YEARS AGO, HARMONY and Silvertone guitars were mostly seen as low-level pawnshop prizes, funky junk or, at best, short-money noisemakers that might cut a dashing figure in garage bands or punkblues outfits. But the people who designed and manufactured those guitars took pride in creating the more elevated models that ended up in the hands of stars like Roy Smeck, Buck Owens, Elvis Presley, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James and Keith Richards.
Today, many guitarists now value those upmarket models as viable instruments that have a sound, vibe and look all their own. Moreover, they can help the player say something original onstage or in the studio, and do so with a sly sense of cool.
BUDGET JAZZ BOX
The Silvertone Model H63 Espanada featured here is just such a guitar. Designwise, this instrument isn't far off the template of Gibson's ES-175 model from a few years earlier, before the new PAF pickup arrived on the jazz box in the late '50s. In fact, this Silvertone carries a pair of Gibson-made single-coil pickups that aren't a mile away from the P90 formula, as well as a single-cutaway body with a pressed archtop made from laminated maple, a glued-in neck of maple (rather than mahogany), a floating rosewood bridge and other features that put it in the ballpark. The elevated looks are there, too, in the multi-ply body binding, single-ply fingerboard binding and pearloid block inlays.
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PRS
PREVIOUSLY PART OF PRS's Maryland-built guitar line, the SE NF3 was recently reissued in the company's offshore-produced SE series. The SE NF3 is so named for its Narrowfield Deep Dish (a.k.a. DD) \"S\" pickups. These unique PRS-design units have deeper bobbins to accommodate more windings and extra metal pieces between the magnets to yield a more powerful \"single-coil\" tone, while remaining noise-free because they are in fact humbuckers. A control set consisting of master volume, tone and a five-way blade switch allows the usual selections of bridge, middle and neck pickups by themselves and the neck-plus-middle and bridge-plus-middle combinations that allow the SE NF3 to veer into Strat-like territory in switch positions two and four.
EPIPHONE
Inspired by Gibson Custom 1963 Firebird V and 1959 ES-355
Dobro 101
A look at the iconic bluegrass slide box.
CERTIFIED GREATNESS
Fingerstyle master Tommy Emmanuel combines unique musical instincts and breathtaking technique to become an acoustic tour de force.
MASTER OF HIS OWN JOURNEY
For more than 50 years, David Lindley graced albums and concert stages with his singular talent on a vast range of stringed instruments. In this Guitar Player exclusive, his musical friends — including Jackson Browne, Ry Cooder and Bonnie Raitt - pay tribute to an original.
TRANSCENDENTAL MAN
Luther Dickinson interpreted a priceless work of art in music. In the process, the blues guitarist wrote his own next chapter.
THE BEAT GOES ON
Together with Tony Levin, Adrian Belew and Steve Vai join forces for a Robert Fripp-endorsed revival of King Crimson's groundbreaking 1980s music.
I'M 100 PERCENT HAPPY WITH THE WORK I'VE DONE WITH PINK FLOYD. BUT...'MY FOCUS IS DIFFERENT RIGHT NOW'
Leading a rock group and being a solo artist were \"not what I asked for,\" David Gilmour says. For Luck and Strange, he assembled a team that shared the weight of his creative efforts. The result? \"The best album I've made since The Dark Side of the Moon.\"
DOUG GILLARD IS INDISPENSABLE
His six-string genius has proved vital to the music of Guided by Voices, Nada Surf and other indie-rock favorites. But all he really wants is to make good music.
Sol Salvation
The genius of Sol Hoopii is preserved in 16 timeless cuts on Master of the Hawaiian Guitar.