AN UP-CLOSE AND INTIMATE LOOK AT SIX HISTORIC INSTRUMENTS
PROFILED IN EPIC INK’S LAVISH NEW BOOK THE GUITAR COLLECTION.
It’s not often you hear about a $1500 book filled with 670
huge, luscious images of the most iconic guitars ever—
instruments like Jeff Beck’s 1954 Fender Esquire, Hank
Williams’ 1944 Martin D- 28, and Rick Nielsen’s checkered
5-neck Hamer. A truly epic read, The Guitar Collection
features 512 pages of quality, 23" x 11. 25" paper, weighs 20
pounds, and comes in a custom leather case that would
look at home right next to the resting place for a boutique
solidbody. Epic Ink graciously granted Premier Guitar permission to reprint the following excerpts of six tantalizing
and historically significant instruments from the new tome.
Enjoy!
STRADIVARIUS, “THE RAWLINS”
| FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE NATIONAL MuSIC MuSEuM, THE uNIVERSITy OF SOu TH DAKOTA, VERMILLION |
MADE IN 1700
the most celebrated violin maker of all time, antonio Stradivari of Cremona, italy,
made at least four guitars. Unlike the violin, which reached its pinnacle of design
in Stradivari’s hands, the guitar was only midway through its evolutionary journey
in 1700, when this Stradivarius guitar was built.
the Rawlins, named for the benefactors who acquired it for the national
music museum, has an ancestral relation to the lute that is apparent in this
instrument’s courses of paired strings—a configuration that would prevail on the
modern mandolin but would disappear on the guitar around 1800. however, the
hourglass body shape, with a waist delineating upper and lower bouts, distin-
guished even the earliest guitars of the mid 1500s from the pear-shaped lute.
Like virtually all Stradivarius violins, this guitar has been modified. the embed-
ded ebony frets are highly suspect in an era when guitars typically had tied-on
gut frets, and these frets are not in the correct positions. the scale length of
more than 29 inches is so long that gut strings would break before they could be
tuned up to standard pitch.
the prominent name and date on the back of the headstock, the too-long
scale, and the misplaced frets suggest that this instrument may have been made
to showcase Stradivari’s artisanship rather than to be played.
“THE LOG”
| FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE COuNTRy MuSIC HALL OF FAME AND MuSEuM |
MADE CIRCA 1941
By the 1940s, Les Paul was one of the most famous acoustic guitarists in
america, but with this homemade guitar, nicknamed the Log, he became one of
the earliest—and best-known—proponents of the solidbody electric guitar.
an inveterate tinkerer and experimenter, Paul knew that a thicker guitar top
would sustain string vibrations longer and provide a more brilliant tone—two quali-
ties that perfectly suited his lightning-fast playing style. in 1941, he took the concept
to the extreme and built this guitar around a 4-inch-by-4-inch slab of pine wood.
the Log looks like a standard hollowbody archtop, and the body wings did
in fact come from an Epiphone guitar. the neck has the inlay pattern of the
Chicago-based Larson Brothers, with a later headstock overlay from a Gibson.
the vibrato and the wood-covered pickups were handmade by Paul.
Paul would start a performance with the sides attached to the center block.
Once the audience had accepted the sound of the instrument, he removed the
wings to reveal the solid center. although it was a gimmick, this guitar gave Paul
an unforgettable association with the solidbody electric guitar that led to his
lucrative endorsement deal with Gibson.
