Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars – a steel guitar in 1932 – and today produces a range of electric guitars and basses.
The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously manufactured the Stratocaster since 1954. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top "horn" shape for balance. Along with the Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, and Fender Telecaster, it is one of the most-often emulated electric guitar shapes. "Stratocaster" and "Strat" are trademark terms belonging to Fender. Guitars that duplicate the Stratocaster by other manufacturers are sometimes called S-Type or ST-type guitars.
Variax was the name of a line of guitars developed and marketed by Line 6 between 2002 and 2023. They differed from typical electric and acoustic guitars in that internal electronics processed the sound from individual strings to model (replicate) the sound of specific guitars and other instruments. The maker claims it was the first guitar family able to emulate the tones of other notable electric and acoustic guitars. It also provided a banjo and a sitar tone. The Variax was available primarily in electric guitar models, but acoustic and electric bass guitar models have also been available in the past.
Silvertone is a brand created and promoted by Sears for its line of consumer electronics and musical instruments from 1916 to 1972.
A solid-body musical instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electromagnetic pickup system to directly detect the vibrations of the strings; these instruments are usually plugged into an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to be heard. Solid-body instruments are preferred in situations where acoustic feedback may otherwise be a problem and are inherently both less expensive to build and more rugged than acoustic electric instruments.
The Gibson Les Paul Junior is a solid-body electric guitar introduced in 1954 as an affordable, entry-level Les Paul. It was first released with a single-cutaway body style; models with a double-cutaway body style were later introduced in 1958. The Junior continued through the first three years of the Les Paul/SG body redesign. The initial run was discontinued in 1963.
The Harmony Company is a former guitar manufacturing company that is currently a brand owned by Singapore-based BandLab Technologies. Harmony was, in its heyday, the largest musical instrument manufacturer in the United States. It made many types of string instruments, including ukuleles, acoustic and electric guitars and violins.
An electric sitar is a type of electric string instrument designed to mimic the sound of the sitar, a traditional musical instrument of India. Depending on the manufacturer and model, these instruments bear varying degrees of resemblance to the traditional sitar. Most resemble the electric guitar in the style of the body and headstock, though some have a body shaped to resemble that of the sitar.
Kay Musical Instrument Company is an American musical instrument manufacturer established in 1931 by namesake Henry "Kay" Kuhrmeyer and based in Chicago, Illinois. It was formed when Kuhrmeyer bought out his financial backers in the instrument manufacturer Stromberg-Voisinet. They produced guitars, mandolins, banjos, ukuleles and were known for their use of lamination in the construction of arched top instruments.
The Danelectro Shorthorn line of guitars is a dual cutaway hollow bodied design, made of Masonite and poplar. The original models were introduced in 1959 to replace the U model guitars, and were in production until the closure of the Danelectro company in 1969.
Electric guitar design is a type of industrial design where the looks and efficiency of the shape as well as the acoustical aspects of the guitar are important factors. In the past many guitars have been designed with various odd shapes as well as very practical and convenient solutions to improve the usability of the object.
The Gibson ES series of semi-acoustic guitars are manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.
The Danelectro U2 is a dual-pickup hollow bodied guitar made of Masonite and shaped similar to a Les Paul model guitar. It was originally made from the years 1956 to 1958 but was re-issued in the late 1990s, in 2006 in a slightly modified form as the '56 Pro, and again in 2010 as the '56 Single Cutaway. The sound of a U2 is distinctive, coming from its lipstick pickups which are wired in series, rather than the more standard parallel series used by most big brands. The construction materials used by Danelectro in this period are also quite unusual for guitar making. The U2's body is made of a poplar wood frame with Masonite used for both the top and back, with the side of the body being bound with creme coloured vinyl. Both a single-pickup version and triple-pickup version, were manufactured and sold alongside the U2.
Duesenberg is a brand for electric string instruments founded in 1986 and located in Hannover, Germany. The headquarter is in Hannover, Germany, they are known for using a Plek machine for the levelling of frets and setup. Duesenberg has uploaded a factory production video of how their guitars are made, revealing that most of the production of the guitars is done in Croatia, while the final setup and assembly is done in Germany.
The Danelectro Amp-In-Case, properly known as a semi-hollow body due to its Masonite top and back, with pine outer structure. "All-in-one" Amplifier-Case or Silvertone 1448/1449/1451/1452/1457 is a line of guitar sets introduced from 1962 to 1968. It was sold for US$67.95, sometimes including a 45 rpm how-to-play record, as part of Sears Silvertone. It was later reissued in 2008 in modified form as the "Dano '63" without the amp-in-case. The Dano '63 was also available as a baritone guitar and a long- and short-scale bass guitar.
The Danelectro Dano Pro is an electric guitar made by Danelectro in 1963 and 1964, reissued in 2007 and again in 2012. The original was a 3/4 scale guitar with a single lipstick tube pickup, made by putting the pickup in surplus lipstick tubes purchased from a cosmetics supplier. The reissue features two lipstick pickups.The pickups are wired in series rather than in parallel as is common with most electric guitars. Because of this, the guitar is louder when the toggle is set to both the neck and bridge pickups rather than when only one pickup is selected. The guitar body is hollow, made of masonite and plywood with a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. The body's vaguely trapezoidal shape has led to it being described as a bowtie or Flintstone guitar. The original had a short scale neck with a non-adjustable bridge. The reissue has a fully adjustable bridge and a full scale neck of 19 frets with the neck connecting to the body at the 14th fret. Because of this, playing the higher frets is nearly impossible. Its light tone and slight twang makes it very suitable for playing jangle pop, surf, country and blues. Guitarist Magazine said of the 2007 reissue "if it's Jack White or Jon Spencer dirty fuzzbox blues you are after, it's here in spades, alongside with Beatles-in-Hamburg rock 'n' raunch, garage punk venom and 1980s indie jangle."
TYM Guitars is a manufacturer of custom guitars and bass guitar based in Brisbane, Australia, as well as custom instruments the company also repairs, restores, refinishes vintage instruments. The line of custom guitars and basses built by TYM Guitars are influenced by manufacturers such as Mosrite, Rickenbacker, Epiphone, Danelectro, Fender and other models from the 1950s and 1960s, with several replicas and hybrids between different models being built to fit customer demand. TYM Guitars also has a retail shop that sells new and secondhand instruments and accessories from their own line of products and other manufacturers.
The Danelectro C model guitars were the first instruments designed by Danelectro, coming in both single and dual pickup versions. Designed by 1953, until being replaced by the Danelectro U model in 1956. they were put into production and retailed from 1954 to 1955
Vintage musical equipment is older music gear, including instruments, amplifiers and speakers, sound recording equipment and effects pedals, sought after, maintained and used by record producers, audio engineers and musicians who are interested in historical music genres. While any piece of equipment of sufficient age can be considered vintage, in the 2010s the term is typically applied to instruments and gear from the 1970s and earlier. Guitars, amps, pedals, electric keyboards, sound recording equipment from the 1950s to 1970s are particularly sought. Musical equipment from the 1940s and prior eras is often expensive, and sought out mainly by museums or collectors.
