Vintage Electric Guitars : In Praise of Fretted Americana

Fascinating discussions of a full spectrum of companies, including Fender, Gibson, Harmony, Kay, Valco, Peavey, Guild, Danelectro, and many others.

An extravaganza for electric guitar lovers! This book features hundreds of American-made guitars and basses from the ‘40s to the ‘80s, including many rare brands and models. Read about the ups and downs of major companies like Fender and Gibson, and trace their variations in guitar design over the years. Learn more about Harmony and Kay, the “big two” of budget guitars. In fact, this book features many guitars that are often much harder to find on the vintage market--the “everyman” guitars, the student and budget models that got us started. Here you’ll find fascinating discussions of Valco, Peavey, Guild, Danelectro, and many others, along with chapters devoted to “One-Shots” and “Sordid Seventies Samples and Early Eighties Oddities.” Guitar enthusiasts will find not only the guitars they have dreamed of owning, but the ones they first owned. An authoritative and entertaining text, a helpful lexicon, gorgeous photographs, and foreword by .38 Special guitarist Jeff Carlisi make this book a necessity for any musician’s library.