1978 Travis Bean TB1000s

If you’ve been debating the pros and cons of maple versus mahogany versus partially petrified marine relic bog oak, then here’s something that will really throw you off (or quite possibly on) course…

- Rod Brakes

Back in the heady days of the 1970s, guitar builders were pitting their wits against each other in all manner of ways to stay afloat. On the one hand, big-name brands such as Fender, Gibson and Gretsch were making concerted efforts to maximise their profits while streamlining production (and quality control…) forcing some players to look to the glories of the past for superior quality instruments. In the process, the myth of ‘old is better’ was born, inadvertently sparking off the vintage guitar market as we know it today.

But not all guitar makers were living in the past. Some inventive guitar trendsetters were determined to innovate, steering towards something new and entirely different. Sink or swim, it was a time of great uncertainty in a competitive industry. Sadly many guitar brands that tried to strike out in new directions sank without trace. But, ironically, the treasures they left behind on the sprawling map of guitar history are now more highly coveted than ever and are worth far more today than just their weight in aluminium.

Mr Clifford Travis Bean – better known as Travis Bean – was one such visionary guitar builder. In 1972, he teamed up with Marc McElwee (and, later, Gary Kramer who, in 1976, would go on to form Kramer Guitars) with the bright idea of building a through-neck guitar out of aluminium. The idea was to avoid the inherent problem of movement associated with using wood in guitar construction and so minimise the requirement for ongoing maintenance and adjustment.