- CMCMThe rest of the Huss & Dalton catalog is other people’s shapes. The CM is the one they drew themselves.Read the story 3 min
- OM-03OM-03A shop that started in a basement made an all-solid guitar a working player could actually afford.Read the story 3 min
- OrcaOrcaNik Huber admits his shapes are “a mix of everybody.” When Gibson wrote about the Orca, he didn’t argue.Read the story 3 min
DellingerEveryone thinks it was Caparison’s first guitar. Its designer made it wait about four years.Read the story 4 min- RegiusRegiusThe copies sold in Poland. The guitar Mayones drew for itself had to go to Frankfurt, every year.Read the story 3 min
- Hollowbody IIHollowbody IIThe quiet half of the song and the loud half, out of one hollow PRS with two jacks.Read the story 3 min
- C-1C-1It made its debut in a Papa Roach video, dressed exactly like the music. It never changed clothes.Read the story 3 min
- OM VintageOM VintageTony Rice was polite about the dreadnought. Then he picked up the OM and didn't put it down.Read the story 3 min
- TennesseeTennesseeA German hollowbody built to take a hot rock pickup. One player said that’s when everything made sense.Read the story 3 min
- CaliforniaCaliforniaSix bolts, a zero fret, a knob that pulls. About four of every five Sandbergs are this bass.Read the story 4 min
314ceNobody writes songs about the workhorse. They just keep reaching for it.Read the story 3 min- KingstonKingstonHe sold his own name to Gibson. The Kingston is how you get his neck without waiting on his bench.Read the story 3 min
- JP6JP6Shaped to fit one shredder’s forearm, it became the secret weapon of a pop band’s guitarist.Read the story 3 min
- AR805AR805A violin seller got handed a book about archtops. Now a hand-carved one is something you can just go and buy.Read the story 3 min
- SidejackSidejackMike Robinson owned a perfect Mosrite. The Sidejack is the one he could stand to scratch.Read the story 3 min
VariaxOne knob, and a plain solidbody is a 12-string, a sitar, or a banjo. It was built to be the rest of the gig bag.Read the story 4 min
Bronco BassThe Bronco started as Fender’s beginner guitar. The name survived on a beginner’s bass.Read the story 3 min
BongoSterling Ball asked BMW’s design studio for a bass. People thought he’d lost his mind. It’s still in production.Read the story 3 min- AES620AES620Two magazine awards in its first year, gone by 2007 or 2008. Its owners just keep changing the pots.Read the story 3 min
- WarhawkWarhawkReverend changed the Warhawk’s neck, pickups, and scale. It kept the ridge down the middle.Read the story 3 min
T5Bob Taylor said Taylor would build an electric somewhere between never and a truly new idea. This was the idea.Read the story 3 min- 290290Named for the highway outside the shop: a plain mahogany slab with two P-90s, built as carefully as a flattop.Read the story 3 min
- I-35I-35Named for the interstate through Austin and carved from solid wood. No waiting on a 1958 original required.Read the story 3 min
- HellraiserHellraiserA borrowed shape, a set neck dressed as a neck-through, and a band that trusted it with the rhythms.Read the story 3 min
- EG360SCEG360SCThe stars played the Japanese Takamine. The EG360SC was the one that turned up for everybody else’s gig.Read the story 3 min
- BuckshotBuckshotTele twang with more meat on it. Knopfler tried one for slide, and it never made a record. It kept working anyway.Read the story 4 min
So-CalCharvel went through its old work orders, found what players asked for most, and put a pickguard on it.Read the story 3 min- ModernModernSuhr could have added two frets to a Standard. It drew a new guitar instead.Read the story 3 min
- RelevatorRelevatorBrandon Darner was tired of bending over his pedals. Two luthiers in Des Moines put them on the guitar.Read the story 3 min
- CombustionCombustionBuilt to get a small bass shop through a recession. Then the pros started touring on the cheap one.Read the story 3 min
- WolfgangWolfgangEddie named it for his son. It took three companies before it lived under the family name.Read the story 3 min
MB-1Hugh Manson wouldn’t build you a Strat. He built Matt Bellamy this instead, and eventually let you have one.Read the story 3 min- SevernSevernTwenty-four years building other people’s guitars. Then Joe Knaggs built the one he wanted to play.Read the story 3 min
- ReflexReflexMusic Man built an anniversary guitar for one year. The Reflex was the plain one that let it stay.Read the story 3 min
BodenIt started with a sore shoulder. A Swedish engineer built a guitar that would stop fighting him.Read the story 3 min- CutlassCutlassLeo Fender drew up the Cutlass in the ’70s. It took about forty years to make it onto a wall.Read the story 3 min
- SerusSerusDennis Fano walked away from the brand with his name on it, and drew a body big enough to start over.Read the story 3 min
MaryThe back comes off in your hands and the pickups lift out. The company that built it didn’t last.Read the story 3 min- MendocinoMendocinoGrez kept making the guitar smaller, and more people kept buying it. He stopped at thirteen inches.Read the story 3 min
- 509509The 513 had thirteen sounds. The 509 kept all five pickups and threw four of the sounds away.Read the story 3 min
- AZAZIbanez made its name on the pointy one. The AZ is for the player who put it down.Read the story 3 min
- OsirisOsirisKiesel’s Vader went headless with a neck-through. People asked for a bolt-on. The Osiris is the bolt-on.Read the story 3 min
Classic SIt looks like a Strat on purpose. Everything that’s different about it, you feel instead of see.Read the story 2 min