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| The Beatles on Ed Sullivan 1964 |
I just had to have a guitar.
And every Christmas the Wish Book aka THE CATALOG showed up in our mail. We received three or four of these from different stores. I would turn right to the guitar section and carefully read each description with fascination. Those were those "olden days", long before Amazon, Musicians Friend, or the myriad other web sites which much later came into being. During this time I would beg my parents for a guitar and an amplifier.
Wow that Harmony flat top was made of seasoned wood! So it had to be great! (I had no clue at the time what seasoned wood was.)
Later on, I was able to send away to different companies for their guitar catalogs. I wish I had kept them all.
So let’s go back to those days and review some of those guitars, and amplifiers available years ago. And check out the prices too!
Straight out of the Sears catalog were all of these "Silvertone" instruments. The two hollow bodies on the left and the two solidbody guitars on the lower right were made by the Harmony Guitar Company. The two teal solidbody guitars on the upper right were made by the Kay Guitar Company. Silvertone was the brand name that Sears had put on their radios, televisions, and electronics.
The company applied that name to their musical instruments. In fact Sears contracted with several different manufacturers to produce guitars, and amplifiers, and then badged them with that brand name. All of these guitars pictured here were made by Kay, with the exception of the second one on the top row, which is a Danelectro guitar.
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| 1960 Wish Book |
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| 1960's Harmony Guitar catalog |
Wow that Harmony flat top was made of seasoned wood! So it had to be great! (I had no clue at the time what seasoned wood was.)
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| 1963-64 Fender Catalog |
Later on, I was able to send away to different companies for their guitar catalogs. I wish I had kept them all.
So let’s go back to those days and review some of those guitars, and amplifiers available years ago. And check out the prices too!
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| Silvertone guitars sold by Sears |
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| Sears Silvertone guitars and amplifiers |
The amplifiers on the page were made by National.
It is a fact that the Danelectro Company sold most of their guitars and amplifiers through mail order retail companies such as Sears, Montgomery Wards, and others.
This Silvertone, model 57 1444L bass guitar caught the attention of my best friend, and he purchased it for $99.00 in 1965.
I recently saw this same bass at a local music store with the price tag of $800.00.
About six month later my friend had saved up enough money to purchase the matching Danelectro-made Silvertone model 1483 bass amp. This amp pumped 23 watts into a single 12" Jensen speaker.
One of the most popular Sears Silvertone amplifiers was what most of us referred to as the "Twin Twelver", although it's actual designation was Model 1484. It was made by the Danelectro Company of Neptune, New Jersey.
Silvertones were considerably less expensive than a comparable Fender amplifier. The Danelectro speaker cabinets were made with a compartment in the bottom to store the amplifier unit or head for transportation.
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| Silvertone Danelectro Guitar/amp in case |
It is a fact that the Danelectro Company sold most of their guitars and amplifiers through mail order retail companies such as Sears, Montgomery Wards, and others.
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| Sears Danelectro bass |
This Silvertone, model 57 1444L bass guitar caught the attention of my best friend, and he purchased it for $99.00 in 1965.
I recently saw this same bass at a local music store with the price tag of $800.00.
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| Danelectro Silvertone Bass amplifier |
About six month later my friend had saved up enough money to purchase the matching Danelectro-made Silvertone model 1483 bass amp. This amp pumped 23 watts into a single 12" Jensen speaker.
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| Silvertone Twin Twelve amplifier |
Silvertones were considerably less expensive than a comparable Fender amplifier. The Danelectro speaker cabinets were made with a compartment in the bottom to store the amplifier unit or head for transportation.
While Fender and Gibson made their amplifier cabinets out of solid pine wood, Danelectro used much cheaper particle board for construction.
For those on a budget, Silvertone offered the model 1472, also made by Danelectro. This pumped 10 watts into a 12" Jensen speaker. All for less than $70.00 USD. A similar 12 watt 1965 Fender Princeton Reverb was $169.
The Montgomery Ward Company used the brand name Airline for its electronic and music products. They used a number of "jobbers" or wholesale companies to procure their guitars and amplifiers, such as National, Valco, Supro, Harmony, Kay, All guitars were sold by Wards under the Airline brand name.
Perhaps the most interesting guitar offered in their catalog was the Valco made fiberglass models, which they referred to as "Res-o-glass" for its supposed resonance. There is an interesting history of National, Valco, and Supro. This was a company started by the Dopyera brothers of Dobro fame. Jack White played the JB Hutto model that was first manufactured in 1959.
Another one of the more unusual guitars that Montgomery Wards offered under the Airline brand was the Kay Thin Twin. Though the pickups covers seem thin, the actual single coil pickups underneath the pickguard were normal size compared to comparable instruments.
The Kay Thin Twin was the model played by guitarist Jimmy Reed. You can see it in this 1954 company catalog. Most of the other guitars and amps on this page were made by National.
A company that has probably been long forgotten was Western Auto. They were very popular in the 1950's and 1960's, and sold guitars and amplifiers under the Truetone brand. The guitars and amplifiers were made by the Kay Company of Chicago.
One of my favorite Kay-made guitars sold by Western Auto was the three pickup Jazz King aka the Speed Demon. It came with distinctive Kay single coil pickups. Each pickup had its own volume and tone control. Some models came with the Truetone decal, while others came with the Western Auto "W" logo.
One of the more popular guitars in the 1960's was the Kay Vanguard, you can view it in the lower left corner.
This guitar came with one or two pickups, and a fixed bridge with an aluminum bridge cover. The price for the one pickup model was only $44.95, which was a big factor in the instruments popularity. These were sold by Western Auto, Sears, and under the Old Kraftsman brand for Spiegel, another catalog company.
One more popular model made by Kay was called The Value Leader. It was sold through several different catalog companies under different brand names, as well as under the Kay brand.
This hollow body Les Paul shaped guitar came with a fixed wooden bridge, a rectangular aluminum pickguard, a trapeze bridge, and one, two, or three pickups. The single pickup model sold for $69.95, the two pickup model sold for $87.95, while the three pickup version was $99.95. The pickups were low output to decrease feed back.
Although Fender guitars were only sold through authorized dealers, you could obtain a Fender catalog from a dealer or directly from the company. For a guitar obsessed kid, these catalogs were like finding gold. We could look at all those guitars and dream.
The new kid on the scene in 1966 was Baldwin guitars and amplifiers. Baldwin had recently acquired Burns of London guitars, and the rights to Kustom amplifiers. Some of the original Baldwin guitars were still labeled as "Burns", so Baldwin put their logo on top of the Burns logo. The Baldwin amplifiers were based on Kustom amplifier circuitry.
The Joseph Speigel Company was a Chicago based business specializing in direct mail order sales. They sold guitars that were made by Kay Guitars of Chicago under the Old Kraftman brand.
One of the most interesting companies that originally sold guitars and instruments made by other companies, but within a few years manufactured their own guitars by the mid 1960's. This was The Carvin Company of California. I recall sending for their catalog. It may have cost me 50 cents for postage. It contained very interesting guitars and amplifiers, and it came with a separate price list manually typed on a typewriter.
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| Silvertone model 1472 |
The Montgomery Ward Company used the brand name Airline for its electronic and music products. They used a number of "jobbers" or wholesale companies to procure their guitars and amplifiers, such as National, Valco, Supro, Harmony, Kay, All guitars were sold by Wards under the Airline brand name.
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| Two Valco made Airline guitars. The one circled is Jack White's 1964 Hutto Airline model |
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| 1954 Montgomery Ward catalog |
Another one of the more unusual guitars that Montgomery Wards offered under the Airline brand was the Kay Thin Twin. Though the pickups covers seem thin, the actual single coil pickups underneath the pickguard were normal size compared to comparable instruments.
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| Jimmy Reed with Kay Thin Twin |
The Kay Thin Twin was the model played by guitarist Jimmy Reed. You can see it in this 1954 company catalog. Most of the other guitars and amps on this page were made by National.
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| Western Auto catalog |
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| Western Auto Speed Demon |
One of my favorite Kay-made guitars sold by Western Auto was the three pickup Jazz King aka the Speed Demon. It came with distinctive Kay single coil pickups. Each pickup had its own volume and tone control. Some models came with the Truetone decal, while others came with the Western Auto "W" logo.
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| 1962 Kay guitar catalog |
One of the more popular guitars in the 1960's was the Kay Vanguard, you can view it in the lower left corner.
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| Kay Vanguard - two versions under the Truetone brand |
This guitar came with one or two pickups, and a fixed bridge with an aluminum bridge cover. The price for the one pickup model was only $44.95, which was a big factor in the instruments popularity. These were sold by Western Auto, Sears, and under the Old Kraftsman brand for Spiegel, another catalog company.
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| Kay Value Leader |
One more popular model made by Kay was called The Value Leader. It was sold through several different catalog companies under different brand names, as well as under the Kay brand.
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| Kay Value Leader guitars |
This hollow body Les Paul shaped guitar came with a fixed wooden bridge, a rectangular aluminum pickguard, a trapeze bridge, and one, two, or three pickups. The single pickup model sold for $69.95, the two pickup model sold for $87.95, while the three pickup version was $99.95. The pickups were low output to decrease feed back.
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| 1965-66 Fender Catalog |
Although Fender guitars were only sold through authorized dealers, you could obtain a Fender catalog from a dealer or directly from the company. For a guitar obsessed kid, these catalogs were like finding gold. We could look at all those guitars and dream.
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| 1966 Baldwin Advertisement |
The new kid on the scene in 1966 was Baldwin guitars and amplifiers. Baldwin had recently acquired Burns of London guitars, and the rights to Kustom amplifiers. Some of the original Baldwin guitars were still labeled as "Burns", so Baldwin put their logo on top of the Burns logo. The Baldwin amplifiers were based on Kustom amplifier circuitry.
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| 1966 Spiegle catalog |
The Joseph Speigel Company was a Chicago based business specializing in direct mail order sales. They sold guitars that were made by Kay Guitars of Chicago under the Old Kraftman brand.
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| 1966 Carvin Catalog |
The Carvin Company was a family business, and remains so today under the Keisel brand name.
Years later I learned that the bodies of those early Carvin guitars were made by the California based company, but the necks, pickups, and electronics were made by Hofner of Germany., although some of the pickups were wound in house. Later on Carvin manufactured their own brand of pickups
In addition to the wish books there were a few television commercials in the mid-1960's from a toy company called Emenee. This New York based toy manufacture created several guitars that were made out of plastic.
The Emenee Tiger guitar was a hollow body archtop instrument made entirely of plastic. It had a cutaway, an archtop bridge and came with a detachable contact microphone which was probably made by the DeArmond Company.
The Swinging Cat guitar has been described in internet posts as perhaps the worst toy ever made. It was a solid body style all plastic guitar with a faux pickup section molded on top of the body. It came with a contact microphone that was permanently attached to the amplifier. The child could place the microphone contraption under the strings.
Click on the links under the pictures for sources. Click on the links in the text for further information.
©UniqueGuitar publicationa 2020 (text only)
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| Emenee Toy Commercial |
In addition to the wish books there were a few television commercials in the mid-1960's from a toy company called Emenee. This New York based toy manufacture created several guitars that were made out of plastic.
They also produced the "polychord electric-piano organ" aka The Audition Organ, and the "Big Bash Drum" snare drum. Well a kid could start their own band with all those seemingly marvelous instruments.
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| Emenee Tiger Guitar with amp |
The Emenee Tiger guitar was a hollow body archtop instrument made entirely of plastic. It had a cutaway, an archtop bridge and came with a detachable contact microphone which was probably made by the DeArmond Company.
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| Emenee Swinging Cat Guitar |
The Swinging Cat guitar has been described in internet posts as perhaps the worst toy ever made. It was a solid body style all plastic guitar with a faux pickup section molded on top of the body. It came with a contact microphone that was permanently attached to the amplifier. The child could place the microphone contraption under the strings.
Both instruments featured low watt battery powered amps housed in a plastic cabinet.
I wish there were more videos of guitar catalogs on the internet. There were a few last year, but they now they all seem to come with a subscription price.
I wish you all A Very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! I hope Santa brings you a new guitar.
I wish you all A Very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! I hope Santa brings you a new guitar.
Click on the links under the pictures for sources. Click on the links in the text for further information.
©UniqueGuitar publicationa 2020 (text only)
Skip to 3:23 for guitars.
Sunday, December 12, 2021
Yamaha Acoustic Guitars
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| Yamaha FG230 12 |
This conversation brought to mind another good friend I knew when she was only 14 years old, and I wasn't much older. Her parents had given her a Yamaha 12 string guitar in 1971. I went to her home and showed her a few chords.
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| Yamaha G-150 |
Yamaha did not begin building guitars until the early 1940's when they opened a factory dedicated exclusively to guitar construction in the city of Hamamatsu Japan.
Yamaha’s first guitars were nylon-string classical models. These guitars were sold only by retailers within the Japanese market throughout the Forties, Fifties and early Sixties.
In later years The Yamaha Company expanded to produce a variety of products, from motorcycles, boat engines, to skis, and of course synthesizers and guitar amplifiers, but as usual we are just going to concentrate on guitars.
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| Beatlemania |
The average U.S. salary in 1965 was around $6900 annually or around $140 a week before taxes. A Fender Stratocaster during that era retailed at $225, and a Gibson ES-335 was (as it says) $335. I purchased a low end Martin in 1973 for $279. These prices were not much cheaper in the 1960's.
As most families in the mid 1960's could not afford a top end guitar for their budding rock star or folk musician, to satisfy the need for an instrument, import companies contracted mainly with Japanese guitar manufacturers, such as Yamaha, to import less expensive guitars and other musical instruments into the United States. And this increased demand was quite beneficial for the Yamaha Company.
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| 1966 Yamaha G60 |
Yamaha established a custom shop later in 1966 which was dedicated to the production of the finest instruments they could make. They started to collaborate with outside experts. Their first collaboration was with a Spanish guitar builder named Eduardo Ferrer. He helped Yamaha refine the designs of its classical guitar models.
Ferrer's expertise led to the development of the GC5, GC7 and GC10 models, which made their debut in 1967 offering Yamaha’s classical guitars and also a new steel-string line.
The steel string line up consisted of the dreadnought FG150 and FG180 models (also introduced in 1966 and priced at $99.50 and $119.50, respectively), sold in impressive amounts in the United States.
The 1968 to 1981 Yamaha models FG (folk guitar) guitars are known among collectors as Red Label guitars.
Due to their reasonable pricing and nice action Yamaha acoustic guitars became a very popular choice for beginners as well as experienced players who wanted an inexpensive backup acoustic instrument.
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| Country Joe at Woodstock |
This guitar actually belonged to a stage hand, who loaned it to the performer when McDonald was asked to play an impromptu set before Santana took the stage.
The guitar is barely visible in the footage of McDonald performing “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag” a song that was featured in the Woodstock documentary. The Yamaha logo was prominent in many photos shot of McDonald, which included an iconic shot by Jim Marshall that was distributed to the press.
Those earliest Yamaha acoustic guitars featured laminated wooden bodies. However by 1967 and going forward, Yamaha had expanded and improved its line of guitars considerably.
The most notable development was the introduction of several high-quality acoustic models made from solid materials. The FG-500 was Yamaha’s first steel-string acoustic model to feature a solid spruce top, eventually followed by the FG-1500 and FG-2000 models with solid spruce tops and solid jacaranda back and sides.
Bob Seger’s main acoustic onstage during the Seventies was an FG-1500. James Taylor often played an FG-2000 live and in the studio during this period as well.
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| Yamaha LL-25T |
While the FG series guitars were primarily affordable, budget instruments, the L series were designed as high-end acoustics.
In 1977 John Denver ordered two custom L-53 guitars which featured Hokkaido spruce tops and Brazilian rosewood back and sides. He played these guitars in concert and television appearances during the late Seventies. The ornate custom abalone inlay on his L-53’s headstock also appears prominently on the cover of the John Denver & the Muppets: A Christmas Together album. These were exceptional instruments.
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| John Lennon's CJ-52 |
Paul Simon was also a fan of Yamaha’s brand new CJ-52 model, and it became his main guitar for live performances, including the historic Central Park benefit reunion concert by Simon & Garfunkel in 1981. He also owned a Yamaha FG720S.
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| Dylan's Yamaha Guitars |
Yamaha developed dozens of popular classical, flamenco, steel-string and even solidbody electric guitars and basses during the late Seventies.
By the 1980's the Yamaha acoustic guitar lineup included the CWE series acoustic-electric models that was introduced in 1983. This guitar paved the way for the immensely popular APX series introduced four years later.
The Yamaha CWE series guitars featured a thinner, medium-size body with an oval sound hole and cutaway that is essentially identical to the design used for the APX guitars.
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| Yamaha APX Series |
The APX’s switching system allowed players to select mono output or two different stereo settings where either the upper and lower three strings were routed to separate outputs or alternating strings were sent to separate outputs.
The APX’s smaller body dimensions also reduced the possibility of feedback when playing at high volume levels onstage.
Because of this APX guitars became a common sight at concerts during the late Eighties and early Nineties, seen onstage with performers like Wynonna Judd, Steve Lukather, Suzanne Vega and many others.
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| Acoustic Resonance Enhancement |
The A.R.E process was developed in 2008, where the wood’s structure is treated to enhance its sound transmission capabilities and dynamic responsiveness.
Yamaha has even refined its own proprietary neck-to-body joint for acoustic guitars that provides an enhanced level of contact between the neck and body.
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| New Yamaha L-Series |
To celebrate Yamaha’s 50th anniversary of guitar manufacturing, the company has produced the limited edition 50th anniversary FG180-50th steel-string flattop acoustic.
This model is based on the appearance of the original FG-180 model, which made its debut in 1966 and played a crucial role in Yamaha’s early success as a guitar company. However the new version includes refinements that reflect Yamaha’s design experience through the years, such as new scalloped bracing, Yamaha’s A.R.E. process, and the use of all-solid materials.
Even more recently Yamaha revived the FG series, which offer incredible value to beginners and experienced players alike just like the original FG models did 50 years ago. Unlike the 1960’s versions, these instruments now feature solid wooden tops and in many cases electronics for a reasonable price.
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| FG-TA |
The most recent innovation is the Yamaha TransAcoustic Guitar. This guitar feature a piezo electric device called an actuator, which is factory installed on the inner surface of the guitars back. This vibrates in response to the vibrations of the strings. The vibrations of the actuator are then conveyed to the body of the guitar and to the air in and around the guitar body, generating authentic reverb and chorus sounds from inside the body. It is most interesting.
Recently Yamaha has been promoting their Urban Guitar which features a concert cutaway body and a thin neck that is shorter in scale than a standard acoustic guitar, providing lower string tension for ease of playing.
This guitar is aimed at the beginner market and features a spruce top with a tobacco brown sunburst finish, a natural wood matte neck and rear body finish, an Indian rosewood bridge and a tortoise-shell pickguard. It even comes with a custom URBAN Guitar strap and picks.
The URBAN Guitar by Yamaha comes with a robust lesson app that provides step-by-step instruction curated by Keith, alongside JUNO, a professional guitarist and teaching partner. It retails for around $240
USD.
Click on the links under the pictures for the sources. Click on the links in the text for further information.
©UniqueGuitar Publications 2021 (text only)
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