When I look at buying a vintage guitar, or for that matter any guitar, there are 14 checks I make to ensure I can at least play the guitar, iregardless of the condition. The most common sources I use for buying and researching vintage guitars are Jedistar.com for research, and for pricing, local buy and […]
Harmony was founded in 1895 in Chicago and are mostly remembered for their entry level guitars of the 1950s and 1960s. Their early instruments can be easily confused with instruments by Regal and Lyon & Healy By the late 1930s their archtop acoustic guitars had many features that they would retain through the 1960s. harmony […]
Oahu was a music publishing house and introduced their own line of musical instruments in the 1920s. These guitars came prinarily from primarily from Kay and Regal manufacturers. In the mid 1930s electric insturment were becoming very poular and Oahu sourced their electrics from Kay and Dickerson. A few amps for Oahu were made by […]
Kay, Kay Kraft and Kamico were a result of the Groeshl Instrument Company of Chicago. In 1921 the company became Stromberg-Voisinet and in 1931 it became Kay Musical Instruments. Stromberg-Voisinet, not to be confused with Stromberg archtop guitars, rarely sold guitars under their own name but sold them to a variety of brands. Kay manufactured […]
The National-Dobro Corporation was founded 1934 merging the National and Dobro companies. In 1942 the company was renamed to Valco. Many of the amplifiers they produced would have the “Valco” name somewhere on the control panel but was never used as a brand name. National and Supro were the two brands owned by Valco and […]
Airline guitars are a great find for vintage guitar collectors because of their lower end price. Airline® Guitars were made in the USA from 1958-68 by VALCO for Montgomery Ward and sold in their department stores. Eastwood Guitars has recently reintroduced the Airline brand name. The most expensive and most famous is the Res-o-Glass model. […]
I am putting together a list of vintage acoustic guitar manufacturers and distributors below. By all means this is not a complete list. I am sure there are many more guitar manufacturers and distributors that I have not yet added or found. If you are looking at a guitar and you are not sure about […]
Fingerpicking is a totally different approach to guitar playing that is a lot of fun and challenging. But the surprise to me from learning fingerpicking, was the the added benefits to my overall guitar playing techniques. As I have found, the benefits of fingerpicking have far exceeded any of my expectations. I have always been […]
If you have been playing guitar for awhile and are thinking about upgrading your present guitar, then may I suggest having a look at purchasing a vintage guitar. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you can get for the same money in a vintage instrument. All you have to do is to attend kitchen […]